Fox of France

The sale of factories to the Americans was no big deal to the French. So the negotiations between the two sides went very smoothly. Of course, order steel from France, and then go to the United States to make cannons, and then consider that because of the supporting facilities, scale, and the gap in workers' wages, the cost of steel cannons made by the United States is obviously much higher than that of the French. Steel guns made in Europe.

What's more, do the bosses of American arsenals really not love money because of "patriotism"? If so, why didn't they love the motherland "United Kingdom" in the first place? How did the "United Kingdom" oppress them and violate their freedom? Isn't it just a little more tax for them? If you collect a little more tax, you will be "give me freedom or give me death", and you want them not to make money? how can that be possible?

Therefore, it is almost certain that the price of American-made cannons sold to the American army must be much higher than the price of French shipping to North America. Possibly even more than the cannon the British sold to the Indians via Canada.

It wasn't something the French had to think about, though, or even Robert Livington, who didn't have to pay anyway.

And perhaps because the United States is far away in the New World, the danger to France is limited, and the two countries have always been friendly, and the French asking price is not high, so the deal was quickly finalized. The US government ordered an annual output from France. A steel cannon factory with two hundred cannons, and a hydroelectric power plant.

This is the first time that France has exported a complete hydroelectric power plant abroad. However, considering that the relevant science has been made public, exporting such factories is actually not a big problem.

As for the price issue, Joseph explained it this way:

"In the arsenal of the United States, all raw materials must be imported from us, and all technicians must rely on us. The same is true for power stations. So in the future, we can get all the money back through services. If we directly ask for a high price , it scares them away, which is not good.”

This is actually a trick that some companies in later generations have played badly. What kind of machine is sold at a loss, and the consumables are earned back; what kind of machine does not make money, and the maintenance is earned back-in fact, it is all a routine. There is even such a reader-style story circulating in later generations:

"At the beginning of the 20th century, the American Ford Company was in a period of rapid development, and workshops and workshops were quickly built and put into use.

Customer orders are filling the offices of Ford's sales offices. Every Ford that just rolls off the assembly line has a lot of people waiting to buy it.

Suddenly, a motor in the Ford company broke down, and almost the entire workshop could not operate, and related production work was also forced to stop.

The company dispatched a large number of maintenance workers for repeated inspections, and invited many experts to check, but they couldn't find out where the problem was, let alone repair it.

The leaders of Ford were really furious. Stopping for one minute, let alone one day, would be a huge economic loss for Ford.

At this time, someone proposed to invite Steinmenz, a famous physicist and electrical expert, to help. Everyone heard that it made sense, and hurriedly sent someone to invite Steinmenz.

Steinmenz asked for a mat to lay next to the motor, and listened intently for three days, then asked for a ladder, climbed up and down for a long time, and finally drew a line with chalk on a part of the motor, and wrote: "Here's an extra 16 turns of the coil."

People did it, and amazingly, the fault was eliminated! Production resumed immediately!

The manager of Ford asked Steinmenz how much he wanted, and Steinmenz said, "Not much, just $10,000."

$10,000? Just draw a line! At that time, Ford's most famous salary slogan was "$5 a month", which was a very high salary at that time, so many experienced technical workers and excellent engineers from all over the United States flocked from all over the country for the $5 monthly salary. Come.

1 line, 10,000 US dollars, the sum of the income of an ordinary employee for more than 100 years!

Seeing everyone's confusion, Steinmenz turned around and opened a bill: draw a line, $1; know where to draw a line, $9,999. "

The story itself is full of loopholes, so it’s really not a good story. For example, Ford’s daily salary was already $2; for example, it doesn’t take so much time and money to change a motor, and it can definitely save a lot of money. Precious time; for example, if the problem is that the coil is wound too much, the motor will either not have a problem at all, or it will not turn at all, and it will never have a problem after using it for a period of time...

In general, this story is full of the stupid smell peculiar to the rumors created by scholars and literati who did not understand any scientific knowledge in the late 20th century and early 21st century. And the wolves on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau used high-end tactics such as luring the enemy to go deep, encircling from multiple sides, enclosing points to fight for aid, etc., and ate a company of PLA in one breath; Hundreds or even thousands of wolves, more than tens of times the number of wolves in the world's largest wolf corps) and Nihong little friends, with a load of 20 kilograms, walking 100 kilometers a day (overwhelming the standard of the US special forces ) is quite similar.

However, this story really tells a way to make money, that is, as long as you use our things, when maintenance is needed, even if it is something as simple as only needing to draw a line, I can do it in one go Pit you a lot of money. So this story is not to tell you that knowledge is wealth, but to tell you that there is another good way to make money by after-sales and technical guidance.

What's more terrible is that once the Americans use French production equipment, the entire supporting facilities, and the entire maintenance must follow French standards. Considering the technical capabilities of the United States at this time, the maintenance of the entire system should not be used at all. French parts. Hehe, the whole set of factories is worthless, but the disassembled parts are worth more than each one. In addition, if you dare to use non-genuine parts, for example, you use a counterfeit screw cap on the drilling machine, huh, huh, then the entire system, including the warranty of the power generator, will be gone. In other words, if the Americans buy these things back, it is equivalent to boarding a thief ship, and there will be more chances of being sucked blood in the future.

However, Americans at this time were generally too simple to see Joseph's sinister intentions, so that they happily felt that they had made a good deal.

After signing with the Americans, the Austrian talent that the three brothers had been looking forward to finally came. However, the Austrians once again surprised the three brothers, because Shinra did not follow the example of Dongluo and Luluo, set up an arsenal, and then set off an arms race. They just want to know the production capacity of the factories of the Russians and Turks. In order to formulate corresponding plans to purchase or lease weapons from France.

"Anyway, even if Austria can produce these things by itself, the output and quality are definitely not comparable to the original goods from France. If this is the case, why bother to build a factory to manufacture them? However, our country is not as good as your country's power plants. I am very interested in technology related to electric lights. Unlike weapons, these things should be really good things that can make money.” Metternich, the Austrian ambassador to France, said to Napoleon at a ball.

"Mr. Ambassador, what do you mean, you want to use our technology to produce electric lights, and then compete with us for the market?" Napoleon frowned.

"Your Excellency the First Consul, you have misunderstood what we mean. You see, it is the same principle as the cannon I mentioned earlier. How can we compete with your factory in other European markets, but in some places For example, in Austria and some parts of the Balkans, for various reasons, your country’s business is not particularly easy to do there, and it takes time to develop those markets. I think it’s better to cooperate with us. We Wouldn't it be better to develop together?"

Napoleon thought about it, but he didn't immediately reject Metternich, because he was not particularly proficient in business matters. He felt that it was best to go back and discuss this kind of thing with Joseph before making a decision. So he said to Metternich: "Mr. Ambassador, I think we need more time to think about this question, and I can't give you an answer immediately. But the temporary purchase or lease of artillery you mentioned earlier, I would like to serve as a One thing I may need to remind you, a professional soldier, is that while guns can be bought or rented quickly, soldiers who use them are not readily available."

"Ah, that's the question." Metternich said, "We hope that your country can help us train a group of gunners. Of course, it would be even better if your country can provide gunner rental services..."