Chapter 882 Exit

March 2, 1894.

Kisumu City.

"Today, a total of fourteen cars were counted, and there are also a large number of goods, mainly industrial products. This batch of goods will all be sent to Jimma City and then exported to the Abyssinian Empire."

At the Kisumu Railway Station, the brand-new cars built by the Mombasa Automobile Factory arrived in Kisumu City yesterday. Mombasa is currently the only city in the northern industrial belt that has the ability to manufacture complete vehicles.

Kisumu and Nairobi and other northern industrial belt cities are only responsible for producing some auto parts, which are then transported to Mombasa by rail and then armed.

East Africa currently has five automobile industry centers, namely Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Harare, and Bulawayo. In addition, the new Frankfurt automobile industry, which was established after Ernst's last inspection, may become the sixth automobile production city in East Africa in the future.

In addition, the upstream and downstream industrial cities involve a total of 78 East African cities and regions, so as to catalyze the unification of the domestic market, reduce production costs, and enhance the strength of the East African automobile industry.

Among several automobile production bases, the automobile industry production capacity in the inland areas of East Africa is significantly stronger than that in the coastal areas, and priority is given to meeting the construction and development needs of the inland areas.

This is one of the benefits of arranging high-end industries in the inland areas. Even if the technology and management model spill over, they will be spread to the peripheral areas of East Africa first. By the time they are transmitted to other countries and regions in the world, the inland areas of East Africa have completed product renewal and technology upgrades.

Of course, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam in the coastal areas have developed well at present with their comprehensive strength, but as competitors increase in the future, their advantages will be further reduced. For example, the Port of New Hamburg, the Port of Beira, the Port of Cabinda, the Port of Luanda, the Port of Benguela and the nearby Port of Lobito, etc., all rank ahead of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa in terms of growth rate.

With the conquest of Mozambique and Angola in East Africa, the monopoly of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam on the foreign trade of the East African coast will be diverted in the future, forming a multi-faceted East African economic pattern.

The so-called one point and multiple faces means that the central part of East Africa is the center, radiating in four directions: east, west, south and north. At present, except for the British Cape Town colony, East Africa is making full efforts in the east, west and north.

Although the north is a continent, it has also established many inland ports, among which Jimma City at the junction with the Abyssinian Empire is the best.

In addition, there are Gezira City, Dire Dawa Town, and Sar City, which are connected to Egypt, the Red Sea coast, and the Sigmaringen colony respectively.

However, Egypt is a British colony, the Red Sea coast north of Dire Dawa Town is economically weak, and Sigmaringen is also under development, and it is temporarily unable to compete with the large market of the Abyssinian Empire with a long history.

Therefore, the Abyssinian Empire is an important part of the East African economic circle. In the past thirty years, the economic trade between the two countries has continued to strengthen, especially after the Abyssinian Empire had bad relations with Egypt and Italy, the Abyssinian Empire, which had no outlet to the sea, could only completely turn to East Africa.

At present, the military products, industrial products, and high-end products of the Abyssinian Empire are basically East African products, becoming the dumping ground for East African products, and East Africa has also become the largest trading country of the Abyssinian Empire.

And on this train from Kisumu to Jimma City, it is the industrial products sold by East Africa to the Abyssinian Empire today. The increasingly prosperous trade between East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire has also driven the development of cities around the Turkana Railway.

As early as a few years ago, with the completion of the construction of the Turkana Railway, its starting point was located in Kisumu City, passing through the hinterland of Turkana Province, the west bank of Lake Turkana, and then passing through the southern Ethiopian Plateau into Jimma City on the border of East Africa, and then entering Abyssinia from Jimma City.

"Including today's batch of cars, the number of cars imported by the Abyssinian Empire from my country this year may have exceeded 50. It is only March now, and it seems very likely to exceed 167 last year." Railway employee Alwede said.

"This shows that the Abyssinian Empire has a large economy. Even though it is poor, the upper class has strong consumption power, and the Abyssinian Empire is also rich in resources. Now there are agricultural products and minerals imported from the Abyssinian Empire on the railway every day. These agricultural products and mineral exports have created huge value for the Abyssinian Empire, so the Abyssinian dignitaries can be so extravagant." Andrew, a co-worker, replied.

It can be said that most of the agricultural and mineral resources of the Abyssinian Empire have been cheapened in East Africa, especially the northern industrial belt and Turkana Province.

Although the territory has further shrunk due to the war with Italy in the past few years, the Abyssinian Empire is still the second largest country in Northeast Africa after Egypt.

The territory is still maintained at more than 300,000 square kilometers, and most of it is the core area of ​​the previous life. Except for the loss of the traditional core territory in the northeast, most of the other areas are suitable for farming and rich in resources.

The Italian Red Sea Colony expanded the territory of the Abyssinian Empire east of Desai on the basis of Eritrea, most of which is a transition zone between deserts and plateau plains.

Although East Africa has annexed a lot of Ethiopian territory in the past, it is mainly in the southern mountains (East African Rift Valley) and the arid areas of Ogaden.

Therefore, the overall size of the Abyssinian Empire is still very impressive. The plateau area is easy to defend and difficult to attack. This is the fundamental reason why Italy cannot annex the Abyssinian Empire.

Of course, Italy will not have this opportunity in the future. In essence, Italy is different from the previous life. It can only be regarded as a small and medium-sized country in Europe. Now there is a balanced regional stability in East Africa, and Italy's opportunity to annex the Abyssinian Empire no longer exists.

Moreover, after losing the northeastern territory, the Abyssinian Empire completely cut off the idea of ​​regaining the Red Sea outlet, making it completely a landlocked country and only able to carry out economic activities with East Africa in the south.

Of course, the Abyssinian Empire is not a completely disadvantaged party in the economies of the two countries. As an important crossroads in Northeast Africa, the Abyssinian Empire has restored relations with Egypt in recent years, indirectly opening up trade links between Egypt and East Africa.

The restoration of relations between Egypt and the Abyssinian Empire is ultimately due to Italy's disruption, which has eliminated the original disputed territorial issues between the two countries.

After improving relations with neighboring countries, the Abyssinian Empire has maintained overall stable economic development in recent years and started a "middleman" business to transport East African goods to North Africa.

With the blessing of railways, the transportation cost is not much higher than that of sea transportation, especially in Sudan, where Egypt's inland transportation is poor.

On the whole, the Abyssinian Empire has been completely incorporated into the East African economic circle. Although the trade between East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire is suspected of economic colonization, it meets the needs of the Abyssinian Empire.

First of all, after years of turmoil and invasion by colonists, the Abyssinian Empire government relies on East African arms to maintain social stability and national territorial sovereignty.

Secondly, the means taken by East Africa in trade with the Abyssinian Empire are not strong. Like the United States now, it is mainly based on implicit economic colonization rather than direct plunder and aggression.

Although East Africa has annexed a lot of Ethiopian territory in the previous life, the Abyssinian Empire is not the same as Ethiopia. These lands did not belong to the Abyssinian Empire. At most, they belonged to its affiliated or even hostile sphere of influence.

In the previous life, the Abyssinian Empire conquered the southern region by force after learning the strength of the West, and finally formed Ethiopia.