Scrooge's ordinary cargo ship does not mean the so-called "Charlotte standard cargo ship", the kind of cargo ship specially prepared for the future unrestricted submarine warfare of Germany, the kind of cargo ship is cheap, fast in production, and outstanding in speed performance, in the future war, it is undoubtedly the best cargo ship in the world, but not necessarily in peacetime. First of all, the design life of such cargo ships is only four to five years, in the war, a cargo ship, in the Atlantic, which is full of German submarines, in general, has no chance to run such a service life, in general, they will be sunk in one to two years, and if they can last up to three years, then they can simply be called lucky. However, in peacetime, a cargo ship may last for more than a decade, or even decades. If the design life is only four to five years, it simply won't work. Of course, this is only the design life. It is not impossible to insist on using the new three years for the old three years and the old three years for tattered and three years. For example, after the end of World War II, the Americans disposed of the "free wheels" they had in their hands at the price of scrap sold to many poor countries in the third world. And in some poor third world countries, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, they even used these "free wheels", which were also designed to last only four or five years, until the 70s, almost exceeding the design life by ten times. Some of them have even been converted into passenger ships, and life is cheaper in poor countries of the third world anyway.

However, the "free wheels" in the hands of the poor countries of the third world basically did not run on ocean routes after the war, and they generally only ran on the calm coastal routes, which is also one of the key factors for these ships to be able to use for three new years, three years old, and 30 years of tattered and tattered ships. If they were to be used for ocean routes, even if they were to be less stormy and sea-cooling, it wouldn't take that long, not to mention, in Scrooge's time, the world's most important shipping route was the Atlantic route to Europe, which had always been famous for its high winds and waves. Such a route is naturally not suitable for those ships that have exceeded their service schedule.

Of course, when the war is over, it would be good to sell these ships to the Asian side. At least the Japanese are certainly willing to ask for it. Isn't it just unsafe? The Japanese are not worth much anyway. In fact, when the First World War ended, they did the same. So much so that many years later, when Japan and the United States fought in World War II, many American submarine officers and men were surprised to find that the targets they needed to attack were almost exactly the same as those that the German submarine forces needed to attack more than 20 years ago. And after the surrender of Japan, these ships were divided again, and some of them were used by the Americans to test the original . Child. Bullets or something, and some of them were distributed to the government of the Republic of China, which also became the victorious power, and then was widely used in transporting troops to fight the civil war, transporting gold to Taiwan, and transporting personnel to evacuate to Taiwan. Of course, the reliability of these ships is really very problematic after the Japanese have been running ocean routes for several years with high intensity. On the U.S. side, for example, several of these ships sank on the way to the shooting range, while in China, a "Charlotte Standard Ship" renamed the "Taiping Steamer" was transporting a group of low-ranking officials and their wives and ladies to Taiwan.

In addition to the reasons for longevity, effective tonnage and fuel economy also determine that such a ship is not a good ship in peacetime. For ease of production, such ships have a displacement of slightly less than 10,000 tons. In this way, most of the slipways can be used to produce such boats with minor improvements. However, because of the speed requirements, the length-to-width ratio of this type of ship is slightly larger than that of ordinary cargo ships. This means that the ship can carry less cargo at the same tonnage. At the same time, higher speeds require more power. In order to be cheaper, the price of the power system should be lower, and the result is that the power system occupies more space than the average cargo ship, which of course further reduces the actual carrying space. Coupled with higher fuel consumption, so in peacetime, such a ship will definitely not sell well.

Scrooge's plan was such that, first of all, he threw out the mega cruise ship, which led to a worldwide competition for giant tankers. This kind of competition will lead to a large increase in the number of large slipways. And once the depression comes, these giants will be the first to be cut down among the shipping vessels, because the task of transporting so much crude oil at once in a depression will plummet. At that time, these large slipways will immediately be worthless, and you can buy these large slipways at a very low price that can come in handy in the new round of battleship competition after the war.

As for the cargo ship side, Scrooge intends to throw out a new technology, which will be able to quickly improve the efficiency of cargo ship loading and unloading, so that the advantages of sea freight over other forms of transportation will suddenly become apparent, so that more goods that were originally transported by land will be transferred to sea transportation. As a result, the construction of new cargo ships has become hot, and more slipways have been built. Whether it's more slipways or more cargo ships, more steel and more machinery, all of which can bring more income to Scrooge, not to mention the cheap slipways that came after the depression. The boom could bring Scrooge a real income, but the depression helped him consolidate the foundation of his empire and complete its expansion.

"I love the boom, but I love the depression even more." Scrooge couldn't help but say this to himself in his heart.

……

The shipbuilding boom caused by supertankers gradually increased as the economy recovered, and at this time, a piece of news further boosted people's enthusiasm for it.

In February 1910, the McDonald Venture Bank and the Cleveland Geological Exploration Company, the most famous geological exploration company in the United States, jointly held a press conference to announce a news that MacDonald's senior management had known for a long time: under the commission of the McDonald Venture Bank, the Cleveland Geological Exploration Company had discovered a super large oil field in the mineral exploration of the private territory owned by the MacDonald Venture Bank in Alaska.

The news didn't cause much of a stir at the time, as it didn't seem economical to exploit the field. Because for now, those oil fields in the United States are very sufficient. In contrast, developers need a lot of investment in an oil field, both in terms of the field itself and the port roads that transport it. According to the Wall Street Journal's calculations, at least in the short term, the field has little development value.

"For now, the greater economic significance of the existence of this oil field is just to give McDonald Ventures more collateral." So said the Wall Street Journal.

However, the Wall Street Journal was wrong, and they had no idea that just two months later, on April 2, 1910, they got another piece of news: MacDonald Ventures and the German government had reached an agreement to lease the largest oil field in the United States, along with a portion of their port, to the German government for 50 million dollars. At the same time, it will be given priority in the procurement of oil facilities and port facilities.

When they first got the news, the editors of the Wall Street Journal thought that they had made a mistake in the date, and that the news looked like it was a day late. Soon, though, the authenticity of the news was verified.

"Oh my God, big news! Big news! The editor shouted, "A 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, and the Germans have been searching for oil all over the world for a long time. However, it is a great pity that there is no such thing in the few and poor colonies of the Germans. And other countries or their colonies, even if they had such things, either refused to give it to the Germans to develop, or other countries would have taken advantage of it. For example, there was oil in Romania, not far from Germany, but the damned Yankees were so fast that before the Germans could fully understand the value of oil, they took the lead and bought a few of the oil fields there. Later, although the Germans wanted to bid money to buy the Romanian oil fields from the Yankees, the British and French were always playing tricks behind them, so this thing was never done.

To this end, the Germans engaged in a so-called oil reserve program, and they built a series of oil depots near the port of Hamburg, intending to establish the 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 buy a little more oil, it will inevitably cause an increase 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 at all.

This time, when the Americans took the initiative to come to the door to sell the oil fields in their hands to the Germans, the Germans were really a little overjoyed. Of course, the Germans are not fools either, they also know that oil extraction in Alaska requires a high cost. But after careful consideration, the Germans realized that some new technologies had recently emerged that made the development of Alaskan oil seem to be possible.

First of all, one of the Chinese people's own enterprises has developed oil pipeline transportation technology, which can transport low-viscosity oil through pipelines, thereby greatly reducing the cost of oil transportation by land. And according to the samples they obtained, Alaskan oil also meets this criterion. This has reduced the cost of transportation from the Arras refueling field to the port a lot, and the emergence of supertankers has also reduced the cost of oil shipping a lot. Therefore, the Germans calculated and found that although the final cost was still a little higher than that of the international market, according to the habit of the Germans to buy oil, the price of oil would immediately rise, and the more they bought, the more they rose, if this price was evenly spread over a long period of time, compared with the international market, it would definitely be much more compatible. Thus, the basic intention was reached.