1855 United States Tycoon

"Scrooge, do you think we are going to build more factories and continue to expand production?" Carol asked.

"Of course." Scrooge certainly knew what Carol was worried about. He was worried that the current enthusiasm would be unsustainable. If more steel plants are built now, once the economic bubble bursts, the demand for steel It will drop drastically, and by that time, these new steel plants may become a burden.

"Don't worry, Carol." Scrooge said, "It should be a while before the economic bubble bursts. And even if the economy collapses, it will be the other steel companies that die first. Then we have our turn. Besides, In the current period of time, most of us have already made money from the new factory. It’s not good anymore. Like the French, it’s not bad to tear down the factory and move to France."

"Scrooge, there are already factories in France that are being rebuilt." Carol reminded, "But not long ago, some Asians came to the door and wanted to buy steel plants, and then they could sell them the excess. ."

"Well, this is also a way." Scrooge said, "How is the situation in France? In addition, how is the confidentiality work done on technology?"

...

Pierre got up just before genius, and her mother-in-law Matilde woke up earlier, and had already prepared breakfast for him—just a few slices of bread. Matilde used to have a job in a textile factory. Now that the textile factory is closed, Matilde can only earn a small amount of money as a laundryman. The laundrymen’s income is so low that they are not even enough to support themselves, let alone children. The burden of the whole family rested on Pierre. But not long ago, there was terrible news that the iron factory where Pierre was working was about to close due to poor business. This makes Pierre particularly worried. Quite a few steel plants in France have closed their doors, and now I don’t know how long the job will last.

It’s just six o’clock after breakfast, and it’s early autumn now, and it’s still a bit cold in the morning. Matilde added another dress to Pierre before letting him go out. Now, if the husband is ill, it is really a big problem. There is no such thing as a labor protection law in this era. To be precise, before the emergence of the evil empire—the Soviet Union, these things didn't have to be thought of. If he is ill at this time, the boss will definitely fire him without hesitation.

When Pierre arrived at the factory, the door of the factory had not been opened, and Pierre and some other workers had to wait outside.

"Hey, Lucien! Why doesn't the door open?" After waiting for a long time, it was already time to start work, but the door still did not open. Unconsciously, Pierre was a little worried and shouted to another worker named Lucien. road.

Lucien is a worker in the ore crushing workshop. Because the working environment is too noisy, all the workers working there have ear problems, so when you talk to them, you must yell loudly so that they can hear them.

"How do I know! It shouldn't be closed, you see there are still people in the concierge, and there are no policemen." Lucien also yelled and replied. When a person's hearing is impaired, his voice will become louder. He himself sounds like he is whispering to you, but in fact his voice is loud as if thundering. So if a woman travels to this era, she will probably not fall in love with a man like Lucien who works in the ore crushing workshop, because they can say even a lingering love story. It's like thunder. This is totally destroying the atmosphere. Of course, this is only a superficial reason. The more important reason is that most of the women who crossed over are looking for something like Baylor, elder brother, or even the emperor to play some shameful games. Who would fancy a worker who has no money or status?

"There is no police?" Pierre looked around. There were no policemen. This shows that, at least today, there will be no sudden closure of the factory. Because before that, a factory announced its closure and clashed with workers when dismissing all workers. As a result, more than a dozen people died and nearly a hundred people were injured. Later, the government tracked down the incident and shot seven or eight trade union members who were said to be "community remnants" in one go, and declared that all trade union activities in the near future were deemed illegal. Since then, every factory has announced its closure, and heavily armed police will appear. This has almost become the norm. There are no policemen today, so there should be no major changes.

At this time, the factory door opened, and a short fat man walked out. Pierre recognized that this man was Mr. Charles, the manager of the factory.

"Workers friends!" shouted Mr. Charles, "be quiet first and listen to me say a few words."

Although Mr. Charles was short in stature, he was full of breath, and even Lucien could hear his voice clearly. The crowd fell silent, and everyone looked at him.

"I want to tell you a good news, the factory has been sold to a United States company." Mr. Shire said.

"what?"

"Then what shall we do?"

"This is also good news?"

"Do you want to fire the workers?"

"Are they going to dismantle the factory?"

There was almost a bang, everyone was talking about it, and some workers were so disappointed that they would cry. The treatment in this factory is not good, but at least it allows them to support themselves and barely support their families. But in these difficult years, any job opportunity is very rare. Once you are unemployed, it is not so easy to find a job that can support your family.

"Everyone be quiet, be quiet!" Charles shouted, his loud voice suppressing everyone's comments.

"The new boss does not intend to close the factory and dismantle the machinery. On the contrary, they want to expand the scale of production, which means..." Mr. Charles deliberately lengthened his voice. He was satisfied to see that everyone was quiet. Everyone was quiet. Staring at him blankly, this feeling made him feel very comfortable, so he raised his voice again and shouted: "Our factory will not lay off employees!"

"God!"

"Very good!"

"Mr. Charles, this is really good news!"

"Thank you for the news, Mr. Charles!"

The workers happily shouted to Manager Shire. In fact, it’s very easy to make people happy, or even grateful. First, create a feeling that a catastrophe might be imminent, make them panic, and then tell them that it’s just a false alarm, even though they don’t have anything. Get it, but they will be very happy and even grateful to you.

"Everyone be quiet!" Charles continued to shout.

Then the crowd gradually calmed down.

"The new boss is not very satisfied with our equipment, so they decided to make a modification to the equipment. For this reason, the factory needs to be shut down for about a week and will not restart until a week. So the factory has to give everyone a week off... "

This news once again filled the workers with doubts. Is it really for the modification and repair of equipment? Could it be used by factory owners to fool them? The wages for this month have not been settled yet? Could it be that the owner of the factory sold the factory, but was unwilling to pay the wages and planned to run away, right? After a week has passed, when everyone comes back, will the new boss still recognize the wages? The family is waiting for the money to buy bread."Before the holiday, we will settle the previous wages with everyone. After all, the new boss may not recognize this account." Charles said.

...

One week passed quickly. In these days, while Pierre was relying on most of the half-month’s wages to support the family’s expenses, he was also doing temporary work outside to help people move things, or Give others a shot or something, get some money more or less. During this period, Pierre ran to the factory from time to time. Indeed, he could see that there were people coming in and out of the factory, and sometimes there were flat-panel trains dragging something into the factory, and then unloaded and drove out. . There are various noises in the factory from time to time, and it really seems to be making improvements. This also reassures Pierre a little. It seems that the new boss really intends to let the factory continue production. But despite this, Pierre is still very worried about whether the new boss will lay off employees, because layoffs because of a change of boss are almost a cross-industry common practice.

Pierre got up earlier that morning, and rushed to the factory door before dawn. At this time, many people were already waiting there.

At half past six, the factory door opened, and Mr. Charles came out, with a strange tall man beside him. Mr. Charles introduced to the workers: "This is our new factory manager, Mr. John Lawrence. He came to meet you today, and everyone will work under the management of Mr. John."

Director John doesn't seem to speak French well, so he can only speak one sentence in English, and then Charles translates one sentence. That posture, well, if Scrooge saw only one scene here, he would definitely think of the devils and translators in certain movies.

John didn’t want to spend too much time on the workers. He finished the conversation with a few words, and then the workers were issued a new entry and exit gate and a specific workshop pass, and then in each workshop The person in charge led to their workshop. After a while, the roar of the machine came out in the factory...

...

"The wages of French workers are much lower than that of our United States, and the prices of iron ore, coke, and other raw materials there are lower than those in China, but why is the cost of producing steel still lower than that of domestic Domestic high?" Carol couldn't help frowning when he looked at the production report for the first quarter sent back by telegram from France. The steel plant in France is the first stop of McDonald Steel's overseas expansion, so it will naturally receive special attention.

"Isn't this normal?" Catherine explained. "It happened not to be United States after all. If nothing else, the supply of electricity is not universal at all. So in our factories, many things should be done by electric motors. In France, you still have to use a separate steam engine to do it. The cost is far worse. If you want to reduce the production cost of French steel mills to be comparable to that of United States, unless your The power plant that the brothers built in France can be put into production immediately." John Lawrence is Catherine's cousin, so Catherine thinks Own can help him to justify.

"I see, the supporting facilities can't keep up. What the hell was Napoleon III doing all these years?" Carol complained. We can’t count on it after it’s built. Basically, the first phase of the plant will be used to supply power to Paris. Well, it’s said that the electrical side is already looking at the Paris market, and it’s just waiting for the power plant to be built. Let the Parisians light up their lights, use their phones, record players, and radios. Anyway, they have a lot of mess. Where can we take care of our needs now?" Carol looked down again. The report said: "In fact, it's okay. Compared to our domestic production, the cost after shipping and shipping and paying a tariff is still a bit cheaper. It can still make money, but the efficiency of making money is not domestic. High. But you also know the domestic situation that such a frenzied economy cannot last for a long time. It is estimated that it will be the limit if we can persist for a year or two. In contrast, French companies may be able to make more money for us in the future. Alas, the supporting facilities can't keep up..."

If Scrooge heard Carol's emotions, he would definitely agree with it. A major feature of the industrial age is that the division of labor in society has become more and more detailed, and the links between various production activities have become closer and closer, forming a dense whole. In a powerful industrial country, the low cost and high competitiveness of the products produced are often not entirely based on lower wages than others, because in the cost of a commodity, the proportion of wages has become more and more limited. At that time, the reduction of other costs brought about by supporting facilities became the decisive factor. Otherwise, why didn't the capitalists of the British Empire simply move all the factories to India? At least they can move all the textile factories to India, and the wages of Indians are definitely lower. However, if you are really stupid and move the factory there, you will find that when your steam engine needs to burn coal, you actually have to wait for the coal sent from mainland Britain or Australia. Help, because the road from India’s coal mine to your factory was washed out during the rainy season, and it is estimated that it may not be completed well next year. Well, this is why the wages in India are much lower than in the rabbit country, but the industrial products produced are much more expensive than in the rabbit country.

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