Since the end of World War I, the international grain market has been in a downturn and fallen into a long-term depression. Taking wheat as an example, in the past ten years from the end of World War I to the present, the price of wheat in the international market has fallen below 60%. In other words, the agricultural depression occurred much earlier than the current economic crisis.
In the 1920s, the level of mechanization around the world increased significantly, the production of pesticides and fertilizers surged, and agricultural technology progressed and improved, etc., which were important reasons for the world's excess food production.
Then came the land development of colonial and semi-colonial countries, as well as the great powers, which further intensified competition in the international agricultural market. As we all know, at the end of the 19th century, imperialism set off a frenzy to carve up the world. In the past 20 to 30 years, the situation in these areas that were annexed and invaded by various countries has also changed dramatically.
This process was indeed a disaster for the local people in the colonies and semi-colonies, but it also disrupted the originally backward natural economy of these areas and brought about more efficient management models and advanced agricultural technologies.
Take East Africa as an example. If the original land of more than 10 million square kilometers in East Africa was in the hands of the indigenous people, it might still maintain the primitive economic model of gathering and hunting. Now, under the transformation of East Africa, it has become the region with the most arable land in the world, and food production has increased countless times.
Not only can it supply nearly 200 million people in East Africa, but it can also export a large amount to the outside world. And this is just East African mainland. Now East African overseas colonies also has a large amount of cultivated land and plantations being developed.
This is just the situation in East Africa. Big colonial powers like the United Kingdom and France cannot leave their colonies completely alone, especially the United Kingdom. In India alone, the increase in food and agricultural output in recent years has been beyond imagination. This can be seen from the fact that India's population has exceeded 300 million, and Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand... have all become important agricultural production areas.
Especially in Canada, Canada's agriculture has reached an astonishing level in terms of scale and output. In 1928, Canada's grain production ranked fourth in the world, second only to East Africa, United States and the Soviet Union.
Canada is the third largest grain exporter in the world, second only to East Africa and United States. The reason why Canada's grain production is so outstanding is also very simple, that is, Great Lakes and North American Central Plains also have Canada's share, and these places are very suitable for mechanized operations.
Therefore, although Canada has a small population, it can rely on its developed agricultural technology, industrial capabilities, excellent natural conditions, and abundant land resources to support the large-scale development of its own agriculture.
Therefore, the United Kingdom was actually the culprit for the long-term downturn in the global grain market in the 1920s. In addition to its own colonies, major grain exporting countries like Argentina were also cultivated by British capital back then.
"If British colonies could disappear from the world, then half of the world's agricultural crisis would be solved!"
"The UK has done a lot of harm and is the main culprit of the long-term downturn in world grain markets."
"It would be great if we could wipe regions like Canada off the map. Ten million people produce the fourth-largest food production in the world..."
Everyone in East Africa Ministry of Agriculture came to this conclusion after analyzing the latest global agricultural development survey report.
Ministry of Agriculture Chief Fingel said to Crown Prince Friedrich, "Your Highness, among the major agricultural export regions in the world, the British colonies are almost all at the forefront. In a sense, the British colonies are at the forefront. Agricultural overproduction is much worse than ours and United States. After all, the population of East Africa and United States is real, and most of the British colonies, except India, are vast and sparsely populated."
Although East Africa and United States also have excess food production and are the world's first and second largest food producers respectively without considering colonial factors, they also have large populations.
Looking back at Canada, Australia... is simply a monster created specifically to promote overproduction in agriculture. With Canada's grain output, Canadians can't even finish six meals a day. With this kind of "cancer" existing, it's strange that the world grain market isn't in a downturn.
Friedrich was also surprised by the exaggerated food production in today's British Empire colonies. He said, "In the past, we have always regarded United States as the main country that caused the collapse of world food prices. Now it seems that the United Kingdom is the country that should be blamed most."
"We did ignore the agricultural development of these British colonies in the past. Unexpectedly, the food output of small colonies like Canada, Australia, and even South Africa, New Zealand cannot be underestimated."
"If you count all the British colonies, plus the agriculture they control in semi-colonies and other countries, this explains why the UK can still maintain its position as the world's hegemon until now."
"Just relying on the weapon of food, Britain has the ability to bring about earth-shaking changes in the world's agricultural market."
East Africa has indeed underestimated the strength of Britain, the world hegemon. In recent years, the United Kingdom has been worse than every year on the surface. But if you dig deeper, you will understand how many resources the United Kingdom controls around the world.
Take food as an example. The combined food output of those inconspicuous British colonies in the past is much greater than that of East Africa and United States, the two so-called world agricultural powers. Britain is truly the world's number one food producer and largest food merchant.
It's no wonder that East Africa ignored Canada, Australia and other British colonies. At least in the last century, the strength of these colonies was definitely not as exaggerated as it is today. However, times have changed, especially the advancement of mechanization and agricultural technology, which allowed these regions to develop agriculture to an astonishing level in just 20 to 30 years.
Ministry of Agriculture Zhang Fingel said with a serious face, "Not only that, food is only the tip of the iceberg in the field of agricultural production in the UK. In recent years, the UK's progress in the field of cash crops has been very rapid, and it has had a huge impact on the empire's agriculture."
"For example, in terms of cotton, rubber, spices, tea, tobacco, etc., the British development of the South Asia and Southeast Asia colonies led to the rise of a very prosperous and large-scale neotropical cash crop production area in the world."
"The cultivation of cash crops in this area has replaced the Caribbean Sea area and has become the main production area of cash crops in the world."
"In the era of triangular trade, Caribbean Sea relied on its natural and cost advantages to become the most important production area of cash crops in Europe and the world, bringing huge profits to European countries."
"However, with the end of the slave trade, environmental destruction, the rise of United States and other factors, the economy in the Caribbean Sea region has been declining, and the United Kingdom has also turned its energy to South Asia and East South Asian region."
"This process has lasted for nearly half a century. Now the UK has reaped the rewards of its efforts, but this is definitely not good news for us."
In the past, the UK's focus in the field of cash crops was in the Americas, especially North America. With the independence of United States and the continuous expansion of United States in the Americas in the last century, the UK could only focus on South America, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and other regions.
However, with the sudden rise of East Africa, Britain's expansion in Africa was not smooth. As for South America, it faced a double blow from United States and East Africa, which left the UK with only South Asia and Southeast Asia options.
The large-scale transfer of British cash crop supply areas to these two regions began in the late 19th century, such as cotton and tea planting in India, rubber plantations in Southeast Asia, etc.
Take tea as an example. Although the British had already tried to cultivate tea trees in India as early as Early 19th century, this was only the initial stage. It must have taken a long time for the British tea industry in India to develop to a certain scale.
It was not until the 1880s that India's tea production exceeded Britain's imports from the Far East Empire, and tea was already Britain's earliest cash crop in India.
In terms of cotton cultivation, from the mid-19th century to the end of the 19th century, the British cotton planting area in India more than doubled. The expansion of cotton fields also triggered the Great Famine in India.
This also showed the urgency of the British to open up new cotton-producing areas in India at that time.
After all, the most important cotton supplier in the UK at that time was American South. Due to the civil war, the port was blocked by the north and could not be exported to the UK. This triggered a "cotton famine" in the British textile industry.
Before Civil War, 80% of the cotton in the UK came from American South, which forced the UK to find new cotton origins to replace imported cotton from United States.
Finally, there is rubber. The United Kingdom introduced rubber planting even later in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and it was not until after the 20th century that it became large-scale.
However, now, the British rubber planting in South Asia and Southeast Asia has threatened East Africa's control of the world's rubber industry.
Fingel said, "With the large-scale planting of cash crops in South Asia and Southeast Asia in the UK in the middle and late last century, these cash crop planting industries have now completely formed a large-scale and mature system."
"Furthermore, the cheap labor cost advantage of South Asia and Southeast Asia is something we do not have. This also means that our past important source of income for agriculture, which is the export of cash crops, will be in a disadvantageous competitive position."
Although the cultivation of cotton and tea can be mechanized in East Africa, it will sacrifice a certain amount of finished product quality. For example, mechanized picking of cotton will leave too many impurities, which require complex post-process removal, tea harvesting, destroying the aesthetics of the finished product, etc., and rubber is basically impossible to mechanize, and other economic crops...
All in all, the current mechanized promotion of East African economy crop planting is not going smoothly, and the advantages of artificial planting in terms of cost and quality cannot be replaced.
Fingel therefore said, "So, not only in the food planting industry, we should limit the scale of production, but in terms of cash crop planting, the empire should also speed up its transfer to other regions, so as to ensure competition in the international market and reduce losses in agricultural crises."
"In the past, the profits from agricultural production allowed us to barely maintain the comprehensive development of local agriculture. Now many of them have become a burden on economic development. Many farms and plantations are completely unprofitable and rely on government subsidies and tariff protection to survive."
Crown Prince Friedrich also has to admit that this situation exists. After all, East Africa is different from the United Kingdom. The British colonies have a large amount of cheap labor that can be used. East African mainland and the residents of the colonies naturally cannot be used as "Indians".
He said, "In this case, it seems that in this national agricultural adjustment, we should strengthen the construction and investment in colonial agriculture, and at the same time, we should pay more attention to those East African spheres of influence."
"The local cultivation and production of grains and cash crops should be tightened, agricultural planting and production enterprises that cannot make ends meet should be banned, and the scope of transfer of cash crops from the local area to other countries should continue to be expanded."
"However, we cannot completely put our eggs in one basket. In addition to the transfer of agriculture to Nanyang region, West Africa and South America should also proceed simultaneously to ensure the safety of our planting industry."
East Africa's colonies in Nanyang region do not lack land, and their population size is also considerable. However, in the Rhine Royal Family's view, the security of Nanyang region is questionable. Just like in the previous life, during World War II, the expansion of Japan in Nanyang region directly led to the source of Central Powers rubber and fell into a very passive situation.
Therefore, out of security strategic considerations, Crown Prince Friedrich believes that part of agriculture should be transferred to the Atlantic Ocean coast. In this way, East Africa will have relevant layouts in both Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean directions. It will be difficult for other countries to restrict East Africa.
Chief Fingel Ministry of Agriculture also gave Friedrich an idea at this time. He said, "Your Highness, actually we have a good choice, that is, the French colonies in India can also share part of our pressure, especially Kingdom of Imerina."
Kingdom of Imerina is the French colony that has almost no presence in the east of Madagascar Island. Although East Africa also has territory in Madagascar, it is basically distributed in the savanna zone.
The territory of Kingdom of Imerina is a typical tropical rain forest and plateau semi-humid area. At the same time, Kingdom of Imerina also has a large area and population, making it a good investment target.
Although it is French colony, Madagascar Island is under the nose of East Africa, and Kingdom of Imerina is directly bordering East Africa, so East Africa has no worries that investing here will be in vain.
The current population of Kingdom of Imerina is about three million, which is equivalent to East Kalimantan colony, which has the largest population of East Africans. The more critical point is that the labor cost of Kingdom of Imerina, Obviously, it is much lower than East African colony like East Kalimantan. It is perfect for developing the plantation economy. It has convenient transportation to and from East Africa and extremely low transportation costs. It is one of the most ideal areas for building plantations.
As for France, to put it harshly, even if East Africa invades Kingdom of Imerina, French government will at most protest. In the eyes of East Africa, France is no longer much different from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and other countries. Their glorious era has long passed. That is to say, France has a strong family background, but among the world's great powers, France is not even among the top five.