CHAPTER 540: CHAPTER 218 EAST ENGLAND (INDIA) TRADE

Since the landmark choice was confirmed, East Africa quickly gathered proposals from European designers and selected the one that most pleased the father and son.

"Civilization Lighthouse, precisely one hundred meters, such height is sufficient for the vast majority of ships on the Indian Ocean to see it, with the Goddess of Peace as a statue atop, under which the tower body is engraved with four lion sculptures as East African elements, with the Earth as the highest point, in the future it can..."

After looking at the design, Ernst was quite satisfied with this creation. As for its height, it held no particular meaning, or rather, one hundred meters in itself is quite a meaningful figure, not to mention the fact that in this era, a hundred-meter-tall building is a breakthrough.

The tallest building in the world, the Great Pyramid of Giza, is only slightly over a hundred meters high, and it will only be surpassed by the Cologne Cathedral in Germany next year.

The statue of the Goddess of Peace, Germans will certainly like this element, as the statue atop the Brandenburg Gate is also a Goddess of Peace.

Lions and the Earth, this way both East African and global elements are included, making the Civilization Lighthouse truly live up to its name.

...

Southern Border Province.

The border between East Africa and Cape Town.

Tensions flared as usual, as East African border patrol soldiers Hans and Charlie set out on their patrol, preventing enemy infiltration into East African territory.

"Hey, Hans, it seems like the number of British troops over there has decreased recently, they are letting their guard down!"

Charlie was unaware of the British troops in Cape Town being dispatched to support the Afghan battlefield, a top military secret known only to the major figures in East Africa.

But this wasn’t exactly a secret, though East African border soldiers had no means to know about it. Yet Charlie still observed with his own eyes the decreased number of British troops at the border.

"Why bother thinking about it? After all, we haven’t received any invasion plans for Cape Town, whether their numbers decrease or increase is irrelevant to us," Hans said proudly.

Hans’s words clearly carried a hint of Versailles, of course, as a German, and being part of the East African Defense Army, a force undefeated over the years, confidence in the army, especially the land forces, only grew stronger.

The German land forces are number one in the world, so naturally, the East African land forces are number one in Africa. In this era, German honor is seen as existing for the nation, not just the state.

There are many German states but only one German nation, the German land forces as number one, so East African Germans also share in this glory.

"You’re right, but those Brits are really bothersome, they must have encountered some trouble, heh heh." Charlie chuckled unkindly.

The laughter echoed along the barbed wire to British side where Leta, a British soldier, heard it, looking displeased at the unrestrained Germans on the other side.

As a member of the British Army, he naturally knew why the number of troops in Cape Town had decreased, many of his comrades had gone to Afghanistan to suppress a rebellion.

Seeing Leta’s uncomfortable expression across the border, Charlie only laughed harder. In reality, they were all old acquaintances, if Charlie spoke English, he might have even chatted with Leta.

"Hahaha..."

The border merchants who had just completed a transaction were laughing even more heartily than the East African border soldiers.

"Mr. Max, a pleasure doing business with you!"

"The pleasure is mine!"

Du Jin nodded at the British Pounds in his hand, quite satisfied with this transaction, while Max sought higher profits, so smuggling goods from East Africa to Cape Town also made him very happy.

Learn from past mistakes to avoid future ones.

Clearly, British merchants lacked this awareness.

The last time East Africa annexed the Transvaal Republic, it all started from border trade between East Africa and the Transvaal Republic.

After annexing the Orange Free State, the British naturally learned about this through the Boers who fled the Transvaal Republic to the Orange Free State.

Coupled with Britain’s initial adaptation to economic sanctions against East Africa, they naturally forbade their merchants from doing business with East Africa.

But in Cape Town and East Africa, such bans were as worthless as a blank piece of paper, East African and British merchants would selectively ignore them.

Especially after the Central Railway opened, the trade volume between East Africa and Cape Town tripled from a few years ago, East African goods were directly exchanged for British Pounds, becoming part of East Africa’s treasury.

The British Pound is a quite stable hard currency, although there couldn’t be normal trade between East England and East Africa, East Africa could still find ways to use these Pounds to acquire desired resources.

Actually, there aren’t many resources in Britain itself that East Africa needs, rather it’s Britain’s colonies where many raw materials are needed by East Africa for import, of course, most raw materials are not absent in East Africa, it’s just more cost-effective from Britain.

For instance, East African coastal cities import large commodities like coal, iron ore, and timber from India, as raw materials for industrial development, and conversely, through Zanzibari merchants, East Africa dumps steel and other industrial products into India.

The trade volume between East Africa and India grows every year, Britain’s sanctions against East Africa have been utterly ineffective, instead, British businesses have lost numerous East African orders.

The restriction on India’s industrial development by Britain led to India’s economy relying on raw materials export and British industrial products.

India’s economy relies on raw material exports, so British colonial officials naturally aim to export more raw materials for revenue, previously there were no buyers, but with East Africa, a nearby Indian Ocean region nation with high consumption capacity, they naturally "hit it off."

And East Africa, leveraging low-priced goods, introduces industrial goods to India, which these bureaucrats then resell to the wealthy Indian class, achieving a perfect cycle.

As for the sanctions legislation, that is Britain’s sanction, it has nothing to do with India. Is the Queen of India Victoria? Well, okay! It does indeed relate.

But once the white cash flows into the pockets of Indian officials, they justifiedly feel at ease, selling out the country is a non-issue, after all, the British Pound features the great Queen Victoria.

Indian colonial officials typically profit from both ends, bulk of East African funds from importing Indian ores and resources flows into their pockets, while selling East African industrial goods to Indians, they wring out another fortune from them.

The cost is merely Indian blood and sweat, and the least valuable thing in India is human life, so where to find such a good deal?

East Africa, Germany, and America could be considered Britain’s greatest industrial rivals, the former thrives through trade with British colonies, while the latter two rely on knock-off products to outmaneuver Britain.

Moreover, Britain’s labor costs are relatively high, and island prices quite elevated, though Britain’s prices aren’t particularly high, they cannot compare to continental nations.

So Britain’s industrial sector being overtaken by late-industrializing countries is an irreversible trend, it’s better to develop the financial industry, given that the world’s commercial channels are currently in British hands.

East Africa could stealthily exploit India due to its locational advantage, although Britain is the sovereign country of India, the actual distance from Britain to India is about twice that of East Africa’s, while East Africa is the nearest industrial country to India.

And India is the largest economic entity in Britain’s colonial map, so East Africa certainly couldn’t ignore India’s market presence, making every effort to cultivate the Indian market.

Under the twin offensives of transportation and cost advantages, the import and export trade between India and East Africa became an essential component of East Africa’s foreign trade, potentially even surpassing its trade volume with the Far East Empire.