Beginning in 1876, after the railway bridge over the Zambezi River on the East African Central Railway was completed, trains could travel directly across it into the Zimbabwe region. To develop the interior, East Africa began establishing an East African version of agricultural cooperatives along the Central Railway, using it as the main artery.
"This year, we plan to build more than 1,500 new-style agricultural cooperatives along the railway in the Zimbabwe region to drive the development of the interior," the Minister of Agriculture said at the government work conference.
Agricultural cooperatives were not an industrial model unique to the East. Such organizations existed in regions of France and Germany where small farms and family farms were relatively developed. In essence, they were union-type organizations spontaneously formed by farmers.
French law in Ernst's previous life stipulated: "Agricultural cooperatives and their cooperative unions are a special category of enterprise distinct from civil enterprises and commercial enterprises. They possess independent legal personhood and full civil rights." Agricultural cooperatives were variable-capital enterprises.
East Africa's agricultural cooperatives differed from those in France in Ernst's previous life because East African agricultural cooperatives were led by the power of the East African government. They were semi-political economic organizations, and land had still not been privatized, instead being allocated by the kingdom for use.
The main functions of East African agricultural cooperatives were to provide scientific planting guidance, supply improved seeds, purchase and store grain, manage and allocate livestock and slaves, maintain and manage agricultural tools, and organize agricultural engineering projects.
East African agricultural cooperatives were subordinate to East Africa's grassroots governments, but their specific guidance was carried out by the East African Agricultural Corporation. The East African Agricultural Corporation was the true upstream link in East Africa's agricultural industrial chain.
The East African Agricultural Corporation existed