Closure and Opening

"Diredawa City also wants to engage in border trade. Do you think that would work?"

"Diredawa City's idea may not be impossible to realize, but we must consider the practical factors. The Red Sea coast has always been a place where merchants gathered like clouds, so I think their plan is highly unreliable. Even our own ships sometimes sell goods along the Red Sea coast. What is more, the Red Sea now connects the two great markets of Europe and Asia through the Suez Canal. There is simply no way it could lack goods."

"Not necessarily. Sea transport is convenient, but it may not meet every need. Take the tropical cash crops of Northern Province, for instance. We would certainly sell them to Europe first, because other regions lack the purchasing power, or else their offered prices do not satisfy us. Market demand is not a cold, fixed number; it shifts flexibly. Since Diredawa City lies on the border, such a market may well exist there. It is simply not worth us investing our own effort. Instead, we should let the market and the border people use their own capabilities to develop it."

East Africa valued no more than two markets most highly: Europe and the Far East. The European market mainly received raw materials, since East African industrial goods certainly could not compete with Germany and Austria. The Far East, meanwhile, was the main sales region for East African industrial goods.

Although the Middle East was closest to East Africa, much of it was handled by Zanzibar merchants. The sales channels were in the hands of the Zanzibar merchants. They purchased goods from East Africa, and whether they ultimately profited depended on their own methods.

Moreover, the Middle East did not yet have as many countries as it had