The two sides signed an agreement. At Japan's strong insistence, it was not made public. East Africa understood the Japanese mindset perfectly: their thieving hearts were still not dead. But as long as East Africa managed the Southern Ryukyu Islands well, Japan would have to pay a price if it wanted to snatch them back.
Hohenzollern Province.
Although East Africa lacked the means to develop its pharmaceutical industry, it still did its best to develop traditional Chinese medicine according to its own characteristics and advantages—or rather, to reduce the cost of traditional Chinese medical treatment.
This was a matter of freeloading. The West emphasized patents, while the Far East had no such concept. Of course, that was not to say Far Eastern doctors were generous. Much of their craft was passed down through families and apprenticeships, which was actually quite selfish as well and carried the risk of being lost. Still, that was understandable; after all, it was how they made their living.
Moreover, the Far East might not have placed much importance on medical development in the first place. This could be seen from social status alone. Doctors and lawyers had been extremely important professions in the United States in Ernst's previous life, but both were industries that wanted money as desperately as their lives depended on it.
And nineteenth-century medicine was all about "my fate is mine, not Heaven's." Its efficacy was difficult for Ernst to trust, so he normally paid close attention to his health and tried to reduce the risk of falling ill.
At present, East African medicine needed either a founding figure to lead the development of modern medicine, a complete system to form on its own, or advanced equipment and new methods to drive progress. East Africa possessed none of these three conditions.