1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 347 Daying's Conscience

"How many firearms can the Sacramento Armory produce every day? And when will my 5100 firearms and related ammunition be delivered?"

After visiting the rifle production workshop of the Sacramento Armory, Hong Mingxiang asked about the production of muskets and when the purchased firearms would be delivered.

"It can produce 120 muskets per day. As for the muskets purchased by Hong Junmen, all the muskets can be delivered after paying the money." Liang Yao gave Hong Mingxiang a clear reply.

The Sacramento Armory's current production capacity of light weapons ranks second only to Springfield Armory and Colt among all American arms dealers.

This is when Liang Yao has not expanded the production line.

Take California's current industrial level and the number of industrial workers.As long as Liang Yao is willing, it is not a problem to spend more money on the Sacramento Armory, expand a production line, recruit more workers, and double the firearms production capacity.

But there is no need for this. The warehouse of the Sacramento Armory currently has a stock of 32500 Walter M1851E rifles and 11000 Walter M1851 stocks.

These stocks are enough for Liang Yao's own use and export. Even if Liang Yao completes the expansion of 4 regiments in a short time and forms the Western Brigade, these stocks of firearms are still more than enough.

Liang Yao will not consider expanding the production capacity of the Sacramento Arsenal unless he receives large orders from the Qing Dynasty, France, or other countries.

The operation of the arsenal must also take into account economic benefits, and blind investment is not conducive to the subsequent healthy development of the Sacramento arsenal.

Knowing that the batch of firearms he ordered could be delivered immediately, Hong Mingxiang was very satisfied with this.

His batch of guns is urgently needed, so he naturally hopes to deliver them as soon as possible.

After leaving the rifle production workshop, Liang Yao took Hong Mingxiang and others to visit the revolver production workshop.

Compared with the huge rifle production workshop, the pistol production workshop is much smaller.The output is also much smaller than the rifle.

The daily output of the revolver is 30 to 40, but these outputs are enough to meet the needs of the army.

In Liang Yao's army, only officers above non-commissioned officers are given a pistol for free, but currently, including the militia regiments in training, there are less than [-] officers above non-commissioned officers in the army.

However, the United States has a tradition of soldiers purchasing weapons by themselves, and many soldiers will also choose to purchase a revolver at their own expense for self-defense.

The revolver produced by the Sacramento Armory is the patent No. 6909 purchased from the United Kingdom, which is also the patent of the Colt revolver. It is a Sacramento version of the Colt revolver authorized by Colt.

The structure and principle of the revolver seem to be relatively simple, but the actual mass production is another matter. The locking, firing, and firing structures are also relatively complicated, and there are still some technical barriers.

Furthermore, if the United States wants to mass-produce revolvers and put them on the market, Colt is a company that cannot be avoided.

Of course, in the field of revolvers, besides Colt, Liang Yao could also find Remington for cooperation.

These two companies are currently the two largest pistol manufacturers in the United States.

However, although the quality of the revolver produced by Remington is not far from that of the revolver produced by Colt, it cannot stand up to Colt's good marketing and marketing, and there are big trees behind it to enjoy the shade.

From private to official in the United States, everyone generally recognizes Colt's revolver.

Think of Colt's revolvers as high-end and reliable, while Remington's revolvers are low-end, low-quality, and unreliable.

Only some experienced users who know more about pistols are willing to choose to buy Remington's revolvers.

These experienced users know very well that the Remington revolver, whose unit price is 1.5 dollars lower than the Colt revolver, has the same performance as the Colt revolver of the same price, and is more cost-effective.

However, there are still a small number of senior users who really understand the inside story, and more gun buyers are still willing to follow the trend and choose the more famous Colt revolver.

Therefore, Remington's revolver sales are very bleak, with sales of only a few hundred per year.

It is far less prosperous than the British market, the US government orders, and Colt, which takes everything from the American private market.

At the same time, the annual sales volume of the revolvers produced by the Colt Company was calculated in units of [-]. If Remington Company had not had the business of shotguns, rifles and bullets, Remington Company would have gone bankrupt long ago.

After comprehensively weighing the pros and cons, Liang Yao still felt that it would be more cost-effective to cooperate with Colt Company.After all, Remington not only has patent disputes, but also the asking price for authorization is not much lower than that of Colt.

Fortunately, the money was not in vain. The Sacramento Armory has three production departments: the rifle production department, the pistol production department, and the cannon production department.

The pistol production division is currently the only profitable production division of the three divisions.

There are two main reasons for this. One is that the Colt revolver was popular in the United States at this time, and it had a good reputation among the people, especially the pioneers in the west. It has also achieved good sales among the people.

The second is that the Colt revolver produced by the Sacramento Armory is more solid than the original Colt revolver, with better workmanship and better matching bullets.Many officers of the US Army and Navy are attracted to purchase revolvers from the Sacramento Arsenal.

Rich officers cherish their lives more than low-level soldiers, and they are very willing to spend money on buying weapons with better performance and reliability for themselves.

However, Sacramento Armory does not intend to continue to produce Colt revolvers licensed by Colt.

Although the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver is very profitable, each time a Sacramento version of the revolver is produced, a considerable licensing fee must be paid to Colt.In the end, there is not much profit margin left for Sacramento Arsenal.

Under Liang Yao's instruction and instructions, the R&D team of the Sacramento Armory's pistol department is currently developing a double-action revolver that can bypass Colt's patent.

After visiting the pistol production workshop, Liang Yao selected 10 Sacramento Colt revolvers packaged in wooden gift boxes as gifts to Hong Mingxiang, and at the same time gave Hong Mingxiang the ivory-handle carved Colt pistol he himself wore. .

This was a special gift from Colt to Liang Yao after he was promoted to Brigadier General.

In addition to Hong Mingxiang, the entourage who followed along the way also received a Sacramento version of the revolver.

Everyone was very happy, and after a test shot at the test site, they thought it was a weapon for self-defense.

"With this kind of renju pistol, even if you meet someone with high martial arts skills, it is difficult to get close!"

Hong Mingxiang's confidant, Kang Enze, was full of praise for the pistol in his hand after he tried firing a bullet from a cylinder.

Hong Mingxiang was also shocked by the rate of fire of the Colt revolver. It was the first time he saw a firearm that could fire 6 rounds in one go.

Although Liang Yao also wore a Colt revolver when he went to Xiangshan before, he never used it in front of other people.Hong Mingxiang didn't pay too much attention to Liang Yao's gun. He didn't expect Liang Yao to wear it around his waist.

"What is the price of this Lianzhu firecracker?"

Before Liang Yao sold Colt revolvers to Hong Mingxiang, Hong Mingxiang had already made up his mind to buy some Colt revolvers.

"It's 16 dollars apiece. As usual, if Hong Junmen buys enough guns, 100 bullets will be given away for each gun." Liang Yao laughed.

The profit of the Colt revolver is very high. Depending on the quality and workmanship of the pistol, the unit manufacturing cost of the Colt revolver ranges from $4 to $9.

Due to the need to pay Colt's licensing fees and patent fees, Sacramento Armory could not compete with Colt in the field of low-end revolvers.

At present, only good quality revolvers are produced, including various fees paid to Colt, and the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver costs $11 a piece.

The price of 18 US dollars is already quite conscientious.

At least more conscientious than Colt.

The trick played by unscrupulous entrepreneurs in a certain country in later generations, at this time, unscrupulous entrepreneurs in the United States have long been proficient in playing.

The Colt revolver comes in three different versions and prices.

One is the foreign trade version sold to the British government. I would like to call it the conscience version. This version is the cheapest, with a unit price of only 12.5 US dollars.The other is a civilian version that is sold to civilians at a unit price of $14.5.The last is the unscrupulous version provided to the federal government, priced at a staggering $25 each.

However, these three versions of the revolver are not only different in price, but also in quality, but the higher the price, the better the quality.

But the higher the price, the lower the quality.

The foreign trade models exported to the British government are of the best quality, while the revolvers supplied to the federal government are of the worst quality.

For such actions, it is not an exaggeration to say that Colt is the conscience of the British Empire.

Colt was also complained and even sued for knowingly supplying inferior weapons to the federal government, but he is still safe and sound.

The reason is self-evident. A business with such a huge profit must have benefit transmission. There are not a few politicians in the north and south who accept political donations from Colt's interests.

During the Whig party campaign last year, General Scott, the army commander, accepted political donations from Colt.

Of course, Liang Yao accepted it himself. Since his colleagues in the army accepted it, if he didn't accept it, it would appear that he didn't fit in. He didn't want to make the relationship with the colleagues in the army too tense.

"Very good, very good, can this pistol be delivered as soon as the long one? If possible, Hong will buy a thousand." This time Hong Mingxiang was very generous, and he didn't think the pistol was expensive.

Of the thousand revolvers, five hundred of them were purchased for himself.After receiving Liang Yao's advice, he sent people to Nanyang to pan for gold, and he made some gold, so he was quite rich.It happened to be able to buy some handy weapons to arm his men who were panning for gold in Nanyang.

After Hong Mingxiang placed the order, Hong Mingxiang's entourage also expressed their desire to buy some.

In the end, a total of 1520 Sacramento Colt revolvers were sold, which was equivalent to clearing half of the pistol inventory.

After this trip, the employees of the Sacramento Arsenal were delighted from ear to ear.

Employees at all levels of the Sacramento Arsenal hold 30% of the shares of the Arsenal. The better the profitability of the Arsenal, the more dividends they will receive at the end of the year.

(End of this chapter)