Chapter 1336 Railway Power

Compared with population data, East Africa's railway traffic data is released faster. After entering the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the enthusiasm for railway construction in East Africa has completely slowed down. In addition to the reconstruction of the original lines, only the railway mileage in the northwest region has increased rapidly.

In the field of railway construction, in the past two decades, it can be said that East Africa has brought the advantages of the planned economic system to the extreme and achieved remarkable achievements.

Wells, Minister of East African Railways, reported on the relevant situation: "As of 1918, the total railway mileage that has been completed and put into operation in the country has reached more than 320,000 kilometers, ranking second in the world."

"From the 1990s to the first 20 years of this century, it was the explosive period of railway growth in my country. Most of the railways in the country were built in this stage."

"As a result, the construction of the world's third most developed regional railway network after North America and Europe has supported the strong rise of my country's economy."

North America is undoubtedly the region with the most railway construction in the world. The United States has built nearly 400,000 square kilometers of railways on its own, which exceeds other continents in the world.

Due to the war, Europe had almost no increase in railways. However, before World War I, Europe's railways had reached nearly 350,000 kilometers. Therefore, even if Europe's railways did not increase during the war, it still ranked second in the world, especially the railway density in Western Europe, which was comparable to that of the eastern United States.

However, North America is not just the United States. Countries such as Canada and Mexico have also achieved quite good results in railway construction. Before World War I, Canada's railways reached more than 50,000 kilometers, and now it should be 60,000 kilometers, and Mexico's railways also have more than 20,000 kilometers.

Counting other countries in North America, the railway mileage of the entire North America is even around 500,000 kilometers, firmly sitting on the throne of the world.

Wells said: "If the country is used as the statistical standard, then my country is the second largest railway country in the world after the United States, and in my country's railways, nearly 4,000 kilometers of electrified railways have been transformed, which ranks first in the world."

Railway electrification transformation is now the key research and promotion project of the East African Railway Department. After all, Ernst emphasized at the beginning of this century that the total mileage of East African railways can be maintained at around 300,000 kilometers.

This means that after the Fourth Five-Year Plan, the idea of ​​the railway department to accumulate political achievements by simply relying on the increase of railways in the past was strangled in the bud.

Moreover, even the speed of electrified railway transformation is much lower than the construction of ordinary railways in the past. There are two main reasons for this situation. One is that the railway construction standards have been improved and the review has become more stringent. The other is the complete demise of slavery in East Africa.

In the planned economy era, the speed of railway construction in East Africa can be said to be unprecedented in the world. The annual railway construction length can even reach nearly 14,000 kilometers, and the annual average level is about 10,000 kilometers.

This is equivalent to building one-third of the French national railway every year. Before World War I, the French national railway was only more than 30,000 kilometers.

In the era of a completely planned economy, the speed of railway construction in East Africa was even higher than that of the railway construction maniac - the United States.

There is no problem in saying that the United States is the world's railway construction maniac, because since the 1930s, when the length of the US railway exceeded that of the British mainland, the United States has always been the world's largest railway country, which means that the United States has been on this throne for nearly a century.

Moreover, according to the current trend of railway construction in the United States, the United States will most likely maintain this position for a long time, and may even continue to maintain it. After all, from the perspective of the time dimension of the previous life, the United States' railway mileage remained the world's first until the 21st century.

The country that is most likely to threaten the United States' position as the world's first in railway mileage in this time and space is East Africa, but unfortunately, Ernst's plan does not intend to surpass the United States at all.

The reason why the speed of railway construction in East Africa has been almost twice that of the United States in the past two decades is still due to East Africa's extreme application of the slave economy. The difficulty of railway construction is mainly in three aspects, namely labor, technology and land.

The latter two have little impact on East Africa. Technically, East Africa has accumulated experience in railway construction since the 1970s, and the supporting talent training mechanism is relatively complete. As for land, land acquisition work is very convenient under the state-owned land system in East Africa, coupled with the dividends of East African colonial countries, which makes the land problem the easiest to solve.

In other countries, land is a long-standing problem. For example, India in the previous life was deeply troubled by private land ownership, which seriously hindered the development of India's economy.

After solving the technical and land problems, the construction of East African railways was only limited by materials and labor. By the 1990s, East Africa had a certain industrial foundation, and with its vast land and abundant resources, there was no shortage of materials for railway construction.

And the last labor force was the fundamental reason for the amazing achievements of East African railways from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

During this period, the construction of East African railways focused on making miracles with great efforts. No matter whether it was high mountains and dangerous peaks, rivers and ponds, or deserts and rainforests, the difficulties faced by the East African government and railway departments did not depend on geographical limitations, but on how many "lives" were invested.

Cruelly speaking, it was not rails, sleepers and gravel that supported the construction of East Africa's developed railway network, but the flesh and blood and bones of black people.

From the grasslands of East Africa to the deserts and rainforests, countless black slaves are buried under almost every section of railway.

In the 19th century, railways, mining, and river digging were all high-risk occupations, and the average life expectancy was generally less than 40 years old. Even the most developed industrial countries in the world at that time could not change this situation. The strikes and resistance movements of railway workers in various countries continued despite repeated bans.

The living conditions of the black slaves who served as the main force of East African railway workers would only be more miserable. Although other Western capitalist countries also exploited railway workers to the extreme, they still had meager salaries. The black slaves in East Africa paid for nothing, which made the average life expectancy of East African black slave railway workers generally less than 25 years old.

Of course, the East African government would definitely not admit these historical processes. In fact, since the Third Five-Year Plan, the East African government has begun to eliminate a series of evidence of East African oppression and exploitation of black slaves.

From the East African central government to lower-level governments, all the way to the private sector, a large number of archives, materials, documents and evidence about the slave economy era were burned in a centralized manner. Now there is no paper record of the existence of black slaves in East Africa in the East African government.

Of course, the qualifier is black slaves. The East African government has retained and forged a number of archives on the number of black people in East Africa and their final destination.

After all, no matter how East Africa tampered with history, it could not change East Africa's past colonial history. The world has memory. Before the establishment of East Africa, there were tens of millions of black people living on the land in East Africa today.

In the official documents of East Africa, there were indeed a large number of black people living in East Africa, but these black people had left East Africa and went to the United States, Ottoman Empire, West Africa, Brazil and other countries and regions, and there were no words such as "exploitation, oppression, massacre, and repression".

In addition, East Africa did engage in slave trade and drove many black regimes and populations to West Africa, such as Buganda, Burundi, Swaziland, etc. Half-true and half-false information can minimize and beautify East Africa's past colonial history.

Back to the railway issue, the railway construction in East Africa during the planned economy era was able to achieve brilliant achievements through the unlimited consumption of black people.

This also helped East Africa overcome various social problems in early industrialization. Looking around the world, whether it is Britain, France, Germany, the United States or other industrial countries, they must go through the most brutal stage in the early stage of industrialization. This brutality is mainly aimed at the lower-level workers and peasants.

The primitive accumulation of capital is the bloodiest. Whether it is the imperialist countries today or the Soviet economic model countries in the future, they cannot avoid this. If they want to develop, they must pay a price.

The sheep-eating incident in Britain (enclosure movement), the Irish famine, the American black slaves, the widespread famine and war in Germany in the last century, and the frequent social movements in France have not counted the transfer of some social problems by imperialism through colonial plunder.

In the past, the Soviet Union was starving in Ukraine in order to develop industry, and even the Far East Empire had experienced the most difficult economic period for several years.

It can be said that if you want to complete the primitive accumulation of capital, you must pay a price. Only by concentrating the wealth and labor value of others can you promote a qualitative leap in productivity. If you can't cross this step, there is no way to talk about the next step of development.

Therefore, if East Africa becomes an industrial country, there must be people, and most of them will be sacrificed. These people can be black people, or they can be East African citizens, or they can be countries that are more backward than East Africa.

The most "harmless" black people naturally become the high-quality sacrifice objects naturally chosen by the East African government. The citizens are the foundation of East African rule, and East Africa has limited harvesting capacity for backward countries and regions. After all, East Africa did not have large and wealthy colonies like Britain, France and other European countries in the early days.

However, as of today, East Africa's primitive accumulation has long been completed, which is why East Africa has killed the donkey after it has done its work and eliminated the last batch of black slaves remaining in the country.

Today, East Africa has more advanced and more efficient large-scale engineering machinery to assist in the construction of East African railway projects, especially in the process of railway electrification transformation, modern scientific and technological tools such as cars, cranes, and excavators are widely used.

Moreover, because from the last century to the first decade of this century, East Africa's transportation and infrastructure have been greatly improved, and the living conditions of workers have also been greatly improved. In the past, East African railway construction was basically a matter of sleeping in the open air and overcoming difficulties. Now it only needs to be continuously expanded and extended along the transportation lines, and the difficulty and engineering volume have been greatly reduced.

Wells, the Minister of Railways, said: "The construction of the Empire Railway has passed the stage of blind expansion and pursuit of quantity, and has turned to high-quality development. The degree of mechanization has been greatly improved, the education and safety awareness of workers have been greatly improved, and the treatment and wages have also increased slightly."

East African workers can indeed endure hardships, but the social security system and welfare benefits of East African citizens are relatively complete in the world, especially the state-owned enterprises in East Africa.

Although the era of fully planned economy in East Africa has passed, some of the influences left in the era of fully planned economy have not dissipated.

In the era of fully planned economy, because of the state-owned enterprise system, the East African government can supervise the implementation of the Labor Law, which allows East African citizens, especially the original working class, to cultivate relevant awareness, which has not died with the end of the planned economy era.

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Although this is not conducive to the competition between the East African government and other countries in the world in industry, after all, exploitation and deprivation can reduce production costs, but it has played a huge role in social stability in East Africa.

This is also one of the main reasons why Ernst turned a blind eye to the Russian Labor Party. As long as the Russian Labor Party completes its national power construction in the future, it will inevitably force other imperialists to improve the welfare and treatment of their workers.

In this way, East Africa will not fall into a situation where it is difficult to get off the tiger. After all, from a factual point of view, the human rights issues of other imperialists today have actually formed "malicious competition" against East African industry.

This is similar to the previous life, when Europe and the United States played the human rights card in order to restrict the industrial development of other countries. However, under the consensus of the international community today, East Africa obviously cannot be the first to stand out and become a traitor among imperialist countries.

If East Africa asks other imperialist countries to improve the treatment of workers and raise their labor costs, it will probably only be criticized and ridiculed, so the best way is for the Soviet Union to be the villain.

As long as the Soviet Union exports ideology abroad, other imperialists can only follow the current policies implemented in East Africa.

In fact, East Africa is currently in a very embarrassing situation. On the one hand, workers are paid more than other imperialist countries, and the cost of industrial development is high. On the other hand, the social system in East Africa does not allow East Africa to encourage and export its economic development model, thereby dragging down other imperialist counterparts.

The reason why East Africa can maintain social stability and healthy economic development at the current stage is essentially due to the influence of World War I. During World War I, most of the other imperialist countries, except Japan, turned to war economy, thereby freeing up and creating a large number of markets. This is the fundamental reason why East Africa is in a good economic state today.

However, the war will always end, and East Africa cannot always maintain this way of playing to develop the economy.

The solution is also very clear, but it is more difficult, that is, to continue to improve productivity and develop high-end industries, thereby reducing the impact of labor costs on the economy.

The railway electrification promoted by the railway department today is the embodiment of this strategy in the field of transportation.

Wells went on to say: "Compared with other countries, the disadvantage of my country's railway transportation development is that the labor cost is relatively high, so the Ministry of Railways actively promotes the research and development of railway engineering equipment, and at the same time reduces other costs by integrating and optimizing resources, thereby offsetting the disadvantage of labor costs."

"Now, the empire's railway utilization efficiency is in a leading position among the world's major industrial countries, so as to ensure the waste and overcapacity in the field of railway construction."

The railway utilization efficiency in East Africa is higher than the average level of the world's major industrial countries, and the railway utilization efficiency, in addition to management, is also closely related to the density of railway construction.

For example, the Far East Empire, the Far East Empire's railway utilization efficiency is high among countries in the world, but this is not because the Far East Empire's railway construction is developed, but precisely because the Far East Empire's railway construction is relatively backward and cannot meet the demand for railway transportation.

The opposite example is the United States. The United States has the world's first railway mileage, but many duplicated railways happen to make the United States' railway utilization rate low, and railway transportation supply exceeds demand.

The reason for this result is that the railway in the United States is a "financial product". In order to raise the stock price, various regions across the country blindly followed suit and invested in the construction of railways. Moreover, due to the financial attributes of railways, speculators built a lot of unfinished projects, which led to the "falsely high" actual data of the railway mileage in the United States.

Secondly, there are many railway companies in the United States, and the standards are not unified. There is a lack of effective management, which has caused a great waste of railway capacity. For example, different railway companies have different ticket prices, which has triggered price wars, causing most railway companies in the United States to be in a loss-making state. Or because of the inconsistent railway construction standards, the connecting end of a railway may belong to different railway companies, and the locomotive head or railway workers must be replaced.

The railway problems in some European countries are even more serious than those in the United States, mainly because the railways in some European countries are too concentrated.

Although the overall railway mileage in Europe is as high as more than 300,000 kilometers, which is almost the same as that in East Africa, there are many European countries. Some countries have extremely high railway density, but some countries have extremely low railway density, especially between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, and between Southern Europe and Northern Europe.

In terms of railway density alone, Germany's railway density is more than four times that of East Africa, while the United States' railway density is nearly twice that of East Africa, and East Africa's railway is nearly six times that of Russia.

This also explains the gap in railways between countries. In fact, the current East African railway is even more than three times that of the Soviet Union in the previous life. The Soviet Union in the previous life was not active in railway construction, and it only expanded more than twice compared with the Tsarist Russia era. This is one of the reasons why the Soviet Union's railway utilization efficiency can reach the world's first.

From Ernst's point of view, the railway mileage of the Soviet Union in the previous life was obviously low. After all, the Soviet Union relied on railways much more than East Africa. Of course, it is unknown how the Soviet railway will develop in this life.

At present, the 310,000 kilometers of railways in East Africa have reached the peak, no more and no less, and except for the relatively even distribution of trunk railways, East African railways are mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, with considerable freight and passenger traffic.

The future construction direction of East African railways is only to continuously repair and patch up this set of the world's most developed and efficient railway network. From this perspective, East Africa has become a railway power, not a single railway power.