In this era, steel output was one of the most important measures of a nation's industrial strength. East Africa's steel production had climbed to first place in the world, which to some extent showed that East Africa's industrial scale might even have surpassed that of the United States.
This was easy enough to understand. East Africa had a larger population than the United States, enormous domestic industrial demand, and its industry had remained in a phase of rapid expansion since the beginning of the century. Europe and America, by contrast, had seen their industrial development twist and turn because of the economic crisis.
Had the First World War not broken out and interrupted the spread of a new economic crisis, the industries of European nations might have shrunk even further.
As John Liar's words fell, some East African government officials gained a certain understanding of the current export trade.
In 1914, the world's total merchant shipping tonnage amounted to just over forty million tons. Britain stood head and shoulders above the rest, reaching an astonishing twenty million tons and occupying half the world shipping industry. Germany came next, while the United States and East Africa belonged to the second tier.
In other words, around 25 percent of all seaborne cargo vessels in the world now served East Africa. This was a remarkably staggering figure, one that perhaps only Britain and the United States could rival.
There was no need to say much about the United States. Before the First World War, its industrial scale had long ranked first in the world, and it enjoyed the advantage of the Atlantic shipping routes. Britain, meanwhile, had vast colonies and the global market supporting it from below.
It was worth mentioning that after the war broke out, Britain had likewise placed a large