African Entrepreneurship Record

Buenos Aires.

Rhodes, the boss of Rhodes Company, is calculating the recent income, and judging from his grin, the company's business is still very prosperous this month.

Rhodes is a British immigrant who has the same name as the boss of South Africa's De Beers Mining Company, but the two chose different routes.

Although most of the area was cut off by East Africa, South Africa's mining industry still has a lot of potential, but De Beers Mining Company cannot develop into the giant that it was in its previous life, let alone the birth of the Rhodesian colony in its previous life.

As for Argentina's Rhodes, he was also born in the UK, but in Argentina, the development of animal husbandry is obviously more promising.

Of course, as a British man, Rhodes did not choose to be a farmer. Instead, he relied on his identity and the connections of his British family to start trade between Argentina and Britain.

After putting down the bill, Rhodes said to his secretary: "Very good, this month's income has increased by 8%. I really hope this war will not end too soon, so that we can earn more."

Secretary Bol was not so optimistic. He reminded: "Boss, the demand for supplies in Europe has skyrocketed, and even food is in short supply, not to mention the breeding industry. During this time, we are exporting more beef to Europe, but we also have some Trouble, many farmers took the opportunity to raise prices, so our delivery prices have also increased a lot, and due to tight transportation capacity, freight has also increased a lot. "

If everyone raises prices, the benefits will naturally be diluted. What's more, Argentina is only a small country and can only drink soup, so Argentina will definitely not earn as much as in the previous life.

This is easy to understand. In the past, most of the dividends from the war were eaten by the United States, but now because of the existence of East Africa, it is even more difficult for other countries to get a share of the soup.

This is especially true for a country like Argentina with a relatively single industry. In its previous life, Argentina’s main competitor was the United States, because the United States itself is the largest food and agricultural producer outside of Europe. Even though Argentina’s land is fertile, Argentina’s land area is After all, it is limited.

And now there is an additional East Africa, which is even more excessive. Although East African agriculture was inconspicuous in the early days, after decades of development, East Africa has now become one of the few major agricultural countries in the world.

Although the water and soil conditions in East Africa are worse than those in the United States and Argentina, through soil improvement, agricultural technology improvements, and complete water conservancy project construction, East Africa's agricultural development level has reached the first echelon in the world.

There are only two countries in the first echelon, one is Germany and the other is East Africa. Germany has a leading advantage in agricultural technologies such as fertilizers and pesticides, while East Africa ranks first in the world in terms of agricultural mechanization.

It is quite terrifying to be the first in the world in terms of agricultural mechanization. After all, East Africa has an area of ​​more than 10 million square kilometers and the largest cultivated land area in the world.

The area of ​​cultivated land in East Africa has exceeded that of the United States. The reason for this situation is very simple. That is, East Africa has a larger population than the United States. To support a larger population, more land must be developed.

Although the quality of the land in East Africa is not as fertile as the plains of Russia and Ukraine, the black soil areas of central America, and Argentina, it is much better than that of Germany. Without artificial improvement, northern Germany is actually not suitable for traditional agricultural development.

Northern Germany has a temperate maritime climate. In the past, it was only suitable for the development of animal husbandry. The moraine plains made the land barren. On the other hand, although southern Germany was dominated by hills and highlands, it was indeed the main wheat-producing area in Germany. Of course, this was in the past. After several hundred years of development, northern Germany has obviously become a very developed agricultural region.

In fact, most areas can develop agriculture as long as they can solve the two problems of water, light and heat.

For East Africa, the most important thing about agriculture is to solve the water source problem. However, this problem was solved by East Africa through large-scale water conservancy construction as early as the last century. Any subsequent efforts will be just icing on the water.

Let’s go back to Rhodes Company.

Rhodes replied to Boll: "Now the only ones who dare to do business directly with Germany and Austria-Hungary are the United States and East Africa. After all, our national strength in Argentina is too weak and we are timid. What a pity!"

Under the blockade of Britain and France, countries like Argentina will certainly not be as tough as the United States and East Africa when conducting trade with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As the two world powers outside Europe, the United States and East Africa are not afraid of Britain and France settling their scores in the future, but other countries are not, including Japan, which is also a great power.

Japan's location is too far away from Europe. If Japan dares to imitate the United States and East Africa and blatantly interact with the Allies, Britain and France will not give it a good look. Even if Japan's navy is powerful, it will not help.

The Japanese navy now has a total tonnage of more than 700,000 tons. In Europe, this level is only slightly lower than that of Germany and France. However, Japan simply does not have the ability to invest its navy in the Atlantic region. After all, Japan does not want to re-enter the Atlantic Ocean. Make the same mistakes as Russia did.

Bol said: "Argentina and the United States, two powerful countries in East Africa, are not comparable at all. Although we have the foundation to become a world power, Argentina's population shortcomings are too obvious. Looking at the world today, it is difficult for a country without a population of 40 million to Become a world power.”

One of the standards mentioned by Bohr was set with reference to France. France's population barely reached 40 million, making it a relatively small population among the great powers.

Although Spain has a smaller population, it has completely replaced Japan and become the goalkeeper of the great powers. In fact, Spain's comprehensive national strength may not even be considered a great power. It is a controversial country, but it is better to have controversy than not to have controversy. It only needs another event like the Spanish-American War, and Spain may completely fall out of the status of a world power.

On the contrary, Japan, after the Russo-Japanese War, completely established its status as a great power in just a few years. Although Japan may not be as good as Spain in the economic field, Japan's military strength can beat Spain by several streets.

Moreover, Spain's economy may not be much better than Japan. After losing most of its overseas colonies, Spain has almost no way out. On the contrary, Japan still has Korea as a colony, and occupies an important position in the Far East trade, almost monopolizing most of the business in the northeastern region of the Far East Empire.

The local population of Japan is as high as 50 million, which can rank fourth in Europe, only after the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Once the population exceeds 50 million, it is almost a great power.

In contrast, Argentina, with a population of only eight million, can never stir up much trouble. Even compared with a small country like Belgium, it is somewhat inadequate.

As a British, Rhodes actually does not have much affection for Argentina, but now his own interests are closely related to Argentina, so he can't help complaining.

If Argentina really becomes a world power, this is not what Rhodes hopes for. Argentina's territory is close to three million square kilometers, which is the foundation of a real power. Now it is just that there is a big gap between population and industry and other powers.

Rhodes said to Boll: "In short, our most important task now is to get more orders and make money first. With money, Argentina has nothing to do with us."

This is actually the idea of ​​most Argentines. Argentina is just an immigrant country, and many immigrants have only arrived in Argentina in recent years, so it is impossible to have too much affection for Argentina.

This is different from East Africa. East Africa selected immigrants in the early days, but specifically selected poor people, and was good at using the national propaganda machine. In this way, East Africa gave its immigrants a very positive image.

Now that the native population of East Africa has reached the third and fourth generations, their feelings for East Africa are even deeper. However, with the capabilities of the Argentine government, it is simply impossible to achieve this level in East Africa.