Chapter 362: The Overall Vision for the First Railway
The letter C represents the initial of Constantino's name, while 001 simply signifies "the first." This maiden locomotive was named the "Constantino," and subsequent steam engines purchased by East Africa—unless otherwise specified—would be labeled with C- prefixed codes (e.g., the soon-to-arrive C–002).
Looking at the simple environment of the Dar es Salaam train station, Constantinoo instructed the Dar es Salaam government, "As an excellent port, Dar es Salaam handles about 35% of East Africa's import and export trade. With the development of the times, railway construction is a must, and the expansion of the First Railway will eventually be necessary. At the very least, we need to build essential structures such as warehouses to address storage issues. Also, a road should be constructed from the city to the train station. The presence of the new port shouldn't isolate the old port from the railway. There could be an additional security checkpoint when leaving the city to check for suspicious individuals or goods."
At present, the First Railway, having just opened, cannot yet facilitate the flow of goods from East Africa's interior to the coast. However, this is only because the First Railway has only completed its preliminary plan. When designing the First Railway, Ernst had already considered its future development. The plan is to take inspiration from the historic TAZARA Railway and extend the First Railway from Dar es Salaam to the Zimbabwe region.
The most challenging part of this project will be crossing the Zambezi River, requiring the construction of a sturdy bridge. Moreover, the First Railway will encounter more rivers beyond just the Zambezi. In the past, the TAZARA Railway required 320 bridges and 26 tunnels, crossing two countries. It cost more than 900 million, took almost 8 years to complete, and claimed the lives of nearly 70 East Asians. One can imagine how much manpower and resources were needed for such a railway.
If East Africa were to build this railway, the difficulty would be significant but not insurmountable. Including the Zimbabwe section, the railway will stretch over 2,000 kilometers, several hundred kilometers longer than the TAZARA Railway, and crossing the Zambezi River will increase the difficulty significantly.
However, East Africa has several advantages over the past Tanzania and Zambia in constructing the First Railway. First, there's the issue of land—East Africa doesn't face land acquisition difficulties. While Africa was very underdeveloped in the past, land ownership laws were fairly well established, and the presence of numerous tribes greatly delayed the TAZARA Railway's construction. Second, East Africa doesn't have to worry about casualties during construction. For the East African government, casualties are just numbers, and whether they are in the single or five-digit range, it doesn't matter. History shows that with enough manpower, there's nothing that can't be achieved.
Lastly, and most importantly, East Africa is an agricultural powerhouse and a major exporter of food, a significant advantage that most African countries in the past could not match. It is well known that the best agricultural conditions in Africa are found in East Africa, but in the past, countries like Tanzania could barely achieve food self-sufficiency. The construction of a railway requires a large labor force, which reduces the number of agricultural workers, but Tanzania's agricultural production efficiency wasn't enough to counterbalance this, putting greater pressure on food supplies.
In contrast, the Russian Empire faced significant challenges in building the Trans-Siberian Railway, with the most labor-intensive period having around 90,000 workers, while the construction difficulty of the Trans-Siberian Railway was far greater than the First Railway. The long winters in Russia made the Trans-Siberian Railway one of the most challenging railways to build. However, East Africa can guarantee year-round construction, and the number of workers is completely up to the East African government. With a stable food supply, there's no worry.
At the same time, the First Railway isn't that long—if it later extends to the Transvaal Republic, it will only reach about 3,000 kilometers, which is shorter by more than 1,000 kilometers than the Canadian Pacific Railway. The construction environment for the First Railway is also more favorable than the Trans-Siberian Railway. While the Trans-Siberian Railway had to cross permafrost, the First Railway will pass through swampy areas, which are much easier to handle than permafrost.
In fact, comparing the First Railway to the Trans-Siberian Railway is an exaggeration. The First Railway doesn't even come close to matching the Trans-Siberian Railway; it should be compared to the Canadian Pacific Railway. Canada, as an independent nation since 1867, tempted the British Columbia province on the west coast to join the federation in 1871, with the condition that a transcontinental railway be built within 10 years to connect the east and west of Canada. Like the Americans, Canada used the same tactic—quick, efficient, and cheap—therefore, Chinese workers became the primary choice, making up about 4-6% of the total labor force (historically, 5-9%).
This tactic is similar to the one used in northern Myanmar, although East Africa secretly spread the word that Chinese workers faced discrimination in the Americas, the Canadians, with their thick skin, hired East Asian merchants to set up labor agencies in British Columbia to recruit fellow East Asians as road construction workers (historically accurate). These agencies were particularly effective because the workers were all related, making the success rate very high.
But that's a story for later. Currently, both the Canadian Pacific Railway and East Africa's First Railway are still in the planning stages. East Africa is slightly ahead, as the First Railway segment from First Town to Dar es Salaam has already been completed. Initially, the First Railway was planned to replicate the TAZARA Railway, but after occupying Zimbabwe, the plan expanded. If the Boer War goes smoothly, the South African section will be added, and the total length may reach about 3,000 kilometers, about 1,000 kilometers shorter than the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Canadian Pacific Railway has to cross the Rocky Mountains, but East Africa's terrain mainly consists of plains, so the difficulty is comparable to the First Railway. Both face similar issues, such as long winters. East Africa, like Canada, has vast land with a sparse population, but East Africa has a large black population, so it doesn't have to recruit workers from the Far East, India, or Italy like Canada.
East Africa's population is also larger than Canada's, although Canada's population is more concentrated, mainly in the southern parts (at this time, northern Canada was still uninhabited). The total economic output of East Africa is also higher than that of Canada, even without considering the wealth of the Hechingen Consortium. East Africa already has the resources and industries to fund the construction of the railway, as long as it can borrow money from financial institutions using its resources and industries as collateral. This is the basic procedure for railway construction in every modern country.
The Hechingen royal family, as the rulers of East Africa, naturally does not want foreign capital (except Austria) to enter the country. They are fully capable of financing the project on their own. Therefore, the construction funds for the First Railway will be first lent to the East African government by Hechingen Bank, which will be repaid through the future economic returns of the First Railway, thus completing the project without involving any outside parties.
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