Chapter 406: The Black Supply Chain
September 3, 1872.
United States, 11 Wall Street.
New York Stock Exchange – newly relocated to its Wall Street address last year, boasting the world's newest, largest, and most luxurious trading hall.
In these few years after the American Civil War, the United States saw unprecedented prosperity thanks to railroad expansion, westward development, and major industrial growth in the East.
Foreign capital swarmed into this vibrant land. Half the total railroad investments in America came from foreign sources alone. From 1865 to 1871, over six thousand miles of track were built—more than a hundred times what East Africa built in the same period. What's more, in 1872, each railroad company planned to construct nine times its 1865 mileage. Railroad investment fever was at an all-time high, with huge sums pouring into railway projects via the New York Stock Exchange.
Railroad construction, in turn, drove demand for steel, coal, and oil. Countless factories sprang up—sometimes blindly, sometimes crazily. The market's appetite was like an endless black hole, insatiably devouring all resources.
No. 1 Canal in East Africa started work on three sections simultaneously. It had already dug three kilometers in the Third Town's jurisdiction. Since it lay on the alluvial plain between the lower Wami River and Little Rhine, the soil there was soft and thick, free of many rocks, making the job fairly simple. In contrast, Canal No. 2 and Canal No. 3 were situated near foothill alluvial fans, where workers would inevitably face large stones and gravel.
To expedite Canal No. 1's excavation, Ernst purchased sixty thousand sets of high-quality iron shovels and pickaxes from the German Hechingen Household Goods Company's factories at a premium price.
Though it was from his own company, the price certainly wasn't cheap. The quality, however, was reliable. Most "German goods" of this era were known for imitation and sloppy workmanship, while the Hechingen consortium's companies did marginally better.
Because Ernst insisted on standards, the consortium's businesses had fairly strict, unified production guidelines, yielding better quality but making affordability unlikely.
With a serious approach to products, the Hechingen Household Goods Company unsurprisingly faced knockoffs. Their best defense, apart from brand strategies, lay in having their own dedicated stores, which also explained the existence of Hechingen-owned supermarkets. Items purchased from these official stores tended to be genuine. If a bargain-hunting customer ended up with a counterfeit from elsewhere, that wasn't the consortium's responsibility.
Given most workers and farmers in Europe earned so little, their first choice was inevitably low-cost tools, even if that meant poor quality. They might strengthen or patch them in a smithy, extending their life another few years.
Because Hechingen Household Goods owned a small share of Europe's low-end market—and the mid-to-high end wasn't huge—it ended up having East Africa buy some of that mid-to-high end output. Under East Africa's semi-planned economy, the government demanded sturdier products, with less variety but reliable durability.
As they say, "To do a good job, you first need good tools." East Africa's land hadn't been developed in millions of years—without some advanced equipment, the difficulty would be overwhelming.
The excavated earth from the canals was piled on both banks. Some workers with wheelbarrows delivered soil to the banks, while others flattened it out.
King Constantino personally walked into the riverbed to observe laborers at work. His guards were extremely alert, surrounding him but keeping some distance so as not to spoil the king's experience.
The supervisors were also cautious, some carrying sidearms in case of an emergency. Constantino hadn't announced his visit, so they had no idea they were seeing a major figure. Their caution was sensible.
Constantino said, "No need to be tense. My safety is in my guards' hands. You may continue working as usual."
So with a nod from the canal supervisor, they resumed supervising the laborers.
"Those clothes on the workers look somewhat…" Constantino noted uncertainly.
"Yes, Your Majesty. The old designs were discontinued, but the machines used to make them are still around, so we repurpose them to produce short-sleeved shirts and shorts for these laborers."
The "old designs" referred to the simple Prussian-style uniforms that once were standard issue for every East African immigrant. They were no longer made or handed out free, since nowadays East African citizens could buy new-style work clothes with Rhine Thalers from official stores.
However, the old machinery had been kept, used specifically to clothe the native laborers—East Africa's sense of decency wouldn't let them work stark naked.
While that cost the government something, the payoff was worth it: The slave trade was under tight scrutiny, and a key identifier of illegal slave-ships had always been carrying Black slaves with no clothing. By giving these "laborers" clothes, East Africa could circumvent certain checks.
Those clothes would also save American buyers some hassle—no need to spend more on cloth. Once they arrived, they were ready for field labor.
Thanks to the new partnership with Haiti, East Africa's own slave trade was thriving. They sold slaves already "employed" in East Africa, many with multiple skillsets, at prices even lower than old-time slave markets. Sometimes slaves with minor defects were given away in batches for free—plantation owners in the southern U.S. couldn't be happier.
Moreover, Haitian authorities now issued "labor certificates" for them, letting southern planters skirt federal bans and legally keep slaves. They themselves also made money as middlemen, supplying cheap labor to northern factory owners. The East African "three-to-five-year domestication program" turned them into well-disciplined slaves no more disobedient than Chinese, Indian, or Italian workers—yet even cheaper. It was further fueling the ongoing railway boom in the U.S. and Canada.
At the East African Immigration Office, they'd even created a peculiar institution called "The Haiti Immigration Bureau"—officially Haitian, but not existing on Haitian soil. After all, Haitian territory is wide open to the world, needing no special restrictions.
East Africa's government issued an entire set of documents for slaves going to the Americas, including bilingual English-French certificates under the Haitian government's new "talent recruitment" plan—allegedly to boost Haiti's economy by drawing immigrants globally. Outside Africa, nobody responded.
Did Haiti's economy grow? Yes—dramatically. Everyone there could grab a cut from the slave trade, even ordinary Haitians. With some money, they too could marry and own slaves—assuming they were confident they could suppress potential revolts. If they needed help, East Africa offered "buy slaves, get guns."
With the Dreyse rifle now standard in East Africa, older firearms had to go. And with the imminent phasing out of the Dreyse, the old rifles became even less useful. So with a supply of weapons and consistent flows of new slaves, Haiti's plantations were thriving again—just like the French colonial era, except now Haitian planters put these East African Blacks (not their fellow West African Haitians) to work at the whip's end.
To help Haiti's slave enterprise, Ernst planned on gifting some older vessels from the East African navy, including two Zanzibar sailing warships. After all, East Africa could handle shipping slaves to Haiti, but from Haiti to the U.S., Haitian owners had to manage on their own. Haiti's meager naval capacity made that difficult.
Even with East Africa's donated ships, it wasn't enough. So East Africa told (ordered) the Sultanate of Zanzibar to scrap some of its old vessels. Over these years, the sultanate, supported by East Africa, had made plenty of money. Many Zanzibari merchants had upgraded to new ships; their old ones were idle, so they were handed over to Haiti. That included a dozen warships from Zanzibar's navy. Early on, East Africa only took two warships from the mainland part of Zanzibar's navy, leaving a dozen near Zanzibar Island essentially untouched.
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