1855 United States Tycoon

By the end of 1872, the steel plant, one of the most important investments of the Macdonald Consortium in France, had begun to enter the stage of full-scale production. The newly built blast furnaces and steelmaking furnaces are all running, thick smoke billowing from all the chimneys in the factory area, and the roar of various machines is even more earth-shaking.

Compared with factories in United States, the steel mills of the Macdonald Consortium in France are not inferior in technology, but compared to those in United States, their opponents are not the same. In United States, when McDonald Steel first emerged, most of the steel companies in United States were technologically backward and small in scale. Therefore, when facing McDonald Steel, whether by pure economic means or by adding various non-economic means, they are not opponents of McDonald Steel, and they have almost no resistance. But in France, the situation is different. Before McDonald Steel entered France, there were already many steel companies in France, and some companies were already very large and had considerable social influence. If the rolling model in United States is adopted, the struggle may be much fiercer.

And unlike in the United States, at that time, the McDonald Consortium not only controlled the steel plant, but also the iron ore. In France, such conditions are obviously not available. Fortunately, the investment boom between the United States and Germany and the difficulties of French steel companies after the Franco-Prussian War gave the Macdonald Consortium an opportunity to buy many relatively large steel companies and mines at relatively low prices. The original owners of things have the opportunity to take the money they get from selling these companies and pounce them into the super pit of the speculative market in the United States or Germany to make a lot of money or lose money. (The latter is obviously more)

In this way, the most troublesome struggle against the biggest snakes was successfully avoided, and the rest seemed to be advancing forward. But the fact is far from the case, because the bought factory has also brought another trouble, that is, the original trade union has basically come over intact.

Industrial workers, especially those who have been trained, are the treasures of industry. During construction, many things can be quickly built, such as factories and machines, but it is not so easy for a qualified industrial worker team. To train a team of industrial workers from scratch, regardless of the economic cost, the time cost is not small. In many cases, it is not that the lower the wages of workers, the lower the labor costs. For example, in later generations, there are more countries where workers' wages are lower than that in the rabbit country, and it is not impossible that there are more young and middle-aged people than the rabbit country. For example, the Baixiang country is like this. But if you really want to go to the Baixiang country to engage in industry, you will find that even if you don’t consider the gap in supporting facilities, as far as workers are concerned, the untrained Baixiang country workers have lower wages, but their work efficiency is lower, so Finally, when you calculate the labor cost, you will be surprised to find that the labor cost in the Baixiang country with lower wages is higher.

Especially in this era of Scrooge, all kinds of advanced testing equipment and automation equipment are basically non-existent. Many production processes, quality control and so on are completely dependent on the technology and experience of the workers. At this time, a well-trained team of industrial workers is very important. So the Macdonald consortium kept the entire workforce.

However, this has brought about a consequence, that is, the factory's original trade union organization has been retained intact, which has become a major problem. It should be said that the wages of French workers are not comparable to those of United States workers. Therefore, if the Macdonald family is willing to raise wages a little bit, stabilizing these workers should not be a problem. However, the environment in France is different from that in United States. In the French market, the competition is more intense than in the United States.

In United States, tariff levels have not been low since the end of the Civil War. If foreign steel is loaded on a ship, a freight is paid, it is shipped to United States, and a tariff is paid, the sales price will naturally rise a lot. In addition, if the packaging is not good, the quality will be reduced if it is corroded by sea fog at sea. Therefore, McDonald Steel can naturally sell steel at a relatively high price, and even such a relatively high price is enough for McDonald Steel to defeat domestic and foreign opponents. But in Europe, the situation is different.

Although French domestic competitors are basically out of the question now, in France, the competitiveness of steel in other countries is still very strong. In order to borrow enough money to quickly redeem the northern provinces, France had to open a part of its market to other countries. Moreover, after the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, the prospect of the collapse of the French steel industry is already obvious. And is there any good way for the French? Under this circumstance, the French simply adopted a smashing attitude, sacrificing the interests of the steel industry, and in exchange for the possible development of other industries.

As a result, French tariffs, which were originally not high, were further reduced, which made Scrooge's steel companies have to face the competition between British and German steel companies. When dealing with German competitors, Scrooge could also provoke the French to boycott German goods by bribing the media and propagating hatred of the Germans (which was simply too easy at the time). But in the face of competition from the British, this trick is not so easy to use.

Of course, Scrooge still has advantages in technology. The cost advantage brought by open-hearth steelmaking, coupled with the possibility of using inferior iron ore, can theoretically bring part of the cost advantage. However, in fact, the situation is a little different. First of all, although there are some technologies to remove Impurities, high-quality iron ore is after all high-quality iron ore. The British have the best high-quality iron ore in the world, so in terms of the quality of the steel produced, it is obviously better than the steel produced by McDonald with inferior iron ore, and considering the reputation and marketing of the British Strength, if the price difference is not particularly large, then the buyer may really be willing to buy British steel. In addition, although the price of inferior iron ore should be relatively low theoretically, because the inferior iron ore in France is still difficult to mine, it turns out that it is inferior iron ore, but the mining cost is higher than that of other high-quality iron ore. high. This has also led to the fact that no matter how low the price is, these inferior iron ore will not be much cheaper. Coupled with the use of these inferior iron ore, the steelmaking process will be more complicated, and more other materials will be required. As a result, the total amount of steel is finally produced. The cost is not much lower than that of British Steel. Even if it were not for the cost advantage brought by the open-hearth steelmaking technology, the cost of the French part of McDonald Steel might be higher than that of the British. In fact, if there is a super freighter with mining technology like that of later generations that transports high-grade hematite from British Australia for smelting, the cost is definitely lower than that of mining in Europe. It is precisely because of this that later generations of the rabbit country then went crazy for steelmaking, and the world steel production rankings became such as "the first rabbit country, the second rabbit country. I went to the province where so and so came, the second The three of me went to Sugar Mountain in the province where XX came..." At that time, most of the iron ore used was high-quality iron ore from the Kangaroo Country and the Samba Football Country. This is actually not because you want to protect your own minerals, but because using these high-quality iron ore is even cheaper than using self-produced low-grade iron ore.

Precisely because of such fierce competition, what else can be done to win in the competition besides lowering the wages of workers? What did you say? You can squeeze your profits! My God! Do you know what you are talking about? If it is not for profit, who wants to open a factory? The purpose of building a factory has never been to produce more materials that can be used by humans, but to make profits. Scrooge is here to make money, not to do charity! Even if Scrooge wants to do charity one day, that is to make more money through charity!

Moreover, the rules of this world do not allow a capitalist to have such a conscience. Under the capitalist system, economic crises will recur, and in every crisis, some companies will be eliminated. What kind of companies will be eliminated first? Of course it is less profitable. Therefore, at any time, when faced with the multiple-choice question of whether to cut wages or cut profits, capitalists do not actually have more choices. Because those who choose to cut profits will be eliminated mercilessly by this social mechanism. Therefore, any capitalist who can stand tall must be full of conscience. People who are not like this have long been eliminated by society.

Therefore, the French part of McDonald Steel must lower the wages of workers to ensure competitiveness. But direct pressure on wages will only directly lead to conflicts between enterprises and workers.

...

"Rubyto, do you feel it?" one worker said to another on the way from work.

"What do you feel?" Rubito asked.

"It's just that our workers seem to have dropped a lot. Recently, several of our workers have been fired."

"It seems to be a bit, but is it not a common thing for the factory to fire employees? Those guys were fired only when they made a mistake at work. Is there anything wrong with that? It's just that they recruited too few new workers. , And technology..." Obviously, Rubito hadn't fully understood yet.

"Oh, Rubito, you really... I heard the rumor and said it was..."

...

"Very good. Your performance during this period is very good. I am very satisfied." Factory Director Louis said to those standing in front of him. Among the workers, 50% to 80% of non-technology workers are expelled. If you can complete the task on time, everyone will get a bonus!"

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