African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 651 - 339: Exchange of Interests

Franz twitched the corner of his mouth after hearing this and said, "Truly able to cause trouble!"

The British have always been known for their meddling style, and most European countries, especially Austria-Hungary, which has received special "attention" from Britain, are well aware of this.

"Now the Boers are probably considered their own people too, still playing the balance game, but this is typical of the British."

Franz is indifferent towards Britain, but he does admire them in one regard; their means are indeed superb. Not to mention, the British Isles consist of three parts, plus Ireland making it four, yet England can easily manage the other three, which is worthy of Franz's admiration.

After all, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austria cannot manage Hungary, and there are a bunch of federations and regions behind that want to stir trouble like Hungary.

If Austria had England's skill, they would definitely let Hungary taste the power of the Irish famine, but Britain is an island country, less prone to foreign interference, so there are still great differences between the two countries.

"If you can't settle things with Britain, we can provide some support. Although we can't directly intervene, we can help you solve some problems." Franz said.

Now East Africa's status is different, so it is valuable to be roped in. If it were still the East African colony hidden in "Tanganyika," it would probably only result in the reaction, "Who is East Africa? I don't know."

"Hehe, there's no need for that now. East Africa's main focus is still economic development, so if Austria-Hungary can give us more support in education, technology, and culture, that would be great," Ernst said.

Teach a man to fish, rather than give him fish; like the big fool Soviet Union's hand-holding teaching, Austria-Hungary certainly won't do it. However, East Africa can pay the tuition itself to seek education, which is not a problem.

"There's naturally no problem with that, but can you help us share more of our industrial products?"

"I can't make rash decisions on that. Although East Africa is large, it's really poor! However, for many goods that we cannot produce in East Africa, we can help consume them."

Goods and industrial products are quite different, including agricultural products which can also be considered as goods. Austria-Hungary is itself an agricultural powerhouse, located in the temperate zone, growing many crops that East Africa does not have, so this aspect can be considered.

As for industrial products, East Africa has to be cautious. Ernst calculated and then continued, "The main economic source of Austria-Hungary is still agriculture; its industry is not as strong as Germany or the UK and France, but we in East Africa are now busy with infrastructure construction. Uncle, you know, that African land has never been developed before, everything needs to be built by us East Africa ourselves. This year, we and Romania plan to build a railway directly to the hinterland of Africa, the Chad region. This railway has many technical challenges, and if Austria-Hungary gets involved, we can offer more benefits."

The difficulty of the central-western section of the northern railway is in no way inferior to the Siberian railway. If East Africa does it alone, great efforts would achieve miracles, but it's not cost-effective.

In this aspect, getting Austria-Hungary involved may yield unexpected results, after all, the terrain within Austria-Hungary is quite complex, making them the most experienced in Europe regarding mountain railway construction.

Although the main force for railway construction is Black people, their lives still matter! So Austria-Hungary's involvement to reduce some human casualties is beneficial to East Africa and can speed up the project. The sooner the northern railway is opened, the earlier the northern population isolation belt in East Africa can be formed.

"Austria-Hungary's oil production is also the highest in Europe, in this regard, we can import more to East Africa," Ernst said.

Austria-Hungary now still has some of Romania's former territories, making its oil resources quite abundant, ranking first in European production.

And East Africa wants to promote the development of the internal combustion engine industry and automobile industry; oil resources are essential, so they can only rely on imports.

As for East Africa's domestic oil, Ernst knows the general location, but the current era's technology and theory may not support inland oil exploration, and resource exploration is quite labor-intensive.

Geological personnel often have to brave the elements, explore mountains, and stay out for ten days to half a month, so it's very time-consuming and labor-intensive. Moreover, the understanding of elements and minerals in this era is quite simplistic, and the technology is outdated, making mineral exploration a very challenging technical task.

The benefit of domestic mineral exploration in East Africa is that Black people have done almost no development on this land, so many minerals may be on the surface; if placed on the Eurasian continent, they'd have long been exhausted by predecessors.

In these recent years, the development of East African transportation has further promoted the progress of the mining industry. Geological survey personnel can not only penetrate more regions, but machinery can also be brought in via rail and road for development, ultimately shipped out via railway for East African use or export, fully validating the truth of "to get rich, build roads first."

Railway investment is the trend of this era, like the new energy and artificial intelligence in the 21st century. In this era, railways are such a novel thing. Although European railways are already widely popular, that is only for Europe's five major powers: Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia. Other countries lag significantly.

East Africa bringing in Austria-Hungary can further digest Austria-Hungary's domestic steel production capacity and drive related industry development; this is already considerable sincerity. After all, the central-western segment of the northern railway placed in Austria-Hungary is a nationwide project, because compared with East Africa, Austria-Hungary's area is quite limited.

And Ernst added oil imports, which made Franz more satisfied. Although this era's oil production is limited, it also indirectly indicates high oil pricing, as rarity tend to make things more precious. Besides being used as fuel, oil has wide-ranging applications; otherwise, Rockefeller wouldn't have made his fortune with it.

East Africa importing oil from Austria-Hungary is not a small revenue for Austria-Hungary. Although Ernst didn't specify the numbers, it certainly isn't minor.

Ernst himself doesn't care because a large part of Austria-Hungary and Romania's oil industry is invested by the Heixinggen conglomerate, so importing oil from its own enterprise is merely paying Austria-Hungary extra tax; conducting business on someone's turf, tax payment is unavoidable.

Satisfied with the response, Franz also asked, "Regarding the education matters you mentioned earlier, I won't inquire much. However, this is still subject to the needs of the schools across the Empire, as they have to recruit according to their capabilities. Moreover, there were already quite a few East African students studying in Austria-Hungary each year. We can certainly explore technical and cultural aspects."

East Africa is Austria-Hungary's domestic largest overseas student group, with East African students present in almost every university, so what Franz said makes perfect sense. Besides, East Africans are considered somewhat Germanic people, so studying in German areas doesn't seem out of place. University levels and quality in this era are high, preventing any discrimination issues.

Countries coming to study in Europe are countless, and many shrewd opportunist merchants open diploma mills to swindle tuition fees; study abroad costs in this era are hefty. This direct collaboration with various governments for schooling by East Africa avoids many issues, allowing East Africa to gain significant advantages.