1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 586, prosperity (5)

Scrooge’s general cargo ship does not refer to the so-called “Charlotte standard cargo ship”, the cargo ship specially prepared to deal with the future unrestricted submarine warfare in Germany. The cargo ship is cheap to build, rapid in production, and speed. Outstanding performance. In future wars, it is undoubtedly the best cargo ship in the world, but it may not be the case in peaceful times. First of all, the design life of this kind of cargo ship is only four to five years. In the war, a cargo ship on the Atlantic Ocean with German submarines generally has no chance to run up to such a service life. Generally speaking, they will If it is sunk within one to two years, it can last up to three years, that is simply a lucky one. However, in an era of peace, a cargo ship may last more than ten years, or even decades. If the design life is only four to five years, it is simply useless. Of course, this is only the design life. It is not impossible to insist on three years of new and old three years of rags and three years of use. For example, in history, after the end of the Second World War, the “free wheels” on the hands of the United States were dealt with to many poor third world countries at the price of selling scraps. In some poor third world countries, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, they even used these “free wheels” with a design life of only four to five years until the 1970s, almost ten times longer than the design life. Some of them have even been converted to passenger ships, anyway, the lives of poor third world countries are cheap.

However, the “free ships” in the hands of the poor third world countries will basically not run ocean routes after the war. They generally only run on calm offshore routes. This is also the new three years for these ships, the old three years, One of the key factors for the tattered 30 years of use. If you still use them to run ocean routes, even the Pacific routes with less wind and waves, it won’t take that long anyway, not to mention that in the current era of Scrooge, the most important routes in the world are still to Europe. The route on the Atlantic Ocean, and the Atlantic Ocean has always been known for its high winds and high waves. Such a route is naturally not suitable for ships that have overdue service.

Of course, after the war is over, it is still good to sell these ships to Asia. At least the Japanese are definitely willing to ask for it. Isn’t it just not safe? The Japanese are worthless anyway. In fact, they did the same when the First World War ended. So much so that in this time and space of Scrooge, many years later, when Japan and the United States fought in World War II, many United States submarine officers and soldiers were surprised to find that the target they needed to attack was actually the same as the second world war. More than ten years ago, the German submarine forces needed to attack almost exactly the same target except for the older ones. After Japan surrendered, these ships were divided up again. Some of them were taken by the United States to test original bullets or something, and some were distributed to the government of the Republic of China, which was also the victorious country, and then were It is widely used in the operations of transporting troops to fight the civil war, transporting gold to Taiwan, and transporting personnel to Taiwan. Of course, this kind of old ships that have been used for decades, especially after the Japanese have been running high-intensity ocean routes for several years, the reliability of these ships is really a problem. For example, on the United States side, these ships were towed to the shooting range and sank several, while in China, there was a “Charlotte Standard Ship” renamed the “Peace Wheel” transporting a group of ships. When the low-level officials and their wife Miss fled to Taiwan, they encountered only a small storm and caused the death of thousands of people.

In addition to life reasons, effective tonnage and fuel economy also determine that this kind of ship is not a good ship in peacetime. In order to facilitate production, the displacement of this ship is slightly less than 10,000 tons. In this way, most of the slipway can be used to produce such ships with a little improvement. However, due to the speed requirements, the length-to-width ratio of this type of ship is slightly larger than that of ordinary cargo ships. This also means that under the same tonnage, this ship can carry less cargo. At the same time, higher speed requires stronger power. In order to be cheaper, the price of the power system has to be lower. The result is that the power system occupies more space than a general cargo ship, which of course further reduces the actual carrying space. Coupled with higher fuel consumption, so in peace times, such a ship will definitely not sell well.Scrooge’s plan is like this. First, he throws a giant cruise ship, which leads to a world-wide giant tanker race. This kind of competition will greatly increase the number of large berths. Once the depression arrives, these giants will be the first to be chopped off among the transport ships, because the task of transporting so much crude oil at one time in the depression will plummet. At that time, these large slipways will immediately be worthless, and you can buy these large slipways that can be used in the new round of battleship competitions after the war at a very low price.

As for the cargo ship side, Scrooge intends to throw out a new technology, this new technology will be able to quickly improve the loading and unloading efficiency of cargo ships, so that the advantages of sea transportation compared with other forms of transportation are suddenly revealed, making more original passes. Goods transported by land are diverted to sea. As a result, the construction of new cargo ships has become hot, and it has led to the construction of more berths. Whether it is more berths or more cargo ships, more steel and more machinery are indispensable, which can bring more income to Scrooge, not to mention the cheap berths after the arrival of the depression. . Prosperity can bring tangible income to Scrooge, but depression can help him consolidate the foundation of the empire and complete the expansion of the empire.

“I love prosperity, but I love depression more.” Scrooge couldn’t help saying to himself in his heart.

…

The shipbuilding boom caused by supertankers gradually increased with the further recovery of the economy, and at this time, a news further boosted people’s enthusiasm for it.

In February 1910, the McDonald Venture Capital Bank and the Cleveland Geological Exploration Company, the most famous geological exploration company of the United States, jointly convened a press conference to announce a news that McDonald’s executives had known for a long time: Under the entrustment of McDonald Venture Capital Bank, Cleveland Geological Exploration Company discovered a super large oil field during the mineral exploration of the private territory owned by McDonald Venture Capital Bank in Alaska.

The news did not cause much sensation at the time, because from an economic point of view, mining this oil field does not seem to be too cost-effective. Because for now, those oil fields in the United States are very sufficient. In contrast, a developer needs a lot of investment in an oil field, including the oil field itself, as well as the port roads that transport it. According to calculations in the Wall Street Journal, at least in the short term, this oil field has no development value at all.

“For now, the greater economic significance of the existence of this oilfield is just to make MacDonald Ventures more collateral.” The Wall Street Journal wrote.

However, the “Wall Street Journal” was wrong. They did not expect that, just two months later, on April 2, 1910, they received another piece of news: The Macdonald Venture Capital Bank and the German government reached an agreement. MacDonald Ventures leased the largest oil field in the United States, together with part of the port in their hands, to the German government for 50 years at a price of only 50 million U.S. dollars. At the same time, it has obtained priority in the procurement of oil facilities and port facilities.

When the news was first received, the editors of the Wall Street Journal thought that they had misunderstood the date. The news seemed to be a day late. But soon, the authenticity of the news was verified.

“God, big news! Big news!” the editor yelled, “The new westward movement – no, is the northward movement about to begin?”

The lack of oil has dragged down the German economy to a large extent. Germans began to look for oil all over the world very early. However, it is a great pity that there is no such thing in the few poor German colonies. Even if other countries or their colonies have this thing, they either refuse to hand it over to the Germans to develop it, or they have already been taken advantage of by other countries. For example, Romania, which is not far from Germany, has oil. However, the damn United States guys are acting fast and terribly. Before the Germans have had time to fully understand the value of oil, they took the lead and took the oil fields over there. I bought it. Later, although the Germans wanted to pay a price to buy Romanian oil fields from the United States guys, the British and French kept playing tricks in the back, so this has always been impossible.

For this reason, the Germans have launched a so-called oil reserve plan. They have established a series of oil depots near the port of Hamburg, intending to establish a so-called “national strategic oil reserve.” However, because they do not control the oil fields in their own hands, almost every time they want to over-purchase a little oil, it will inevitably cause a rise in oil prices in the international market. As a result, the “National Strategic Petroleum Reserve Plan” has been proposed for several years, and the oil reserves are still not enough.

This time, when the people from United States took the initiative to come to sell the oil fields in their hands to the Germans, the Germans were really overjoyed. Of course, the Germans are not fools. They also know that the cost of oil extraction in Alaska is very high. However, after careful consideration, the Germans discovered that some new technologies that have recently emerged have made it possible to develop Alaska oil.

First of all, a company owned by Chinese people has developed oil pipeline transportation technology, which can transport low-viscosity oil through pipelines, thereby greatly reducing the cost of oil transportation by land. According to the samples they obtained, Alaska’s oil also meets this standard. This has reduced the cost of transportation from Alaska’s oil fields to the port, and the emergence of supertankers has also reduced the cost of shipping oil by sea. Therefore, the Germans calculated and found that although the final cost is still a little higher than the international market, according to the habit of the Germans buying oil, the price of oil immediately rises, the more you buy, the more you increase If this price is spread evenly over a long period of time, compared to the international market, it will definitely be much better. Thus, the basic intention was reached.