African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 449 - 127 Malicious Competition
While East Africa managed the Little Rhine, Vienna also widened the Danube. However, compared to East Africa’s governance for the sake of governance, Vienna’s reasons were more special, as it was for the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair, making it a political achievement project.
The World’s Fair started in May, but Ernst didn’t join the bustle. On one hand, his schedule was quite full, and on the other, the Vienna World’s Fair was too chaotic.
Although Ernst did not participate before, the World’s Fair serves as a showcase for global products, so the Heixinggen Consortium actively participated.
The exhibits of the Heixinggen Consortium were divided into three categories: "European technology and industrial products, East African specialties, and trade goods between the Far East and Europe that the consortium was involved in."
The technology and industrial products were the products of various companies under the Heixinggen Consortium, mainly highlighting electricity, light industry, and medicine.
East African specialties focused mainly on the economic crops of East Africa, which is a premium industry for East Africa, while grain agriculture and dairy farming are dominant industries in regions like Europe and America.
Thus, under the impact of the economic crisis, East Africa’s exports of bulk grains to Europe nearly came to a halt, retaining advantages only in regions like the Middle East and North Africa, which are unsuitable for agricultural development.
Conversely, tropical economic crops are completely different. If only economic crops are discussed, America’s strength is not inferior. However, most of America lies in the temperate zone, with a portion in the subtropics, and has no tropics at all (as Hawaii had not yet been annexed).
If it were possible, Ernst certainly had thoughts about Hawaii, but only as a thought. This place is not like Alaska—a frozen land—and situated in the heart of the North Pacific, its strategic position is too prominent. Not to mention America, not even Japan, Canada, the Far East Empire, Britain, or Tsarist Russia would leave it to East Africa.
East Africa could block Alaska and delay its development, but it couldn’t use the same tactic on Hawaii, which is a stopover for passing ships and unavoidable. However, occasionally thinking about it doesn’t hurt either.
Besides, the main competitor East Africa faces in tropical economic crops is the Caribbean Islands, whose primary area of development is the sugar industry. For various reasons, Western colonizers clearly valued the Caribbean coast more than South America, as seen with Haiti and Cuba.
Meanwhile, South America is somewhat lacking. Ernst believes this might be because South America’s sovereign countries are quite inferior, and after gaining independence, the strength of South American countries like Brazil and Argentina—with their large areas and considerable populations—makes them difficult to control.
The Caribbean’s advantages lie in fertile land, abundant rainfall, and its position at the traffic route between North and South America, not far from Europe.
Compared to the Caribbean, East Africa’s advantages lie in its proximity to Europe, especially Central and Eastern Europe and two Central Asian markets, along with better organizational capabilities, higher production efficiency, a larger territory, and agriculture focused on planning to fully leverage its advantages.
Moreover, East Africa’s geographical environment is more diverse than the Caribbean, featuring all types of tropical climates such as tropical rainforest, tropical savanna, tropical desert, and high mountain plateau climates. Furthermore, within the tropical savanna climate, there are significant differences, divided into plateau climate (East African plateau), plain climate (East African coastal plain), rainy climate (Great Lakes Region), arid climate (South Africa), double rainy season climate, single rainy season climate, long rainy season climate, and short rainy season climate.
So even though East Africa is primarily a tropical savanna climate, when details like temperature and precipitation are considered, the tropical savanna regions of the East African Kingdom show tremendous variability, providing richer space for the development of different crops.
At this Vienna World’s Fair, the main East African specialties showcased by the Heixinggen Consortium included sisal, cloves, Somali bananas, mosquito coils (pyrethrum), asparagus (a type of fruit), East African gum (gum arabic), tea, coffee, East African rubber, and 237 other large-scale grown tropical economic crops.
Additionally, there were more than forty types of animal specialties such as the horns of East African longhorn cattle (Watussi Longhorn), lion skins, ivory, crocodile leather goods. Moreover, seventeen kinds of high-quality wood carving samples like African teak, African neem, African red walnut were exhibited.
Some interesting scenarios also occurred at the fair:
"Why does the so-called East African rubber you have look exactly like our Brazilian exhibits?"
"Don’t slander us. These are rubber tree species our company discovered on the homeland of the East African Kingdom, discovered deep in the African interior, locally excellent rubber tree species."
Faced with the suspicious gaze of the Brazilian exhibitors, a Heixinggen employee righteously declared, "Africa is an unexplored continent, finding anything there isn’t surprising." 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖
The others didn’t care whether East Africa’s rubber tree species were stolen or not; they directly inquired about the price, buying whichever was cheaper. Although East African rubber plantations started later, their planting quantity surpassed Brazil, making them highly competitive.
In the banana exhibition area.
For malicious competition, the Heixinggen Consortium deliberately placed American bananas next to East African bananas for comparison, allowing everyone to taste the differences between the two bananas, with the origin of both clearly marked.
"Thin-skinned, juicy, big, and sweet, leading the industry."
"Originated from the Shebelle River’s premium water in the Ethiopian plateau, nurtured by twelve hours of sunlight, meticulously cared for by farmers, with one-on-one guidance per person per tree, yielding better quality, sweeter taste, and richer aroma."
Faced with the malicious competition of Somali bananas from East Africa, the Caribbean region, especially the Boston Fruit Company from America, was quite disgruntled.
"You must have chosen the worst products from the Caribbean to compare with your finest bananas; we won’t accept this!"
"Whether you accept it or not, the truth speaks for itself. Only after everyone has tasted can we determine which banana is the real king among bananas!"
"Then we can’t use the samples you provided for comparison; let’s use the bananas we brought from the origin. We are confident in winning."
With the support of a crowd of onlookers, a banana contest began on-site.
"On the left are Somali bananas from East Africa, and on the right are bananas from the Caribbean. How the two bananas taste is up to everyone to vote and can participate."
Thus, a tasting event began, with Heixinggen staff thoughtfully preparing drinking water for everyone to rinse their mouths and prevent flavor mixing.
"Well, overall, both bananas taste good, but I personally think Somali bananas are sweeter."
"Not to mention sweetness, just looking at the color and freshness, I find Somali bananas more appealing."
Finally, a weighty figure from Romania, Carol I, who came to attend the event, commented after carefully tasting both bananas: "Speaking impartially, Somali bananas are a clear winner."
Indeed, without bias, many kings were attending this World’s Fair, including William I, Alexandria II, Francisco II from the Kingdom of Naples, among others. Carol I just happened to come for fun and got involved in the event. Although a relative, Ernst did not specifically ask Carol I to endorse bananas as a means of promotion.
Thus, at the World’s Fair, Somali bananas were dubbed "the world’s sweetest bananas." Out of jealousy for America’s development over the years, a British newspaper sourly mocked: "American banana products, like American industrial goods, have developed by copying and substituting inferior goods..." Fully displaying the care of an old father for a rebellious son.
