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1913 year

After a lonely and lonely Christmas, the hands of time were turned to 1913. (If you like this book, please bookmark biquge.info)

An era of turmoil and crisis. In Europe, the smell of gunpowder between the Entente and the Central Powers is getting stronger and stronger, and war is on the verge of breaking out.

In Asia, after the ancient Eastern Empire was overthrown and a republic was established, the situation did not stabilize at all, and between the north and the south, between warlords, there were big wars and small wars. On the contrary, the maritime empire of Japan in the east became increasingly powerful and stepped up its invasion of Chinese mainland.

And the United States, this unique country is prosperous, after the completion of the second industrial revolution, the industry is prosperous, the national strength is prosperous, and the head is raised high, faintly revealing a trace of the future world hegemon.

This is the land of merchants, and this is the best time for American businessmen, who keep an eye on the coming world war and are ready to earn the last copper plate of the warring sides.

Money, or career, is the only thing Situ Nan feels about the only meaning of his existence in this world, so he devotes all his energy to his own industry.

After making a million-dollar net worth last year, Situ Nan has always had a sense of urgency to expand his wealth in the shortest possible time, so he constantly plagiarized some small and delicate gadgets from his previous life. A zippo lighter is one of a kind.

Lighters have appeared in the United States, but the quality is not very reliable.

The process is rough, the windproof problem is not well solved, there is still an obvious black residue left after the wick is burned, and over time, there is a lot of dirt in the lighter, which is ugly and troublesome to clean.

In three words, it is stupid, big, and coarse.

Situ Nan misses the zippo he used in his previous life! It's a pity that zippo hasn't appeared in this year, and there are no similar boutiques.

If you don't have one, why not produce it yourself?

Situ Nan thought about how pleasant and loud the metal impact sound when he broke the zippo in his memory.

In the previous life, zippo lighters were popular all over the world, and men loved zippo lighters regardless of whether they smoked or not, and there were people who specially collected zippo lighters.

Some gold products are still being speculated to sky-high prices!

In fact, the technical content of lighters is not very high, and this kind of industry with low investment and low threshold technology is suitable for Situ Nan.

However, due to the limitations of materials and production processes, the lighters produced today are not as sophisticated as they will be decades later.

Even so, it was much stronger than this black and clumsy thing that Situ Nan had in his hand!

Just do it, it didn't take much time for Situ Nan to design a fine lighter.

However, the factory's technicians shook their heads at the sight and said that it was impossible to produce such a product with the current technology.

It turned out that Situ Nan painted a later version of Zippo, which was produced by Zippo after World War II.

The design is very delicate and the technical requirements are also high.

At first, Situ Nan did not give up, and at his request, the engineer still made the sample.

Situ Nan looked at it, and in terms of appearance, it was somewhat similar, but it was not very reliable to use. Either there's something wrong here, or there's something wrong there.

After many revisions, the result was also unsatisfactory. Originally, Situ Nan thought: Although he didn't achieve his ideal goal, it was much better than the previous "stupid and rough", so choose this!

However, the supervisor in charge of production poured cold water on Situ Nan, it turned out that even the simplified version of the zippo production cost would be four or five times higher than similar products, and such a product is estimated to have no advantage in the market.

Also, the price difference is several times, and most consumers are estimated to still choose "stupid and coarse" instead of expensive zippo.

As a last resort, Situ Nan had to compromise, in order to reduce costs, some fancy designs had to be abandoned, and ordinary materials were also selected, and finally a castrated version of the zippo was formed.

However, objectively speaking, it is still a very classic lighter in this era, and its practicality and ornamentation are much better than the rough lighters on the market.

Nowadays, most manufacturers do not pay attention to the appearance and packaging of products, they think that lighters should be strong and effective.

This idea is also the idea of most people now, when the production output does not meet the needs of society, the first thing to solve is whether there is a problem, not whether it is good or not.

However, the invention and application of lighters is not short, in the last 19th century oil was used by mankind, and part of the kerosene was consumed by tongguò lighters.

Now people are getting tired of the old-fashioned lighters on the market, and they are eager to get a better one.

Therefore, the emergence of ZIPPO is believed to be a real epoch-making product in the history of lighters.

At Situ Nan's insistence, the technicians had to engrave a delicate pattern on the ZIPPO shell, which is also the logo of ZIPPO.

The factory is located in a county around Los Angeles, and all the investment is made by Situ Nan alone.

In the beginning, the scale was small, and there were only two types of products produced, the collector's edition and the regular edition.

The first batch of ZIPPO collector's edition ZIPPO lighters were used for advertising, so the materials are exquisite and beautifully manufactured.

The first batch of only 500 was produced, which Zippo sold to British American Tobacco at cost price.

British American Tobacco loved the delicate lighter and embraced Zippo's proposal. They bundled these lighters with tobacco and sold them with good results.

Of course, the first people to get the zippo were wealthy people who had enough financial resources to enjoy the abundant material resources.

With the loud metallic sound of a rich person at a party, the zippo lighter was lit, and the crisp sound, the unique design, and the extraordinary quality immediately conquered their discerning eye.

People are starting to be attracted to the freshly baked zippo, and everyone has a desire to compare, especially the concept of the zippo collector's edition, which caters to their vanity. They wanted to have such a delicate lighter, so they asked where to buy it.

One to ten, ten to hundred??

Coupled with Situ Nan's carefully planned promotional advertisements, all of a sudden, advertisements about Zippo were covered with newspapers of all sizes.

In this way, the fame of the zippo was spread, and from the circle of the rich to the common people, even non-smokers wanted to get a delicate zippo, not the unreliable "stupid big and rough" in their hands.

Some people even go to buy tobacco because they go to the zippo lighter, and they see from the advertisement that they are handsome to light a cigarette with the zippo and are obsessed with smoking.

The cooperation between Tongguò and the tobacco company, as well as the advertising of the zippo brand, has begun!

The tobacco company even placed a large order for 10,000 collector's edition zippo lighters at one time, but was rejected by Situ Nan.

He only agreed to produce 2,000 collector's edition Zippo lighters, half of which were supplied to tobacco companies and the rest were sold by Zippo itself.

Most of the lighters that Zippo later provided to tobacco companies were ordinary type, and most of these high-quality and inexpensive Zippo lighters were sold through the tobacco company's channels, which invisibly made another advertisement for Zippo.

Zippo lighters on the market are in short supply, and factories are working overtime to produce them, but they still can't meet the demand of the market.

Some anxious suppliers are blocking the factory gates, waving checks, as long as the factory asks them to carry away the freshly packed Zippo lighters.

Some of them came from the east, and the appearance of the zippo surprised the merchants from the east, who did not expect that the west, where only farms and cowboys had the impression of being able to produce such a fine lighter.

If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, you would have thought that this is Chicago, Detroit and other eastern manufacturing cities!

They were right, the manufacturing industry in the Great Lakes industrial region of the eastern United States is more developed than in the west and south, and the west and south have traditionally produced agricultural products in addition to minerals.

After the gold rush ebbed, the development of the west was a little colder, but because the railway was built in the west, local products could be transported to all parts of the country by guò railway, so the industrial development of the west was also very fast.

Although it is not at the level of the east, the gap has been narrowed, and in some respects it is even much better than that of the agricultural states in the south.

From this zippo purchase, some savvy businesses began to realize the rise of the west, and they also began to invest in the industry and commerce of the west.

Situ Nan kept a batch of zippo, but most of them were given away later, and the remaining few were collected by him, and no one was allowed to touch them.

From west to east and from east to west, the zippo fever has swept through the United States, and its market share is expanding.

As for the price, a regular version of a zippo lighter costs 30 cents, which is a little higher than similar lighters.

However, it is worth the money, and ordinary salaried people are willing to spend a little more money to buy a more refined and practical zippo lighter, and the original ugly and medium lighter is still left.

Situ Nan also heard that because of Zippo's excellent performance, the match business in the United States has been affected, and more and more people have begun to choose Zippo lighters.

The Collector's Edition Zippo lighters started at $2 each, then gradually rose to $5, $20, and finally became unavailable.

Due to limited production, the Collector's Edition Zippo lighter became a prop to show off status. Many people want to get a boutique zippo lighter but can't, and some speculators with a keen sense of smell take advantage of the ultra-high zippo price.

This is also what Situ Nan is happy to see, and the hype has a good effect on the brand promotion of ZIPPO.

Some factory management wanted to increase the production of the refined version of the zippo, but Situ Nan refused.

He warned the management of Zippo that the refined version of Zippo was actually a boo for publicity, and the smaller the quantity, the more precious it was.

Factories have to focus more on producing regular versions of Zippo instead of putting the cart before the horse.

No matter how beautifully a lighter is made, it is always a daily item, and it is only a successful product when it is used by the general public. Its collection shows off only for the vanity of the young, and the blind flood will only make the collector's edition no longer treasured.

Although the price of an ordinary lighter for 30 cents is not as high as that of the refined version, the sales volume is 1,000 times that of the refined version, 10,000 times, and even more to provide the society with a large number of high-quality and inexpensive lighters, which is the basic of zippo.

In just half a year, the ZIPPO company sold more than 1 million ordinary versions of ZIPPO lighters, with a sales income of 300,000 US dollars and a profit of more than 100,000 US dollars.

Situ Nan, who tasted the sweetness, decided to make additional investment and open the Zippo factory in the eastern region, which is the largest market.

As a result, the Zippo company successively merged a number of lighter factories in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and other places, and its production capacity swelled all of a sudden, and a few years later almost monopolized the lighter market in the United States.

Through the exchange of shares, other lighter manufacturers became shareholders of Zippo, and Situ Nan's stake was reduced to 40%, but he is still the majority shareholder of Zippo and the chairman of Zippo, and he firmly controls the seemingly small but very innovative company.

This is the first monopoly run by Situ Nan, and from the development of ZIPPO, Situ Nan's ability has been tempered, laying the foundation for him to control a broader career in the future.

A year later, Zippo had a production capacity of 5 million units per year, sales revenue exceeded 150 million US dollars, and it was still able to maintain a high level of profitability.

It really grew and became known to the world during the First World War.

In 1914-1918, due to the large number of orders received, the Zippo company produced at least more than 100 million Zippo lighters in four years.

As the soldiers returned home after the war, they also brought Zippo lighters back to their hometowns, so Zippo became famous all over the world, which was Zippo's greatest wealth.

This is similar to the historical Coca-Cola and Geely razors that were brought to the world with American GIs.

In fact, after the ZIPPO became popular, Situ Nan then launched the ZIPPO razor, which was the same as a lighter, and these two small things swelled rapidly because of the army's order.

Situ Nan wanted to find Jin Ke, the inventor of the Geely razor? Gillette, and then take him as a younger brother.

But for some reason, he noticed for a long time, and the Geely razor, which had shown its skills in World War I, was replaced by the Zippo razor produced by ZIPPO.

Situ Nan had never heard of the Geely razor brand, and in the end he had to admit that there was no Jinke in this world? Geely this person, there is no Geely razor, only zippo!

Well, the wings of a butterfly have finally moved a millimeter of history!

In 1913, in addition to building a zippo, Situ Nan expanded his farm and built a canning factory on the outskirts of Los Angeles to process meat products.

Situ Nan named the canning factory California Meat Products Company, with a total investment of 1 million US dollars, of which Situ Nan accounted for 60% of the shares. Brown 20%, Bote? Ford Rolls 15%, Hayes 5%.

From the beginning of production, this meat product company quickly became a California meat product giant with advanced production technology, good taste, sufficient raw materials, and extensive contacts such as Hantec.

In addition to the meat factory, Situ Nan also spent $100,000 to buy a small pharmaceutical factory with less than 30 technicians and workers, which puzzled those who followed Situan.

According to Situ Nan's instructions, this small pharmaceutical factory only produces medical triangle first aid kits. There is no other product other than this. Later, among so many industries in Situ Nan, relatively speaking, this pharmaceutical factory was the worst operated.

The only exception is that the pharmaceutical company has set up a technical team, led by Li Renqiao, a chemical engineer who has just graduated from MIT. Well, after Li Renqiao was recruited by Situ Nan, he studied a red dye in this pharmaceutical factory, and tried to extract a substance from this red dye to make medicine.

Chemistry and medicine are not separated, and many medical scientists are born by reading chemistry to be precise. Li Renqiao was somewhat dissatisfied with Situ Nan's arrangement, but except for this somewhat strange request, Situ Nan never interfered with Li Renqiao's research work, but was very supportive of Li Renqiao's work, and tried his best to find any instruments and equipment.

Later, Li Renqiao successively recruited many experts in chemistry, and the personnel of the technical team gradually swelled and were divided into several research projects. Some people are puzzled that a small pharmaceutical factory can have the technical strength comparable to that of a big pharmaceutical factory, but the conditions here are so good, and the boss is willing to invest so much money in his own research, what else is there to say!

In fact, the red dye that Situ Nan instructed Li Renqiao to study was Bailang Duoxi, and he knew that a drug called sulfonamide was extracted from Bailang Duoxi. This is an invention no less than penicillin, and the rewards of success will be staggering.

Situ Nan only knew the general situation, but he didn't understand chemistry, so he gave Li Renqiao a very vague request. As for whether it can succeed or not, Situ Nan has no extravagant hopes. Many of the inventions in history have been inadvertently made, and sometimes there is a little more luck than hard work. However, Situ Nan, who believes that there is always a return on his efforts, believes that even if he can't invent sulfonamides, he will have other gains.

1913 was a busy year for Situ Nan, during the year he successively invested in a lot of industries, zippo, farms, meat factory, pharmaceutical factory, in addition to the pharmaceutical factory, other industries are developing well, the specific work Situ Nan never interfered, just set a certain goal, grasp the direction of the company's development.

In order to better manage his assets, Situ Nan has successively recruited a group of talents and set up his own management team, which Situ Nan called William Investment Company.

The largest of these is a 30% stake in California Petroleum.

This year California oil in Hantec? Under Brown's painstaking management, the Shengdafenquan oilfield has developed well, with an annual output of 300,000 tons, and it is already very good to have such results within a year, and California Petroleum has successively acquired many oil fields, and oil reserves have increased a lot, coupled with California Petroleum's own pipeline company, refinery, California Petroleum has completed the extension of the upstream and downstream industrial chain, and the asset scale has grown from 10 million US dollars to 30 million US dollars, and Situ Nan's 30% stake has also tripled, worth tens of millions of US dollars.

Oil is really a lucrative business! Seeing such a result, Situ Nan not only appreciated Hantec's management, but also sighed more about the black gold of oil.

Interest is the best driving force, after seeing the potential of oil, Situ Nan thought of several large oil fields to be obtained in the plan, and his heart that had been dormant for a year became active again. Fuck it, support the bold and starve to death the cowardly, or get those few pieces of fat in your hands first, and then you don't let yourself stew or fry it, if you accidentally find out in advance by others, then you won't lose your own death?

After investing in several industries one after another, Situ Nan had little money left, and in order to raise funds, he pledged a 20% stake in California Petroleum to a bank loan of $6 million.

After hearing that Situ Nan mortgaged the shares, Hantec found Situ Nan, and as a result, Situ Nan mortgaged the remaining 10% of the shares to Hantec, but unfortunately Hantec did not have so much cash, so he could only give 1.5 million US dollars to mortgage 5% of the shares of PetroCal shares, so Situ Nan concocted the same method, and the 5% of the shares of PetroCal from Bot? Fordlaus drew $1.5 million in money.

Add up to no more than $9 million, that's a huge amount of money!

Situ Nan almost trembled when he got it, $9 million! In a hundred years, it will be 900 million US dollars, and now 1 of the British Empire's top monarch-class battleships is not much different from this number!

If it weren't for the good oil market and the good development of California oil, Situ Nan would really not have been able to get the $9 million loan. Handa: They once asked Situ Nan what he wanted so much money for?

However, it was misappropriated by Situ Nan to invest in the steel industry.

In fact, Situ Nan also thought about investing in the steel industry, and there would be a big war in Europe, and it would be profitable to invest in steel and study. But this is just Situ Nan's excuse, he is going to use this money to secretly buy the oil field that makes him salivate.

If he really had any money left, he wouldn't mind investing in steel, didn't Bot transfer a steel mill to himself in the first place? But Situ Nan has never been willing to take care of it.

In October 1913, with a $9 million bill of exchange in his pocket, Situ Nan took He Wenxiu and Hayes and his party quietly left Los Angeles and headed south.

Before leaving, an interesting thing happened in Los Angeles, one day, when Situ Nan was reading the newspaper, there was a report in the Los Angeles Times that caught Situan's interest: the newspaper typed a loud headline: "Fight the Italian invaders!" ”

Then the next day, the entire newspaper advertised with another, even more painful headline: "Poor Italy lends money to poor burghers and laborers." Italy is a friend of the poor. ”

It turned out that a banker from San Francisco had come to Los Angeles to buy a bank called Pike Bank, which was about to fail, which aroused the disgust of local bankers, and the two sides had a war of words.

Coincidentally, Hantec also happened to be one of the shareholders of the unlucky bank, and Situ Nan learned that the Italian banker was Amadi? Giannini felt a hint of threat. Immediately, with the fastest possible connection, Guò Henda was connected to buy the Pike Bank before Giannini, leaving the Italians with a feather of the feather.

However, Situ Nan had no intention of taking care of the bank at that time, but after rectifying the finances and straightening out the relationship, he didn't care about it so much. Until a few years later, Parker Bank was still half-dead.

After being delayed by the bank for a week, Situ Nan no longer had the intention of staying in Los Angeles.

Yes, just when Americans were flocking to California because of the California oil rush, Situ Nan had already quietly dripped into the village--------Texas! Well, don't shoot a gun!

There, due to poor harvests in recent years, many unintentional farmers sold their farms and went to California to try their luck.

Situ Nan was able to hoard a large amount of land at very low prices.

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