Chapter 602: Conversation between husband and wife
In the past life, the rubber planting industry has always been in a tepid state. Of course, it was mostly restricted by conditions. In other words, this kind of cash crop is relatively pretentious, difficult to maintain, and is restricted by geography and has high risks.
However, the market demand is huge and the supply has always been in short supply. According to Ernst, even if the planting scale is expanded ten times, it can still be swallowed up by the market, because its performance is too superior and it can replace many materials.
Karina found Ernst's thinking to be very out-of-the-box and interesting. She said: "Even in the tire business, I think it can be very big. After all, this kind of hollow pneumatic tire can be applied to many vehicles. If all carriages were replaced with hollow pneumatic tires, that would be an astronomical figure.”
Ernst held Karina's little hand, squeezed it, and said: "That's natural. If nothing else happens, many of the mainstream wheels used in future vehicles will be replaced with hollow pneumatic tires. They are easy to replace and repair and improve vehicle stability. , improve vehicle comfort... there are many advantages. And there are so many horse-drawn carriages in Europe. The economic value behind this market alone is an astronomical figure. Although horse-drawn carriages will be eliminated by cars in the future, this period may last for at least thirty years. More than a year.”
The time Ernst mentioned is extremely conservative. Even in the 21st century, animal-drawn vehicles will not be replaced. The number of cars in many countries is very impressive. In some African countries and regions, an 18th-hand car can be used as a rental. car use.
Of course, Ernst was mainly talking about rural areas. When he was working in Africa, there were still a lot of cars in African cities.
But this is just an appearance, because many people who work in Africa basically work in cities, and the urbanization rate in Africa is very low. The vast majority of the population lives in rural areas, and there are even many tribes with primitive societies.
However, many people in the Far Eastern Empire still have a strong stereotype of Africa. If we simply use gross national product as the standard, many African countries are actually doing better than Southeast Asia. In addition, South America is actually about the same as Africa, but Readers always feel that South America is richer than Africa. This may be the reason why South America has a giant country like Brazil. However, Nigeria, which has a relatively large economy in Africa, is much smaller than Brazil, but its actual population is similar to Brazil. In the early 200 million.
Karina was very happy to hear Ernst's recognition of her, so she then asked: "Then when do you think cars will replace horse-drawn carriages and become a very common thing on the street!"
Ernst thought about it carefully. It was difficult to predict East Africa because he might be a bit arrogant if he predicted it. Instead, he could make some calculations based on his previous life.
“Europe and the United States should popularize cars faster. I think cars should be available in many big cities around the 2020s, especially in several powerful countries.” Ernst replied.
But Karina was not completely satisfied with this answer. After all, he was now the Crown Princess of East Africa, so he wanted to hear Ernst's predictions for East Africa.
“Dear, where are we in East Africa?”
“What is the specific time?”
Ernst raised his eyebrows and said silently: "If I could know the specific time, then I would not be human, but our East African economy is special, and the early development of the automobile industry should be very fast." East Africa's economy has many restrictions and flexibility It is not strong and not suitable for diversified development, but it can mobilize a lot of resources and has strong coordination ability, which is very suitable for increasing production. Anyway, people in the 19th century were not very particular about aesthetics and focused more on quality of industrial products. This is a relatively friendly environment for East Africa. market environment.
Companies like those in East Africa do not cut corners on many products. This is the characteristic of the public economy. Of course, the world cannot be black and white, but there is white within black, and there is black within white, so corners are cut. There are definitely behaviors, but most of them are caused by employees' sloppy operations.
"I plan to build several factories along the coast first, specifically for automobile manufacturing. Now some factories in Europe are ready, and many parts suppliers have been found, so East Africa is still a step slower than Germany, but this time There is nothing we can do about it. After all, our industrial base is much weaker than that of the German region, so we can only do it step by step."
Karina: "Then why not build a factory in Mbeya City? I heard you say that Mbeya City's industrial base should be the best in East Africa, right?"
Although Karina is the Crown Princess, she also knows the national conditions of East Africa very well. Because East Africa does not have as many nobles and relatives as Europe, and there are few banquets and entertainment events, Karina sometimes helps Enns. Special processing of some files.
"This is true, but the automobile industry is relatively broad. Many of our parts need to be imported from Europe, so building a factory on the coast has a geographical advantage. As for Mbeya, he can participate, but he will mainly be responsible for the supply of some parts. Just like car tires, this is the advantage of Mbeya City.
As for the development of the inland automobile industry, we need to wait until East Africa regains its independent design and R&D capabilities before making a decision. Now we can only accept the technology spillover from the German region in order to get a share of the automobile industry, and let the East African automobile industry get rid of the German It is very difficult for an enterprise to develop independently, and it requires many detours. "
Without professional talents, there will be no innovation and R&D capabilities. Even if the East African automobile industry is copied directly from the German region, it can only temporarily alleviate the problem and cause huge waste. Therefore, it is better to be on the coast to facilitate technical exchanges between East Africa and the German region. , cooperate and develop collaboratively, and wait until the time is right to develop the inland automobile manufacturing industry.
"And I have other ideas. You just saw a sample of the car. In fact, I pay more attention to the two new types of vehicles, tractors and trucks. These two things have as much impact on the industrial and agricultural production in East Africa as railways. After all, cars are a bit flashy now. .”
Karina knew about tractors. Steam tractors are a relatively popular new thing in Europe, but they are only popular because there are no better alternatives. As for trucks, Karina has no idea at all, so she asked: " What’s a truck?”
"You can think of it as an enlarged version of a car, or think of it as a horse-drawn carriage or an ox-cart with a bucket. The horse-drawn carriage that pulls people is very luxurious and has a compartment, while the animal-drawn cart that pulls goods is not so elaborate, and is almost the same as a truck. It also has the same function, but its power source is somewhat similar to that of a car. It can pull goods as long as it is refueled, and its load capacity is very large. Although it is not as good as the railway, it is more flexible than the railway. It does not require rails and can run on flat ground. , and it has strong military functions and can be used to transport troops or pull weapons and military supplies. In short, it is a very important thing."
Karina has a general idea in mind, but the specific effect will not be known until the final product is released. Unlike tractors, steam tractors are very similar in appearance to later tractors and can be used as an intuitive reference.
(End of this chapter)