Overseas Trade

After reaching an agreement with the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Hohenzollern Conglomerate's colonial team had finally gained a foothold there.

The colonial team began producing carriages, tents, and other travel equipment in Zanzibar, preparing to explore the interior.

Meanwhile, after replenishing their fresh water and supplies at Dar es Salaam Port, the Dutch ships continued onward toward East Asia.

Hechingen.

The view returned to Europe. A new building was rising in Hechingen, not far outside the town, and the area had already become a massive construction site.

"Ernst, are you planning to open a factory in Hechingen?" Prince Constantin asked.

After the war ended, Prince Constantin had retired from the Prussian General Staff in Berlin and returned to Hechingen.

Not long after going to Venice for an inspection, Ernst had returned home and asked him for a plot of land.

Prince Constantin had originally thought Ernst wanted to take over his work and develop agriculture. Though he did not labor himself, a landowner still had to know how to keep accounts.

Prince Constantin thought Ernst wanted the land for crop experiments, since Ernst had mentioned some time ago that he wanted to establish a large farm in East Africa.

Yet after only a few days apart, his fields had been leveled! They were piled with bricks, earth, sand, gravel, and cement Ernst had ordered. Caught off guard, Prince Constantin could only come ask in person.

"Father, I'm building a school here." Ernst looked with satisfaction at the building that had already begun to take shape.

That only left Prince Constantin even more bewildered. Building a school in Hechingen—wasn't that sheer nonsense?

Prince Constantin was not imagining things. What Hechingen lacked least was schools. Prussia had long since made compulsory education universal, and every child in Hechingen had a school to attend. Ernst could not possibly conjure students out of thin air, so he could not be opening an elementary school. But Hechingen already had a secondary school as well, one founded back in Margrave Frederick's time.

There were very few students in Hechingen each year who could attend secondary school. Most entered society after finishing elementary school. Secondary education was expensive, after all; they either went home to farm or asked around for an apprenticeship in town.

Only around a hundred students attended secondary school each year. In good years, there might be two or three hundred; in bad years, there could be fewer than eighty.

Thus, Constantin could not figure out what sort of school Ernst intended to establish. He asked, "As far as I know, Hechingen's education market is already saturated. You can't possibly waste the resources in your hands for nothing, can you?"

After spending the past few years together, Constantin had discovered that his son never rose early without profit to be made. He was becoming more and more like a businessman. Fortunately, Ernst had been highly successful so far, so Constantin did not oppose his developing according to his own ideas. But Ernst would never engage in a losing business.

"Father, I'm building a military academy in Hechingen to train talent for the family," Ernst explained.

The moment Constantin heard the words "military academy," his eyelids twitched, and he hurriedly questioned Ernst.

"What are you trying to do? Military schools need to be registered with the government, don't they? You aren't pursuing a military career, so isn't establishing a military academy an unnecessary extra move? As long as you give me advance notice, getting you some official post in the army would not be difficult."

Constantin said in confusion, "And even if you want to build a military academy, shouldn't you choose a large city? In a backwater like Hechingen, would anyone come without military cooperation?"

Ernst knew Prince Constantin had misunderstood and began explaining his idea. "Father, you misunderstand. I really am establishing a military academy, but it has nothing to do with Prussia. It is being prepared for the development of East Africa. This so-called military academy is not the kind you imagine."

Naturally, Constantin understood. What formal academy was this? Was it not simply training a colonial team? Yet his doubts only deepened.

"Even to develop East Africa, there is no need to specially train this so-called talent. You could simply form colonial teams or hire a mercenary force."

Colonial ventures could not do without armed force in this era, but such work was generally done by government armies, commercial groups, and mercenary organizations. Constantin had never heard of anyone establishing a school specifically for colonial activities, much less a military-type one.

"Father, this concerns my plans for East Africa. In the future, East Africa may be larger than all of Germany, so preparing military talent in advance is essential. If we monopolize such a vast expanse of land, someone will certainly cast covetous eyes upon it."

Larger than Germany? Prince Constantin did not dare imagine it. Had something gone wrong with his son's head? What wild fantasy.

Constantin naturally knew of Africa, but he had never studied it in detail. He grabbed Ernst's hand and prepared to head home.

"Come, let's go back and study this."

Before long, a world map was spread across the table before Constantin. Pointing to Tanzania on the map, he asked, "Here?"

"Yes, Father." Ernst took up a pen and began drawing on the map. Soon, a circle took shape.

The circle encompassed modern-day Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and southern Kenya.

"This is my preliminary plan. The other European countries have not yet paid attention to this region. I intend to follow the example of the British East India Company and use the Hohenzollern Conglomerate to bring this region under the rule of our House of Hohenzollern." This was the first time Ernst had shown anyone his ambition.

"Unlike India, this is not an ancient civilization with a long history. In all of East Africa, Axum is the only civilization." As he spoke, he crossed out the Ethiopian region on the map.

"Axum's sphere of influence lies in northern East Africa. I will not touch that area. The only threats to us in all of East Africa are the colonial teams of various countries and the Sultanate of Zanzibar." As he spoke, he marked Zanzibar and the Portuguese colony of Mozambique with small circles.

"These colonial teams are not worth worrying about. Most are small groups that hunt slaves and ivory. As long as we clear the field by various means before the European countries take notice of this place, we will be fine."

Ernst continued, "The Sultanate of Zanzibar has a population of over a hundred thousand and is an Arab country, so it poses little threat. Our first colonial party has already landed successfully."

"As for the Portuguese, they have long been in decline, and their control over their colonies is far weaker than before. But Mozambique is a threat, and the local colonial government must still be treated with caution," Ernst said solemnly.

"However, the Portuguese do not care much about other parts of East Africa. Their activities are mainly concentrated along the coast, which gives me room to maneuver."

Ernst continued, "I plan to first send people to establish many outposts in the East African interior, focusing on the area between Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Malawi." As he spoke, he outlined the land between the three lakes with his pen.

"As long as we move several hundred thousand immigrants there, this region can be completely brought into the hands of our House of Hohenzollern."

Hearing this, Prince Constantin asked, "Where will you find so many people? That is more than the entire population of Hechingen!"

"Here," Ernst answered.

His pencil pointed directly at Qing China in the East Asian region.

Prince Constantin frowned and asked, "If you mean to achieve this goal through outsiders, why travel far when the near is at hand? Couldn't you use the local natives?"

"Father, that question is easy to answer. Qing China is the most populous country in the world. It has a surplus of labor, and its common people live in relative hardship. Every year, many go overseas to make a living because of famine and war. But to the natives of Africa, we are invaders. They will not willingly accept our rule. If we bring in people from Qing China, then upon arriving in an unfamiliar land, they can only rely on us to survive."

"Then why not bring in people from the German territories?" Constantin asked.

"I would like to, Father! But the cost of bringing in people from Germany is too high. I spent a fortune just hiring the first colonial team. People from Qing China will work for us as long as they have food to eat. It is a matter of cost."

Ernst continued, "Secondly, now that the American Civil War has ended, most Germans will choose to live and work in the more developed United States. If you tell Germans to go to Africa, they will probably grow timid the moment they hear the word Africa."

Influenced by past public opinion, Europeans saw Africa as a place covered in wild beasts and plagued by all manner of tropical diseases. Even now, Europeans only established colonial outposts along Africa's coast and dared not venture into the interior, creating an opportunity for Ernst.

"Then how will you control the people from Qing China? Once their numbers grow, disorder will arise," Constantin said.

"My current idea is to cultivate our own talent. That is also the original purpose of establishing Hechingen Military Academy. The students will be selected from Qing China. We will instill ideas in them and teach them to obey management. Later, they will go to Africa to assist Germans in dividing and governing the Qing Chinese immigrants. Once Qing China has developed East Africa's land for us, we can stop bringing in immigrants from Qing China and instead attract people from Germany and Europe. Then, through the Hohenzollern Conglomerate, we will establish a preliminary industrial system in East Africa. Finally, we will drive away the local natives. That way, we can establish a country somewhere between Brazil and the United States."

After hearing Ernst's plan, Prince Constantin could not calm his mind for a long time. It was a vast undertaking, but it truly seemed feasible in theory.

If Ernst succeeded, it would mean establishing another country overseas for the House of Hohenzollern—a new country no smaller than Germany, led by the House of Hohenzollern. Such expansion across the map set Prince Constantin's heart surging.

"Mm. Since you have your own ideas, I support you. Setting aside everything else, I still have connections and relationships on German soil. Go ahead and do as you please!" Constantin said calmly, suppressing the excitement in his heart.

Jiaozhou Bay.

German Commercial Liaison Office. This was a new liaison office flying the Prussian flag. There was another in Zhuhai, but Ernst had specifically emphasized establishing one in the north and had directly chosen Jiaozhou Bay.

Besides handling the promotion of Hohenzollern Conglomerate goods in northern Qing China, the Jiaozhou Bay German Commercial Liaison Office had another special mission: select five hundred healthy boys from northern regions, especially those along the Ji River, and bring them back to Germany.

The requirements were that they be free of illness, have received no formal education, and, most importantly, come from impoverished peasant families.

These were the students Ernst had selected. In Qing China, local clans were the most likely to band together, making them a destabilizing factor in governance. Clan power was especially widespread in the south, so Ernst did not recruit students there.

As for why he chose the Ji River region, it was because that had been Ernst's hometown in his previous life. There was no standard Mandarin in this era, and dialects were everywhere. Ernst did not want his subordinates speaking in ways he could not understand. If it was his hometown dialect, he could at least understand the general meaning. After all, northern speech was far more unified than southern speech.

Ernst intended to serve personally as the headmaster of Hechingen Military Academy and might even teach classes. Language had to be unified; otherwise, it would be awkward if these boys could not understand what Ernst said. They would be given three years to learn German, and afterward Ernst would no longer need to personally supervise and manage them.

The Jiaozhou Bay German Commercial Liaison Office also bore responsibility for recruiting laborers to go to East Africa and conducting bulk commodity trade. Beyond Ernst's own products, he had gathered a number of Berlin merchants and reached cooperation agreements with them, using this opportunity to jointly open up markets for Germany in the Far East.

Flagship products such as cigarettes and kerosene lighters had already begun winning favor among the dignitaries and nobles of the Far Eastern market. Meanwhile, the Hohenzollern Conglomerate used Dutch ships to transport cheap raw materials from the Far East and the population needed in East Africa back together.

The Dutch had also stuffed in quite a few Far Eastern specialties of their own, with silk, porcelain, and tea being the major goods.

Through this ocean-going trade voyage, Ernst had initially established a trade route linking three centers: Europe, East Africa, and the Far East. Although he had relied on Dutch strength, he had also gained experience for the Germans traveling aboard the ships.

Once the Suez Canal opened in the future, Venice's fleet would also have been more or less assembled. At that time, they could establish a commercial route entirely led by Germans.

The main process of this commercial route would be as follows: Europe would export industrial goods for sale in the Far East, recruit people from the Far East to develop East Africa, and then transport the crops and minerals developed in East Africa back to Europe.

Of course, in its early stages, the Hohenzollern Conglomerate was still operating this route at a loss. East Africa was currently a barren wilderness, and only after the population was in place could it produce goods. At the same time, the Far Eastern market had not been fully opened, and the business of the two commercial liaison offices remained limited to coastal areas. Advertising investment and staff wages all cost money, so Ernst could only rely on the profits from industries in Europe to cover his colonial activities.

However, this process might take several years. The good news was that Berlin Energy Power Company had already made a major breakthrough. Ernst's hen that laid golden eggs was about to multiply again. Coupled with the growing reputation of Hohenzollern Development Bank in the German territories, the funds in Ernst's hands had instead become more abundant than before. As expected, banking was the true engine of wealth and incubator of industries.