Selling factories to the Americans was not a big deal for the French. So the negotiations between the two sides went very smoothly. Of course, if you order steel from France, and then go to the United States to make artillery, consider that because of the supporting facilities, the scale, and the difference in workers' wages, the cost of the steel cannons made by the United States itself is obviously much higher than the steel cannons made by the French in Europe.

What's more, those bosses of the American arsenals, do they really not love money because they are "patriotic"? If this is the case, why did they not love the "United Kingdom" in the first place? How did the "United Kingdom" oppress them and encroach on their freedom? Isn't it just a little more tax for them? If you charge a little more tax, you will "die if you are not free", and you want them not to make money? How is that possible?

Therefore, it is almost certain that the price of the cannon made by the Americans to the American army is much higher than the price of the French shipping to North America. It may even be more expensive than the cannons that the British sold to the Indians through Canada.

However, this is not something that the French need to think about, or even Robert Leviton, and he doesn't have to pay for it anyway.

And perhaps because the United States was far away in the New World, the danger to France was limited, and the two countries had always been friendly and the French were not asking for a high price, the deal was quickly finalized, and the United States government ordered a steel cannon factory with an annual output of 200 cannons, as well as a hydroelectric power plant.

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

As for the price, Joseph explained it this way:

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

This is actually a trick that some companies in later generations have played rotten. What machines are sold at a loss, and consumables are earned; What machine doesn't make money, maintenance earns back - in fact, it's all a routine. Even, in later generations, there is such a story of a reader:

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

Customer orders are filling Ford's sales offices. Every Ford car that has just rolled off the assembly line has many people waiting to buy it.

Suddenly, one of Ford's motors malfunctioned, and almost the entire workshop could not be operated, and related production work was forced to stop.

The company transferred a large number of maintenance workers to overhaul repeatedly, and invited many experts to inspect, but they could not find out where the problem was, let alone maintenance.

The leaders of Ford are really angry, let alone stop for a day, even if they stop for a minute, it is also a huge economic loss for Ford.

At this time, someone proposed to ask the famous physicist and electrical expert Stein Menz to help, and everyone heard the reason, and hurriedly sent someone to invite Steinmentz to come.

Steinmentz asked for a mat to spread next to the motor, 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 one part of the motor, and wrote "The coil here has been wound 16 times more." ”

They complied, and amazingly, the fault was eliminated! Production resumed immediately!

When the Ford manager asked him how much he wanted to pay him, he said, "It's not much, it's only $10,000." ”

$10,000? It's just a simple line! At that time, Ford's most famous salary slogan was "$5 a month", which was a very high salary at the time, so that many experienced skilled workers and excellent engineers from all over the United States poured in for this $5 monthly salary.

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

Seeing that everyone was confused, Stein Mentz turned around and opened a bill: draw a line, $1; Know where to draw the line, $9999. ”

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

Overall, the story is filled with the stupid stench of rumors of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries by scholars and literati who have no scientific knowledge. and the wolves on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau used high-end tactics such as luring the enemy into depth, encircling in multiple directions, and encircling points to send reinforcements, and ate a company's PLA in one go; (I don't want to think about it, with the ecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, what can be used to feed the wild wolf regiment that has hundreds or even thousands of wolves, which exceeds the number of wolves of the largest wolf pack in the plane) and the small pot friends, who carry a weight of 20 kilograms and walk 100 kilometers a day (overwhelming the standard of the American special forces) are quite similar.

However, this story really speaks of a money-making model, that is, as long as you use our things, when it is time to maintain them, even if it is as simple as drawing a line, I can pit you a lot of money in one go. So this story, in fact, is not to tell you that knowledge is wealth, but to tell you that there is a good way to make money by after-sales and technical guidance.

What's worse is that once the Americans use the French production equipment, the entire supporting facilities, and the entire maintenance must be in accordance with French standards, taking into account the technical capabilities of the United States at this time, the maintenance of the entire system should not use French parts. Hehe, the whole factory is worthless, but the dismantled parts are more valuable than the other. In addition, if you dare to use non-genuine parts, for example, you use your own copycat screw cap on the drilling machine, hehe, then the whole system, including the warranty of the generator that supplies the power or something, is gone. In other words, if the Americans buy these things back, they will be on a thief ship, and there will be more opportunities to be sucked in blood in the future.

At this time, however, Americans 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 Austrians that the three brothers had been looking forward to finally came. However, the Austrians once again surprised the three brothers, because the HRE did not mean to follow the example of Dongluo and Green Pothos, build an arsenal, and then start an arms race. They just wanted to get a glimpse of the capacity of the factories of the Russians and Turks. In order to develop a corresponding plan to buy or lend arms from France.

"Anyway, even if Austria were to produce these things on its own, the volume and quality would certainly not be comparable to the original French goods. In that case, why bother to build your own factory to make it? However, we are very interested in your country's power plants and the technology related to electric lights. Unlike weapons, these things, they should be really good things that can make money. Metternich, the Austrian ambassador to France, said this to Napoleon at a ball.

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

"Your Excellency First Consul, you misunderstood what we meant. You see, in the same way that I mentioned earlier about making cannons, how can we compete with your factories in other markets in Europe, but in some places, such as in Austria, and in 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 would be better to cooperate with us, and we will develop them together, wouldn't it be better? ”

Napoleon thought about it, but did not immediately refuse Metternich, because he was not particularly proficient in business, and he felt that it was better to go back and discuss 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 at once. However, as a professional soldier, I think there is one thing I need to remind you that although cannons can be purchased or leased quickly, they are not always available to military personnel who use cannons. ”

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