Palermo is the largest city in Sicily, home to more than 200,000 inhabitants.

Since it is the capital, Palermo is also the political and economic center of Sicily, and most of the island's decent businesses are located here.

Sicily's well-known factories in Italy, such as Bonick Bicycle Factory and Charlton Winery, are all in Palermo, and of course a thermal power plant can be added at present.

The Palermo thermal power plant, with an installed capacity of 90 kW, is the source of Palermo's current Western landscape. Because a large part of the electricity generated here is used by the city government for lighting.

Yes, because the Palermo plant had doubts about the use of electricity, Palermo became the first city in Italy to adopt electric lighting.

The dim gas street lamps were replaced and converted into lamps capable of lighting with electricity. Not to mention, since the use of electric lights, Palermo's night scene is much more beautiful, and the bright lights shine farther away, so that citizens like to go out and move around more.

Forward-thinking businessmen also saw an opportunity and asked the city government to turn on the lights for them to attract more potential customers who came out to hang out. And they are willing to pay out of their own pockets to the city government for the installation costs, as well as for the electricity bill.

Originally, it was used as industrial electricity for civilian use, but fortunately, the voltages of the two are not distinguished, and there is no need to add a transformer. I don't know if this is luck or misfortune.

It's not that all electricity in Palermo has been used for civilian use, but there are several companies that have tried to change the power from steam engines to electric motors.

Among them, the Bonik Bicycle Factory, which is a major electricity consumer in Palermo, has the best experience in the use of electricity.

Jon Bonnick, the owner of the Straight Run Depot, sat in the boss's chair, holding a cigar in his hand, listening to his subordinates' reports.

"Boss, according to our observation this month, using electricity as the power source, our factory expenses have been reduced by 8%, and I think switching to electricity is very beneficial to our factory, which can reduce our costs."

Listening to his subordinate's report, Bonick smiled slightly. "I got it."

He was convinced that electricity was superior to the steam engine, and otherwise he would not have made his factory the first in Palermo to abandon the steam engine and use electricity instead.

However, he can only listen to the fact that electricity is more cost-effective, and he still has a plan to implement. "So how did the workers react to the overtime plan we prepared?"

Faced with Bonick's inquiry, the subordinate immediately replied. "At the moment, workers are generally very willing to accept your offer of overtime, after all, they can get 10 lira a month for just two hours a day, which is a blessing for them."

Hearing the words of his subordinates, Bonick immediately spoke. "In that case, then from next week, the factory will have to work 12 hours, and if someone doesn't want to do it, then let him go home."

"Boss, what should the government do if you do this?"

Facing the inquiry of his subordinates, Bonick smiled. "That Governor Antonio is gone, and he has lost his backers for those he promoted, and the new Governor Cabrera I already know is the more traditional kind of official, so we don't have to worry."

Well, after Antonio went to East Africa as governor-general, the good environment of Sicily that he created began to be destroyed. At that time, Antonio was very considerate of the interests of the people of Sicily, and he issued a decree that factory employees were not allowed to work more than ten hours. The original intention was to give the workers their own time to rest, and at a deeper level, to allow the factory to hire more people.

Although a lot of the time, this kind of local decree is bullshit. However, it was rare to encounter a serious governor, so after dealing with a few unenlightened factory owners, the others had to obediently obey the decree. As for moving the factory or something, it costs too much. In addition, the 10-hour work week has basically begun to be implemented in the Apennine Peninsula, and the same effect is achieved when moving there.

In addition, moving to a new place requires new connections, which also requires an expense. So the factory owners in Sicily have no choice.

But now, with the ascension of Governor Antonio, the factory owners, who felt that they had made less money, began to move again.

Of course, the shrewd boss Bonick doesn't just want to add two hours to his working hours, he has a complete plan. The first was to get the workers used to a twelve-hour working day, and then to announce that because the factory had too many orders, they needed to divide them into two shifts and use the machines to produce their own brand of bicycles.

Then, at a lower cost price, we will fight a price war with other brands of bicycles to achieve the purpose of occupying the domestic bicycle market.

Some people may say that this is nothing, it is not very ordinary in the later life, it is everywhere.

But the hereafter is the hereafter, and the present is the present. When electricity is not used on a large scale by the factory, the factory should not think of using such a method.

That's because of the lighting problem, even if the workers can accept it, but the lighting needed at night is a big problem. With gas lamps or candles, this is too easy to cause a fire, but it is not bright enough to allow workers to work.

And Bonick is the first person to see how much electricity promotes the efficiency of the factory, in the factory with power supply, there is an inherent advantage over other factories, in this case, why not start using it yourself, while others have not yet reacted, preemptively reduce the cost, and then with the advantage of low cost, other brands of bicycles down.

You must know that at this time, the production of bicycles is to produce every part of the bicycle, not the future generations can purchase parts, just assemble it.

Of course, Bonick only had a vision, but he didn't know how capable of a 24-hour factory like his could be. Otherwise, such a factory would not be called a sweatshop in future generations.

But whether he can see it or not, it means that the use of electricity has taken root in Italy. With the use of electricity, Italian industry will be able to sell goods to other countries at a lower cost in the future.

Of course, this is just the result of Italy taking the lead in the use of electricity, and other countries will follow suit in the future. Whether the Italian government can take advantage of this window period to upgrade factories depends on whether they have the foresight.

Of course, Italy's National Grid Company, as the power supplier, already has its own plan for this, and the new thermal power plant expansion plan has just been approved. The reason is that the power plants built in northern cities are somewhat overwhelmed and need to be expanded to meet the power consumption of factories.

For this reason, famous cities such as Milan, Turin, Venice, Genoa and others have suspended their urban lighting plans because they need to be prioritized for factory use. Of course, some of these factory owners have the same idea as Bonick, but let Bonick, who has unique conditions, take the lead.

Carlo planted the seeds of electricity and finally saw the fruits of industrial development, albeit as much as the workers worked harder.

But industrialization requires someone to pay. At present, the peasants and workers of Italy need to pay for the time being, so that Italian industry can develop greatly.

I'm in a good mood