African Entrepreneurship Record

April 14, 1911.

Rhine City.

Because of the agreement with Britain, the industrial development plan originally formulated by the East African government has been greatly affected, especially the shipbuilding industry and related industries.

The proportion of naval ships in the total ships of various countries in the world is not small. Take Britain as an example. The total tonnage of British civilian ships is close to 20 million tons, while the total tonnage of the navy is as high as 2 million tons. The total tonnage of naval ships is about one-tenth of civilian ships.

This is even more true for other countries. For example, the total tonnage of German civilian ships is only a few million tons, while the total tonnage of the German navy is close to one million tons, which is higher than that of Britain. Other powerful countries, such as the United States, France, East Africa and Japan are similar.

It can be said that Britain has monopolized most of the world's shipping market. The total tonnage of civilian ships in Britain alone is more than that of other countries combined, accounting for more than 50% of world shipping.

Therefore, on the basis of the most developed civilian ship construction, the total tonnage of the British navy is so high, and other major military powers are only higher, not lower.

Take East Africa for example. In 1910, the total tonnage of East African civilian ships was close to 4 million tons, but it was actually about 3.8 million tons, while the total tonnage of the navy was 420,000 tons. Among the world powers, the ratio of military and civilian ships was close to that of Britain, reaching almost one-ninth.

The main reason for this result was not that East Africa's civilian shipbuilding industry was strong, but that the size of the East African navy was relatively weak compared to other military powers.

Ernst said: "Nowadays, the original development plan of our navy is restricted by the "East-Anglo Reconciliation Treaty", and military orders have been greatly reduced. In addition, due to the impact of the treaty just signed, some naval shipyards have been temporarily suspended. my country's shipbuilding industry has also been greatly affected. In order to offset the negative impact on the shipbuilding industry, it is necessary to adjust policies and construction plans in a timely manner to promote the healthy development of my country's shipbuilding industry."

Affected by the "East-Anglo Reconciliation Treaty" just signed, East Africa must pretend to be like this. After all, the British government is not a fool. In the "East-Anglo Reconciliation Treaty", East Africa can be said to have taken a big advantage. If the East African navy does not stop the arms race as required by the United Kingdom, isn't it bullying the honest people! Although Britain is not an "honest man".

Chris Sean, director of the East African Shipbuilding Industry Bureau, said: "Affected by the treaty, my country's shipbuilding industry has been greatly affected. According to the original order demand, my country's military shipbuilding industry should have accounted for at least 18% of all annual ship orders. According to the current construction speed and orders, it can only be close to 10%, and there is a gap of 7% to 8%. According to the original long-term construction plan of the Chinese Navy, the total construction volume has been reduced by more than 100,000 tons."

The original initial long-term plan of the East African Navy directly targeted the United States, Germany and France, that is, the total tonnage of naval ships reached at least 800,000 tons, but now it has become 650,000 tons, which is nearly 150,000 tons less.

Moreover, 800,000 tons was just a floating target at the beginning. After all, the total tonnage of the United States, Germany and France is surging. According to the East African Navy's idea, the scale of the East African Navy should reach at least one million tons before the end of the Three-Five Plan.

So the impact of the "East-British Reconciliation Treaty" on the East African Navy's ship construction plan is not only the present but also the future.

Naval orders have always played an important role in the East African shipbuilding industry. It can be said that the entire East African shipbuilding industry has been greatly affected by the content of the treaty.

Ernst said: "Now that the overall situation has been determined, we must now abide by the contents of the East-British Reconciliation Treaty, but the impact on the shipbuilding industry may not be as great as we imagined. After all, our original naval development plan was not radical, and it can be avoided by extending the construction period and rescheduling the construction time."

"The naval development plan is limited, which frees up a lot of funds and personnel. We should allocate these idle funds and personnel to the field of civilian shipbuilding or special ship research and development."

Although East Africa formulated a huge naval development plan before the Second Five-Year Plan, whether this plan is radical depends on the reference object.

If compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Spain, or Russia, the naval development plan of East Africa is certainly extraordinary, but compared with the five countries of Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Japan, it can be said that the original naval development plan of East Africa is not radical.

After all, Ernst had no intention of participating in the naval competition from the beginning, or rather, he had no intention of participating in the naval competition with all his strength, because in Ernst's view, East Africa currently does not have the conditions to challenge superpowers such as Britain and the United States, and East Africa cannot win the naval competition even if it goes all out.

So Ernst's goal when formulating the East African naval development plan was to build a powerful regional navy with deterrence, and East Africa has actually achieved this goal a long time ago. Even after the 1980s, East Africa has never fallen from the top ten naval powers in the world.

So the so-called construction of a world-class navy when East Africa negotiated with Britain at that time was simply a shadow of the matter. The so-called world-class navy has no reference significance for East Africa, which is already a naval power.

For example, whether East Africa is now a world-class naval power, it certainly is, after all, the East African navy is already ranked sixth in the world, and has military forces in the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the South Atlantic.

So the "world-class naval power" mentioned during the East African negotiations is essentially a kind of "blackmail" against Britain, of course, the premise is that Britain believes that East Africa has such a development goal.

In fact, the UK does not dare to take a gamble. After all, since the Second Five-Year Plan, East Africa has launched a dreadnought ship almost every year, and a large number of related ships have started construction at the same time. Any country can only choose to believe this posture of the East African Navy.

Therefore, Britain's choice to reconcile with East Africa was completely an unexpected surprise for the East African government, or something that Ernst himself did not expect.

From the beginning, East Africa used the "non-existent naval plan" to peacefully obtain the bargaining chips East Africa wanted from Britain, which the British government could not have imagined.

Now in compliance with the "East-British Settlement Treaty", East Africa can just spare its energy and use the funds that should have been used for military competition to develop economy and technological research and development.

This includes the research and development of the future main naval ship that Ernst has long been thinking about, that is, the aircraft carrier.

At present, the conditions for the independent research and development of aircraft carriers in East Africa are mature. East Africa has made great progress in the field of aircraft manufacturing and has become the world's largest aircraft manufacturing country. The accumulation of ship technology is also relatively sufficient.

The earliest aircraft carrier in the previous life was born during World War I. In fact, some people in the United Kingdom, France and other countries had proposed related concepts before. In the previous life, in 1912, the British Navy obtained warships that could carry aircraft by modifying cruisers and ferries. This kind of aircraft carrier was called The ship known as the "seaplane carrier" is the prototype of the Chinese aircraft carrier.

So Ernst said: "Based on the aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding industries, our country's original aircraft carrier research and development project should also take advantage of this opportunity to accelerate. It is best to complete the construction plan of our first aircraft carrier before the Third Five-Year Plan, and use the original aircraft carrier The funds used to participate in the naval competition will be invested in the improvement of naval technology and the quality of shipbuilding industry.”

"In addition to some special national projects, there are also a lot of problems in my country's shipbuilding industry itself. In particular, there is a big gap between the system construction and the top powers in the shipbuilding industry like the United Kingdom, which makes the cost of my country's shipbuilding industry remain high. While other countries are going crazy, The time of naval competition is also the time when our country is vigorously developing its shipbuilding industry system.”

The fundamental reason why the UK can maintain the world's largest shipbuilding industry lies in the UK's strong experience and technology accumulation, which makes the UK's shipbuilding costs much lower than other countries. But now the UK is distracted by Germany and others. In Ernst's view It is a favorable time for the East African shipbuilding industry, especially the civilian shipbuilding industry, to develop vigorously.