By the end of 1872, the steel mill, one of the most important investments of the MacDonald consortium in France, was in full production. The newly built blast furnace and steel-making furnace are running, and all the chimneys in the factory area are billowing smoke, and the roar of various machines is even more earth-shattering.

The MacDonald's steelworks in France are as technically inferior to their factories in the United States, but they face different opponents than they do in the United States. In the United States, when McDonald Steel was just emerging, most of the steel companies in the United States were technologically backward and small. Therefore, when facing MacDonald Steel, whether it is by pure economic means or by adding various non-economic means, they are not the opponents of MacDonald Steel, and they are almost incapable of resisting. But in France, it's a different story. Before MacDonald Steel entered France, there were already many steel companies in France, and some of them were already very large-scale and had a lot of social influence. If the crushing model in the United States had been adopted, perhaps the struggle would have been much more intense.

And unlike when it was in the United States, at that time, the MacDonald consortium not only controlled the steel mills, but also the iron mines. In France, such conditions are clearly not available. Fortunately, the previous investment boom in the United States and Germany, as well as the difficulties of the French steel companies after the Franco-Prussian War, gave the MacDonald consortium an opportunity to buy many relatively large steel companies and mines at relatively cheap prices, and also gave the original owners of these things the opportunity to take the money obtained from selling these enterprises into the super pit of the speculative market in the United States or Germany, and make a lot of money or lose all their money. (The latter is significantly more)

In this way, the most troublesome struggle against the biggest snakes was successfully avoided, and the rest seemed to be triumphant. But this is far from the case, because the factory that was bought also brought another problem, that is, the original union has basically come over as it is.

Industrial workers, especially those who have been trained, are the treasures of industry, and in construction, many things can be built quickly, such as factories, such as machines, but it is not so easy for qualified industrial workers. To train a team of industrial workers from scratch, the cost of time is not small, regardless of the economic cost. In many cases, it is not the case that the lower the wages of the workers, the lower the labor costs. For example, in later generations, there are many countries where the wages of workers are lower than those in the rabbit country, and it is not without a country with more young and middle-aged people than in the rabbit country, such as the white elephant country. But if you really want to go to the White Elephant Country to engage in industry, you will find that even if you don't consider the gap in supporting facilities, as far as workers are concerned, although the wages of the untrained White Elephant Country workers are lower, their work efficiency is lower, so in the end, when you calculate the labor cost, you will be surprised to find that the labor cost of the White Elephant Country with lower wages is higher.

Especially in the era of Scrooge, all kinds of advanced testing equipment and automation equipment are basically non-existent, and many production processes and quality control still depend entirely on the skills and experience of workers. At this time, a well-trained team of industrial workers is very important. So the MacDonald consortium kept the entire workforce.

But this also brought about a consequence, that is, the original trade union organization of the factory was also preserved, which became a big problem. Originally, it was said that the wages of French workers were not as good as those of American workers, so if the MacDonald family were slightly willing to raise their wages, it should not be a problem to stabilize these workers. However, the environment in France is different from that in the United States. The competition in the French market is fiercer than in the United States.

In the United States, tariffs have been high since the end of the Civil War. Foreign steel is loaded onto ships, a freight is paid, and it is shipped to the United States, and then a tariff is paid, and the sales price will naturally rise by a large margin. In addition, if the packaging is not good, the quality will be degraded by sea fog at sea. Therefore, MacDonald Steel will naturally be able to sell steel at a relatively high price, and even such a relatively high price is enough for MacDonald Steel to beat domestic and foreign opponents. But in Europe, it's a different story.

Although the domestic competitors in France are basically out of the woods, the competitiveness of steel from other countries is still very strong in France. In order to borrow enough money to quickly redeem the northern provinces, France had to open some of its markets to other countries. And, after the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, the prospects for the collapse of the steel industry in France are already obvious. And is there any way for the French to do so, in this case, the French simply adopted an attitude of almost breaking the jar, sacrificing the interests of the steel industry in exchange for the possible development of other industries.

As a result, the already modest French tariffs were further reduced, which made Scrooge's steelmakers have to face competition from British and German steelmakers. In dealing with German competitors, Scrooge could also bribe the media to promote hatred of the Germans (which was all too easy at the time) to provoke the French to revolt. German goods. But in the face of competition from the British, this trick is not so useful.

Of course, in terms of technology, Scrooge still has an advantage, the cost advantage brought by open-hearth steelmaking, coupled with the use of inferior iron ore, can theoretically also bring a part of the cost advantage. In reality, however, the situation is a little different. First of all, although there are some technologies to remove impurities, high-quality iron ore is high-quality iron ore after all. The British have the best high-quality iron ore in the world, so in terms of the quality of the steel smelted, it is obviously better than the steel made by MacDonald with inferior iron ore. In addition, although theoretically the price of low-quality iron ore should be relatively low, because those low-quality iron ores in France are still difficult to mine, the result is obviously inferior iron ore, but the mining cost is higher than that of other people's high-quality iron ore. This also leads to the fact that no matter how the price is lowered, these inferior iron ores are not much cheaper, and with the use of these inferior iron ores, the steelmaking process will be more complicated and require more other materials, and the total cost of steelmaking is not much lower than that of British steel. Even if it weren't for the cost advantage of open-hearth steelmaking, MacDonald Steel would have cost more in France than in the British. In fact, if there is a super freighter with such mining technology as in later generations, the cost of transporting high-grade hematite from British Australia to smelt is definitely lower than mining in Europe. It is precisely because of this that the rabbit country of later generations was frenzied by the steel-making process, and the world steel production ranking became such as "the first rabbit country, the second rabbit country, I went to the province where so-and-so came, and the third place I went to the sugar mountain ......city of the province where so-and-so came", and most of the iron ore used was high-quality iron ore from kangaroo country and samba football country. This is not because it is necessary to protect its own minerals, but because it is even cheaper to use these high-quality iron ores than to use low-grade iron ore produced by yourself.

Because of the fierce competition we are facing today, what else can we do to win the competition other than to lower the wages of workers? What did you say? You can compress the profits! My God! Do you know what you're talking about? Compress profits, if not for profits, who wants to open any factory? The purpose of building a factory was never to produce more materials that could be used by human beings, but to make profits, and Scrooge was here to make money, not to do charity! Even if one day, Scrooge wants to do charity, it is to make more money by doing charity!

Moreover, the rules of this world do not allow a capitalist to have such a conscience. Under capitalism, economic crises are cyclical, and in each crisis, some companies are eliminated. What kind of companies will be eliminated first? Of course, it is less profitable. So at any given time, when faced with the choice of whether to cut wages or cut profits, the capitalists have in fact no more choice. Because those who choose to cut profits will be ruthlessly eliminated by this social mechanism. Therefore, any capitalist who can stand firm must be full of conscience, and if he is not such a person, he has long been eliminated by society.

Therefore, MacDonald Steel France must keep workers' wages down in order to be competitive. However, directly suppressing wages will only lead to direct contradictions between enterprises and workers.

……

"Rubito, do you feel it?" On the way off work, one worker said to another.

"Feel what?" Rubito asked.

"It's just that we seem to have a lot fewer workers. Recently, several of our workers have been laid off. ”

"It seems like a little, but isn't it common for factories to fire employees? Those guys were fired after they made a mistake at work, is there anything wrong with that? It's that the number of new workers they have recruited is too small, and the technology is ......" Obviously, Lubito has not fully understood.

"Oh, Rubito, you're ...... I heard rumors that it was ......"

……

"Very good, your watch is very good during this time, I am very satisfied." Louis, the factory director, said to the men standing in front of him, "The demand is that we must fire 50 to 80 percent of the unskilled workers of the existing workers within two to three months." If you can complete the task on time, everyone will have a bonus! ”