African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 842 - 146: Fleece a Sheep

For East Africa, in fact, the population of East Africa is not considered small. In the international community, East Africa is also one of the few population great powers with more than fifty million people.

The fundamental reason for the current population shortage everywhere is that population migration is a large-scale project, not something that can be completed in a short time. Especially in Angola and Mozambique, the population shortage in each place is not in the tens or hundreds of thousands, but in the millions.

This is merely the minimum requirement. Given the conditions in places like Angola and Mozambique, accommodating tens of millions of people is reasonable. In the previous life, Angola and Mozambique were countries with a population of over thirty million, combined more than the current population of East Africa. So at the current stage, no government in East Africa would complain about having too many people; rather, the more, the merrier. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

One change can affect the whole situation. Moving millions of people to East Africa is not something that can be achieved in a short time. Of course, it could be forcibly completed regardless of the cost, but it's not very cost-effective, and it would greatly impact the economic development of the areas losing population.

Take New Baden Province, for example. Although it only supported Orange with a few thousand people, it has already reached the point of being seriously affected. If it weren't for the Central Government's mandatory request, the New Baden Province government wouldn't want to send anyone.

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First Town City.

"Your Royal Highness, every place in East Africa is currently asking for people. This is the telegram we received from the Orange area government the day before yesterday. They urgently need at least 30,000 black people. It would be even better if we could provide some skilled workers because Kimberley's infrastructure conditions are not bad, with a lot of infrastructure left by the British."

"Does Orange need black people as well now?" Ernst asked.

"There is no way around it. Currently, the most populous group in the entire Orange region is the military. Taking away the military, the entire Orange population is less than ten thousand, so now they can only think of ways to recruit black people, and even in Orange, there are not many black people. The black population was already small in South Africa, and Orange is a particularly prominent area in this regard."

Von der Leyen's words reminded Ernst of East Africa's eastern part, where black people have already become history. Of course, this doesn't mean there are no black people in the east, but that all black settlement areas have been dismantled by East Africa, and the eastern black population has all been incorporated into "laborer status."

The eastern part can be said to be the only region that has completely undergone "de-blackification." However, the central and western parts still have a large number of black settlements, which also reflects the population distribution in East Africa.

Over seventy percent of East Africa's population is concentrated on the East African Plateau and the eastern coastal areas, with just the East African Plateau alone accounting for forty percent, although its area is only about one-tenth of the entire country. This is an indication of an uneven population distribution. Without development in the central provinces, this ratio would be even more exaggerated.

The central region, which includes four provinces (including Hesse Province), has a population of more than ten million, barely meeting the standard. The economic connections between the central and eastern regions are relatively close, and currently, the eastern population resources are also being directed towards the central region.

Excluding the central and eastern parts, the population in the rest of East Africa adds up to about five million, distributed across a dozen provinces, concentrated in the north and south.

This count doesn't even include Angola and Mozambique, which have just been incorporated into East African territory. So, even in the regions long incorporated into East African territory, there is a queue. It's almost impossible for East Africa to look after all regions.

Of course, in the Orange region, Kimberley must not be delayed. Ernst believes that the conditions in Kimberley are better than those in many areas of East Africa, and merely restoring the urban scale of the British rule period can make it the second-largest city in the southern region after New Hamburg Port City.

Ernst said, "Kimberley can be prioritized as the development area in the Orange region. After all, Kimberley's diamond industry is very famous. It is a point that can be profitable in a short time, so let the east, especially the various diamond mining areas, make some room and organize a group of experienced workers to restore local diamond production in Kimberley."

Previously, Kimberley's biggest competitor was East Africa. Diamonds are distributed in almost every province of East Africa, from the Nile River Basin at the north end to the South African Plateau at the south, from the west to the east, with considerable diamond reserves throughout East Africa. Yet, East Africa has only developed the eastern diamond mining area, while in the central and other areas, diamond development is generally conducted as a by-product of other mineral development.

It can't be unrestricted because diamonds have a relatively high value in industrial and jewelry fields, and low prices are not very beneficial to East Africa.

Even so, the development of East Africa has still lowered the global diamond prices, which is probably the main reason why the UK gave up Kimberley's interests. Of course, a deeper reason is that East Africa reduced the population in Orange to the extent that Kimberley could not maintain normal production, and hiring East African workers was not cheap, also having to comply with East African laws, which is something most unacceptable to the British.

In fact, although East Africa has labor laws, their enforcement is not strict, but if it's foreign employment, that's naturally a different story.

"Your Royal Highness, it seems that we should think more about immigration from overseas. Compared to domestic migration, overseas immigration is less costly and won't disrupt the normal production and living order," Von der Leyen suggested.

"But for national balance, where do we introduce Germans from now? The European German Region is not the same as it was more than a decade ago. Since the unification of Germany and the rapid economic development of the Austria-Hungary Empire, population outflow has almost ceased," Ernst said.

"Your Royal Highness, we have all overlooked one issue: that is, the dominant nation of our East Africa has already taken shape. We can learn from the U.S. and other immigration countries to appropriately relax immigration restrictions, which will not change the culture and population structure of our East Africa," Von der Leyen said.

Von der Leyen's words awakened Ernst. The situation is indeed no longer as before. Previously, East Africa needed to shape cultural identity, but now the mainstream cultural configuration of East Africa is already quite perfect. At this point, introducing non-Germans is not a problem.

Von der Leyen continued, "Especially the Austria-Hungary Empire. Although its economy is developing rapidly, its domestic economic development is not balanced. Apart from Venice, Austria, and Bohemia (the Czechoslovak area), other regions' economic conditions are not very good, and their birth rates are quite high. For example, Hungary is an excellent target for us to absorb the population. After all, under Habsburg rule, the ethnicities in Hungary and other areas of Austria-Hungary have no difference in living habits compared to Germans."

Ernst nodded and said, "Very well said, I indeed ignored this issue. In that case, let the Immigration Agency draft a plan, and have all departments cooperate. If we introduce population from the Austria-Hungary Empire, then there must be sufficient job openings to offer. This can replace a large portion of the native residents and then let them head to the west and south."

Introducing immigrants from abroad cannot directly supplement places like Angola since East Africans are already a minority there. If immigrants from abroad were directly placed in these regions, there might be a risk of them taking control.

If that situation turns into another version of the Austria-Hungary Empire, it would indeed be a joke, so for population migration in areas recently incorporated, the principle is "local citizens first." The vacancies they leave can just be filled by overseas immigrants.

Moreover, if the majority of immigrants are from the less developed regions of the Austria-Hungary Empire, they can also integrate into the East African environment more quickly, as they have long been accustomed to the German way of life under the rule of Austria-Hungary.

This can be seen as East Africa taking advantage of the Austria-Hungary Empire, and there is no way around this. For instance, East Africa wouldn't even consider Germany because the development level across Germany is relatively balanced, with not much economic disparity. Therefore, it is much more challenging to trick people into moving from Germany. Of course, the situation was quite the opposite more than ten years ago.