Chapter 647: The Arms Dealer Who Doesn’t Do His Business

  Chapter 633 The Unprofessional Arms Dealer

Kenya is located in the tropical monsoon zone, with plains along the coast and plenty of rain, highlands in the center, and desert in the north.

Because of the rich mineral resources, in several years ago by the Austrian colonial government into the scope of rule, but the real development is only the coastal plains, other areas are only nominal rule.

Kenya is bordered by Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, Ethiopia and South Sudan to the north, and the Indian Ocean to the southeast.

Because of its unique geographic location, Kenya’s local commerce and trade boomed immediately after the Second Ethiopian War broke out.

Every day, a large amount of supplies, from here into the Ethiopian region. This trade line is also credited with the ability of the Ethiopian army to hold out until now.

New Saltu, itself only a colonial stronghold on the Kenyan-Ethiopian border, thanks to the prosperity of trade brought about by the war, has already had the appearance of a small town.

An ordinary manor house in the east of the city is the stronghold of the Austrian arms dealer St. Dels.

At this moment, a young man burst in panting: “Mr. St. Durs, something bad has happened! News has just come from home that the British are attempting to use diplomatic means to cut off our trade with Ethiopia.”

The middle-aged man in a fancy dress’s face sank, then reacted, “Maus, slow down, the sky hasn’t fallen yet.”

After calming down a bit, Maus: “It is said that because the front line is blocked, the British army is slow to make a breakthrough, and the domestic public opinion is under too much pressure.

A week ago, the despicable British sent a diplomatic note to the government in Vienna asking for our cooperation in cutting the Ethiopian trade lines.

It’s a shame that they claim to be the guardians of free trade, but when they have a little trouble, they want to break the freedom of trade, it’s just like …….”

St. Dels interrupted, “Alright, I know what’s going on. Sit down and have a cup of coffee first, things aren’t that serious.”

Maus said anxiously, “Mr. St. Durs, in case the Vienna government agrees to the British’s request, our trade won’t be able to go on!”

Cutting off people’s money is like killing their parents, and by blocking the trade line, the British have cut off their money.

Now that the world had been carved up by the colonial empires, the arms dealers were having a hard time, it was not easy to stumble upon a major war, and they were still not allowed to make a fortune, Maus had enough reason to be angry.

St. Durs patted Maus’s shoulder, ”Calm down a bit, Maus. Remember as a qualified arms dealer, you must remain calm at all times.

Things are not as bad as you think, even if the Vienna government agrees to cut off trade with Ethiopia, is our trade route really cut off?”

Maus asked uncertainly, “You mean – smuggling?”

In contrast to normal trade, smuggling was undoubtedly considerably more risky, and getting caught usually resulted in a fine of a fortune.

St. Dels said coldly, “Just know it, why bother to say it? How do we blockade our border with Ethiopia, which is so long from Kenya to Somalia?

Even if the government can do it, but why should they give the British a hand?

I guess the government in Vienna hates it, let this Ethiopia fight for eight or ten years. Can the British still come to our territory to fight smuggling as long as the colonial government is willing to let it go?

I’m more worried about the Ethiopian government not having money in their pockets than I am. The fact that they put up a large amount of physical goods as collateral for the first two trades already says a lot.”

Smuggling is just a basic operation of arms dealers, and the real legal arms dealers are instead a very small minority, usually with a government background.

Ordinary arms dealers who couldn’t smuggle wouldn’t be able to survive in the brutal international competition.

As the leading arms dealer, St. Dulce naturally knew when to trade legally and when to smuggle.

Maus asked uncertainly, “Mr. St. Dels, do you mean that our trade with the Ethiopians, is about to end?”

As a partner, Maus was very aware of how hard it was to find a partner with purchasing power.

If the Ethiopians ran out of money, this business would naturally come to an end. Arms dealers don’t do charity, they do everything for profit.

St. Dels nodded, ”Judging from the current situation, it should still be possible to do it for a few more months. Theoretically, we can still accept land mortgages from the Ethiopians, it’s just a bit risky.”

Territory to offset the payment for goods, this was the usual technique used by European colonizers at the beginning of colonization, when their own strength was insufficient.

Maus instantly woke up, able to be sent out by the family to engage in arms trade, he is naturally not a fool, otherwise he would not be qualified to become a partner with the old and cunning St. Dels.

After hesitating for a few moments, he asked, “Mr. St. Durs, do you want to transform into a colonial merchant?”

These days, the arms trade is not as profiteering as in later times, and arms merchants are naturally not as dedicated, usually doing whatever business makes money.

In addition to engaging in the arms trade, Mr. St. Durs also did overseas trade, for example: transporting the African continent’s specialties to the mainland for sale, or transporting industrial and commercial products backward from the mainland for sale.

These businesses have many competitors and are far less lucrative than the arms trade, so they can only be considered part-time.

St. Durs laughed: “Can’t I?”

“Of course not, it’s just a bit sudden. It’s not easy for colonial merchants nowadays, especially in the inland colonies, many of them are losing money.” Maus explained

St. Derrs shook his head, “It is precisely because of the losses that it is an opportunity. If it was really lucrative, it would have been snatched up by the big shots long ago, and we wouldn’t even be able to drink the soup.

Originally, I was prepared to pay for a colony, but unfortunately those colonization companies are too cunning, and they want a sky-high price for what is clearly a piece of rotten land.

I can only risk the idea of playing the Ethiopian region, and I don’t have a big appetite, I’m satisfied with a few thousand square kilometers of land.

With such a small amount of land, I don’t think the British would have the heart to bother with us. The local natives aren’t a problem either, the biggest trouble is the difficulty in making a profit.

But this is only temporary, land resources are not renewable, but the population is growing, sooner or later the value will be reflected.

Ten years ago Kenya, still a barbaric land, now has 800,000 immigrants, this number is still growing at a rate of 13% per year.

Of course, this is the result of the big immigration policy, this growth rate can only be maintained for four or five years, and will slowly decline later.

But this is also enough, ten years after the population of Kenya region exceeded two million, or has a great possibility.

By then the region immediately adjacent to Kenya, will also follow the benefit. As the intersection of the British and Austrian colonies, as long as you smuggle some goods into the British colonies, it will be enough to recover the operating costs of the colonies.

How about it, Maus? Are you interested in getting involved? If the Anglo-Australian conflict breaks out in the future, we might even become nobles.”

Maus frowned tightly, deep inside he had already spat countless times. Located at the border of the two colonies, once a conflict broke out between the two countries, it would immediately be reduced to a battlefield.

Want to make money? Let’s say we survive first! The vast majority of such adventurers ended up losing their money.

When the Anglo-Australian conflict was at its peak, thousands of people died on both sides every year, and finally the British couldn’t cope with the lack of population before the strife came to an end.

Even so, now the colonial border area between the two countries is the most dangerous zone. A lot of killing and crossing the border, as long as it is safe to run to the other side, cross-border crimes do not too much.

Maus refused, “I’m sorry, Mr. St. Derrs, this matter requires too much resources to be invested, I can’t make the call.”

St. Durs was not disappointed, what he wanted to cooperate with was the family behind Maus, not this one brat.

It didn’t matter if the cooperation didn’t work out, there were too many aspiring second generation youths in Austria, St. Durs thought that his eloquence was still good, and it wasn’t a problem to fool a few collaborators.

This is the sadness of the grassroots, St. Dells struggled hard for more than twenty years to have the capital to join the colonial wave, but unfortunately the best time has long been missed.

Even now, he had to look for collaborators. It was barely enough to run a mature colony on his own with the forces he operated on his own. In this kind of border area, it wouldn’t work without sufficient force.

Including the arms trade, he chose to cooperate with Maus, and that was all in order to utilize the network of contacts behind the other party.

St. Durs said magnanimously, ”No relation, there is no hurry in this matter. If you want to obtain a colony from the Ethiopians, then you must also wait for the other side to run out of water, it’s still early!”

……

(End of chapter)