African Entrepreneurship Record

Confronted with Ambassador Thomson’s pointed goodwill, Frier easily grasped another layer of meaning in Thomson’s words.

That is, after the war, France and East Africa had reached a tacit agreement to jointly address the pressure from the United Kingdom and the United States, considering that both countries are Anglo-Saxon nations, and they have extensive cooperative space.

The United Kingdom is currently the world’s overlord, possessing fertile and vast colonies like India, Canada, Australia, and holding financial hegemony worldwide, with a hundred years of accumulated technology and experience. Meanwhile, the United States has a powerful industrial base but lacks the raw materials, markets, and technology of the United Kingdom.

In this situation, France naturally needs to be wary of the British, given that for centuries, the United Kingdom and France have been arch-enemies, although in recent years, attention has been diverted by the Germans.

Examining other major powers outside the Allies, Russia’s future is uncertain, Spain’s role is limited, and both the United States and Japan have relatively close ties with the United Kingdom.

France also worries about future isolation, hence it needs to find suitable partners to stabilize post-war France’s international position and discourse power.

Of course, all of this is premised on France being a victorious nation; if France were to lose in the war, these issues wouldn’t be a concern for Thomson and other French officials.

Frier, following Thomson’s words, began contemplating the possibility of cooperation between East Africa and the French.

Indeed, besides East Africa being a German country, East Africa and France have a solid foundation for collaboration.

Though France has always been overshadowed by the British, it ranks only second to the United Kingdom in various aspects, particularly in the financial field. Apart from the British, France is the strongest.

Before the war, France was dubbed "Loan Shark Imperialism," with wealthy French people investing worldwide. Its scale was second only to the United Kingdom.

Russia and East Africa were France’s largest investment countries, and before the outbreak of the war, loans obtained by East Africa from France far exceeded those from other countries.

Such a situation was mainly facilitated by the national conditions of both France and East Africa.

French industrial capital was relatively backward among major powers, especially after the industrial zones of Lorraine and Alsace in the Northeast were seized by Germany, further pushing the development of French financial capital.

Investing domestically carried high costs, and alongside France’s consistently low birth rate and a relatively high living standard compared to other countries, France’s workforce numbers lagged behind those of other major powers.

Since modern times, France has always been a power in Europe second only to the United Kingdom, accumulating significant social wealth. When domestic investment was unfavorable, investing abroad naturally became the first choice for French capital.

Unlike the British preference for productive investment, the French favored issuing public debt to other countries, many of which were high-interest loans, particularly those granted to Russia.

Though these loans were difficult to repay, Russia, a weak link among the imperialists, had no better choice, akin to Zhou Yu playing the yellow cover—one willing to strike, the other to endure.

Apart from Russia, many countries borrowed similar loans from France, hence the title "Loan Shark Imperialism."

Compared to loans like those given to Russia, loans given to East Africa bore much lower interest.

When East Africa borrowed on a large scale, its industrial capacity was already considerable, and the economy was on an upward trend, granting East Africa bargaining power.

Although lending to East Africa was less profitable than other countries, the vast market East African government painted, with debts reaching tens of billions of Rhine Shields, was too tempting for any nation to resist.

Moreover, East Africa always had good international credit, unlike Russia which had a history of default. Coupled with various reasons, East Africa managed to secure substantial investment from France at the time.

Though most debts from East Africa to France are largely repaid nowadays, this certainly does not imply the end of such transactions between the two nations, considering investments in East African industrial products and wartime materials yielded substantial profits for both French merchants and the French Government.

If France were to achieve victory in future wars, it would undoubtedly reap significant benefits, and East Africa, a nation with previous cooperation experience, is likely to become a hotspot for French financial investment again.

It’s similar to the past when the British keenly invested in American industries.

Additionally, as the second-largest Empire in European history, France has a global influence second only to the United Kingdom.

France and its colonies constitute one of the world’s largest suppliers of raw materials and markets, both of which East Africa currently lacks.

Though French industry has not thrived in recent years, they still command international connections and channels second only to the British, such as in luxury goods, a typical industry.

France has long been the world’s trendsetter in luxury goods, impacting deeply in high-end goods and the arts through cultural export and packaging.

This is clearly what East Africa lacks, even though East Africa played an important role during the Second Industrial Revolution, East African industrial products, especially in the consumer goods sector, lack the historical depth and cultural underpinning.

Wanting to enter the high-end consumer goods or cultural commodity sectors, leveraging French channels represents a solid choice for East Africa.

Furthermore, despite limited industrial advancement among the major powers, France maintains substantial advantages in technological and academic fields, consistently being one of Europe’s academic exchange hubs.

Take, for instance, the Curies, pioneers in radioactive material research, illustrating France’s forward-looking stance with ample academic and research accumulation.

In traditional fields where France holds technical advantages, East Africa has urgent needs. East Africa largely missed the Era of the First Industrial Revolution, hence has deficiencies in many areas like machine tools, basic physics, chemistry, steam engine technology, mathematics.

Conversely, these areas happen to be initial advantages of France, a leading nation. East Africa couldn’t surpass countries with centuries of accumulation and experience in all aspects through mere decades of effort.

Hence, after tallying this, Frier grew interested in Thomson’s proposal for cooperation, being open to selling goodwill to the French.

Frier stated, "We in East Africa are certainly open to cooperating more with France on international affairs in the future, working together towards world peace, and also hoping to further strengthen cooperation between our countries in economic, cultural, research and technology, colonial fields."

"As you mentioned, Ambassador Thomson, there is considerable room for cooperation between our nations, particularly against Anglo-Saxon hegemony. We in East Africa respect the interests of your esteemed country."

The friendly relations between East Africa and France hinge on disparaging the United Kingdom, as both nations share similar sentiments and historical backgrounds in facing the British.

Where the French were once arch-enemies with the British, now standing together to counter the German threat, East Africa too had past conflicts with the British over Southern Africa, only smoothing relations in recent years.

Ultimately, East Africa and France have slightly more antipathy and vigilance towards the British, thus disparaging them acts as a catalyst pulling East Africa and France closer swiftly.

While Ambassador Thomson did not secure a commitment from the East African Government, hearing Frier’s words at least showed there is room for cooperation between East Africa and France.

After all, if even someone like Frier in the East African upper echelon exhibited indifference or dislike towards him, France would indeed be in danger.

Now with Frier able to engage amicably, this somewhat indicated East Africa was not likely to participate in the war anytime soon, nor indeed join the Allies’ camp.

Hence to continue wooing East Africa, ensuring its neutrality in the war, Ambassador Thomson decided to present East Africa with some practical "sweeteners" first.