October 4, 1872.
King Constantin came to Third Town City to inspect the canal project. Third Town City, as the capital of the East African Region in the former colonial period (Upper Coastal Region), relies on its first-mover advantage and is still the second largest city in Coastal Province, second only to Tanga City, the provincial capital and seaport city.
As Ndebele people was escorted to Central Province by East Africa, the excavation work of Central Canal also started for a period of time. Among them, the excavation progress of Canal No. 1, the downstream section of China Unicom Little Rhine River and Wami River, was the fastest.
Canal No. 1 starts at Third Town (Kitonga), which is less than eight kilometers away from First Town, and ends at Mwomero village in the Wami River.
Since the adjustment of administrative divisions in East Africa, the gap between Third Town, a city that was once at the same level as First Town, has rapidly widened, and it is very likely that it will become a part of First Town like Second Town (Lufu) in the future.
The same is true for the development direction of First Town, which is mainly in the west and north, choosing to develop in a staggered direction from Dar es Salaam city and Bagamoyo city.
"The total length of Canal No. 1 is 44 kilometers. The river channel is 20 meters wide and six meters deep. More than 5 million cubic meters of earth and rock need to be cleared. The total number of workers is 50,000. According to the current construction progress, it should be completed within six months." The person in charge of Canal No. 1 introduced to Constantin.
Constantin had no idea about these numbers, but he knew that Suez Canal took ten years to build, so he asked, "The canal in East Africa was constructed in three sections at the same time. At that time, you said that the length of Central Canal would be the same as that of Suez Canal, but as far as I know, it took Suez Canal ten years to complete. Why does our canal only take a few months?"
The engineer replied, "Your Majesty, Central Canal can be compared with Suez Canal only in length, but other data are far behind. Take the width as an example, our canal width is designed to be twenty meters, while the width of Suez Canal is more than two hundred meters, which is ten times that of ours. At the same time, the depth of Suez Canal is also It is more than twice that of Central Canal, so the total amount of earth and rock that Suez Canal needs to be cleared is at least twenty times that of ours, and this is only the data of Canal No. 1, like Canal No. 2, Canal No. 3, because of the terrain, some concessions must be made, and the width and depth cannot meet this standard."
It turns out that this is the case, but Constantin still thinks that the construction speed is too fast. He asked, "Will such high-intensity work make the workers unbearable?"
"Your Majesty, our team has fully calculated that each worker needs to complete at least five cubic meters of earth and stone cleaning work every day. This is not difficult for workers who are proficient in using shovels and hoes to dig. Some strong laborers can even complete ten cubic meters of earth and stone in one day. Fifty thousand people can complete at least 250,000 cubic meters of work in one day."
Constantin: "Don't they get injured or injured? I heard that Suez Canal killed many people during the excavation."
"Your Majesty, if you understand the excavation work of Suez Canal in detail, you will know the reason.
Suez Canal construction does not treat Egypt workers as human beings at all, but as disposable consumables. Suez Canal travels through the desert, not only in the unbearable heat, but also extremely short of water. A large number of workers die of thirst every day. This is unimaginable to us.
Drinking water is unwilling to be supplied, and it is conceivable that the dietary conditions will be even worse. The amount of food provided by the Suez Canal company to the workers every day is not enough to satisfy the hunger of the children. The workers are hungry for a long time and perform high-intensity work. Under these conditions, it would be strange for Suez Canal to build the Immortal Man. Egypt sacrificed 120,000 lives to build Suez Canal, with an average of 783 deaths per kilometer. "
Constantin: "Then what are our conditions in this regard?"
Although the canal project was the idea proposed by Constantin, the specific operations were carried out by Ernst, so Constantin did not know the specific conditions of the canal very well.
"We have enough control over drinking water, and we will use alum to conduct simple purification of drinking water in advance.
In terms of diet, we have also done a good job in distributing food according to the contribution rate. Even the indigenous people with the lowest contribution rate can get the amount of food they need for a day. "
While talking, the engineering staff took Constantin to look at the canteen at the construction site. The canteen is divided into two parts. One is the dining area for East African nationals (mainly supervisors), and the other is the dining area for indigenous workers.
The supervisor's canteen has no special features. It is basically the same as the public canteens in East Africa, except that the construction conditions are much worse. After all, it is a temporary construction site.
The indigenous canteen is very novel. Forget about tables, chairs and benches, it is just a huge place. You can find a place wherever you want when eating.
"What's boiling in this pot?" Constantin asked, pointing to the mushy stuff in the pot.
Cook: "Tapioca fried rice."
"Fried rice!" If he hadn't said it, Constantin would have thought it was porridge or something like that, but it smelled pretty good.
Constantin: "How do you make these things so fragrant?"
Chef: "Your Majesty, the main thing is to add a lot of oil after the pot is hot, and also add a little spice to give it a base taste, use soaked cassava to pour into it, and finally add salt."
"That's it! But isn't it a bit too much?" Constantin felt a little distressed, this is all money!
The engineer on the side said, "The food for the indigenous workers should not be too bad. This is what His Highness Ernst specially instructed. He specifically asked to use large amounts of salt and oil to make the indigenous workers stronger, because these laborers will be sold to other countries in the future."
"That's good, make the best use of everything, and it's not incomprehensible to eat better." Constantin changed his face instantly. Pigs have to be fattened before being sold, so feed costs are unavoidable.
"That's all they eat every day?"
"Your Majesty, of course not. There are also corn, soybeans, etc. on rotation, and occasionally vegetable and fish soup is provided on weekends."
The food of some indigenous workers in East Africa is not very bad, and their living standards are even much better than that of most countries in the world. As for the indigenous workers who excavated Central Canal, their quality of life far exceeds that of Japan civilians. As for the East African nationals, although their income is not high, their quality of life can be compared with that of the United Kingdom and the United States.
In fact, the quality of life of colonial colonists is not too bad. Take Mozambique next door. Portuguese will definitely not worry about food, clothing, housing and transportation. They mainly want to make more money and then return to the mainland to consume. Although Kingdom of East Africa has become an independent country, it has too many black people and is essentially a semi-colonial country. Kingdom of East Africa citizens also suck the blood of the indigenous people.
Under such conditions, the reason why East African economy has not improved is mainly because East Africa has made relatively large long-term investments, with inputs higher than outputs, and the results will take more than ten years to be reflected.
Central Canal is a typical example. There are not many ships on the entire Little Rhine River. East African inland waterway shipping is basically zero, and the natural rivers have not been effectively utilized. After Central Canal is developed, it will be idle for at least a few years, and profitability must be considered for at least ten years.
Fortunately, indigenous workers do not need to consider wages, as long as they maintain their basic survival needs, and this part is borne by East African government. Although there is no agricultural tax in East Africa, food output is completely distributed by the state, and the arable land resources in East Africa are higher than those in most countries. This means that even when the productivity level is relatively low, the food output in East Africa is still very considerable, and the government only needs to spend part of it to meet the needs of indigenous workers. After excluding the needs of East African citizens and the basic needs of indigenous labor, the remaining food can still be exported in large quantities.
At present, there is serious overcapacity in international grain production, and when exports may be blocked, it is impossible for Kingdom of East Africa to continue to provide citizens with higher distribution standards. That would easily support lazy people and is not conducive to the functioning of society.
Therefore, there will be more and more projects like Central Canal in the future. Instead of letting food rot in warehouses, it is better to take it out and implement various large-scale projects and large-scale infrastructure. This is not easy to achieve in other countries, because in a market economy, the bottom layer at least enjoys certain negotiation rights, but they do not have many bargaining chips.
There is no need to consider autocratic monarchies like East Africa, which are even more extreme than Prussia. As long as the size of the army is maintained and the indigenous people are ruled with high pressure at any time, East Africa will have an endless supply of free labor for more than ten years.