Chapter 75: The Prelude to the Complete Collapse of the Yankees
January 1, 1868
The New Year is here, and this is the third New Year since Tom Smith came to this world.
America has also undergone earth-shaking changes because of Tom's arrival.
At the Smith Farm, the Smith family celebrated the New Year happily again, but Tom was not here to accompany his family.
Tom was sitting in the office, looking at the bill sadly.
Now the hero company relies on Dah Sing Civil Engineering to operate, but it is constantly losing "hero dollars".
In mining, industry and other industries, hero company has completed perfect internal digestion, and all products are ultimately used in projects such as building roads and bridges.
There is no need to consider sales issues at all.
But agriculture is not good. Now Texas agriculture is highly dependent on imports-imports from the Boston United Fruit Company.
Stimulated by the economic crisis, a large number of small and medium-sized shipping companies sold off their ships. The Boston consortium took the lead, mainly United Fruit Company and Boston's local shipping companies, to acquire all the ships of shipping companies on the entire east coast of the United States. Now the entire west coast of the United States
Shipping was almost completely controlled by the newly formed Boston United Fruit Company.
The Boston Consortium is the earliest and most deeply involved Yankee consortium with the Hero Company, and it is also the Yankee consortium that holds the largest amount of “hero dollars”.
If you have gold, you may not be able to exchange it for hero company products, but you can definitely exchange hero dollars for it.
Based on the strong productivity of hero company, "hero dollar" has already become a "hard currency" that surpasses gold in the United States.
The Boston Consortium relied on sufficient reserves of "hero dollars" to complete its monopoly on shipping during the economic crisis.
On the other hand, Hero Company has only been able to make a little money from fertilizers in agriculture. Unlike the Indians living in caves, all American planters have a lot of arms. It is far more difficult to conquer these planters by force.
Much more than fighting a Civil War.
You know, at the end of the Civil War, the southern planters compromised with the northern factory owners, and they no longer enslaved the black slave Negro in name only.
In fact, the northern factory owners did not massacre the plantation owners and take the land for themselves.
Don’t the northern factory owners want to?
I don't dare.
The same is true for Tom. It is more difficult to kill a thousand Dixie plantation owners than to kill all the Indians in the world. Hero Company simply does not dare to conquer the agricultural production link of the United States by force.
It's just that Tom doesn't dare to do it now. Land reform requires too much support from the people, the people, and the military. Tom is still in the development preparation stage, so it would be inappropriate to rush into it now.
But drastic reform of the American planters has long been on Tom's agenda, and it is a reform that Tom must implement in the future.
If the emperor cannot control all the territory of his country, what is the difference between him and an empty puppet?
It's not just the deeply entrenched agricultural industry that Tom has left out, but the transportation industry as well,
After all, Hero Company is just a "rookie company" in the United States, and it is a one-person stock-holding company that does not raise financing.
The characteristics of hero company have caused local forces in various regions to be extremely resistant to hero company. Therefore, hero company can only control its own company's production place - Texas.
The control of transportation links and sales areas has always been a weakness.
This is why the hero company has not fully entered the frontline markets across the United States, has not actively participated in the retail link, and has not participated in the most profitable link of products.
In just six months, the new Boston United Fruit Company, relying on its monopoly position as the only ration channel in Texas, has raised the price of agricultural products many times.
The Yankee farms in the north were also firmly controlled by the Yankee forces represented by the Boston Consortium. Most of the Dixie farms were cotton plantations and there was no food.
All of this ultimately led to soaring food prices in Texas.
Looking at the grain prices that increased by more than 40% last month, Tom was a little unhappy, unhappy with these wanton Yang guys.
"xxx, these xxx Yang guys, aren't they just relying on the abundance of ships?"
“One price per day, right?”
"Before, I could accept an increase of about 10% every month. Now! 40%! Are we planning to double it next month?"
"xxxx..."
This is the first time that Tom has been choked by others since he became big. Grain is different from other commodities. The production area must be firmly controlled for a long time, and it is a large-area production area to satisfy Texas.
Add the food needs of tens of millions of people in the Second Empire of Mexico.
Now Tom has a piece of "land" that was destroyed by his own scorched earth war, but has no agricultural foundation. He can only be led by the Yankees to buy these agricultural products at high prices.
The angry Tom cursed a few words, but reluctantly signed his name on the bill.
This kind of concession is inevitable. Hero Company has no ships and the railway is only under construction. It cannot support the food needs of tens of millions of people in Texas and the Second Empire of Mexico.
Who is Tom?
How can the "new era" capitalists who can blow up but not shoot, and rob but not buy, endure the feeling of being strangled by others?
After finding a "market" to maintain factory production, how could he continue to endure the shameless price increases of these "middlemen"? Tom was going to flip the table!
"You like asking for money, right? Then I'll give you money!"
"Secretary, please notify John and ask him to increase the price to purchase all grains from all over the world, including meat, fruits, grains...as long as they can satisfy hunger, we will purchase them all!"
"Even if it's a 500% premium, no, even if a piece of rice costs hundreds of millions of dollars, you still have to buy it for me!"
"I'm going to eat up all these fat and oily profiteers."
Tom handed the bill he had just signed to the female secretary next to him and asked the female secretary to hand over John. At the same time, he gave this order that Milia did not understand at all.
In the eyes of the female secretary, wouldn’t this behavior encourage the Boston United Fruit Company to continue raising prices?
Can we really eat all these profiteers?
The female secretary didn't say it out loud. She knew her position very clearly. She was just a dispensable tool in this kind of thing.
Seeing the female secretary quietly exiting the office, Tom took out the gold fake cigarette and took a few deep breaths of the filtered air.
"These Yang guys just don't learn a lesson."
"You like money, right? Then I'll give it all to you."
"I want to see if you have the life to take the money and whether you have the life to spend it."
Tom twisted the golden fake cigarette hard on the wall several times. Tom was so angry that he twisted the butt of the golden fake cigarette out of shape.
Tom came to his senses and quickly stopped this ridiculous behavior.
"Another one was screwed up. It looks like I'll have to customize another batch later."