Chapter 151 Pepsi
Rockefeller Jr. was very pleased with Sheffield's compliment and directly quoted his father's famous saying, "A man with privilege but no power is a waste, and a man with education but no influence is a pile of worthless garbage. We have better backgrounds, and we must also have better ability to act."
According to Sheffield's simple translation, this sentence means that I should not only have a better background than you, but also work harder than you. Otherwise, there will really be a very small number of geniuses who will gain the influence that should belong to you after education.
The most typical example of the former is Vanderbilt. In fact, there are far more wealthy people like this than just the Vanderbilt family. Eventually, in the near future, the Carnegie family will also cash out and no longer be active in the capital market, choosing a leisurely life.
The biggest profit of the oil industry now comes from oil lamps! In order to sell kerosene to more areas, Standard Oil's method is: in many countries, we have to produce oil lamps first, and then teach local people how to use kerosene. In order to expand people's demand for kerosene, the company sold thousands of kerosene lamps and wicks at low prices, and sometimes gave them away for free to customers who bought kerosene for the first time.
However, in this era, many businessmen in the United States had different faces at home and abroad. The same was true for Standard Oil. Citizens of the United States rarely enjoyed similar benefits.
Obviously, Rockefeller is also a qualified capitalist. When selling goods to the public, he naturally maximizes profits and sells them as cheaply as possible. In order to win a good reputation in the international community, he must come up with the best products and build an even better reputation. It's like the food industry. The food provided to citizens is like holding the periodic table in their hands. The food is exclusively supplied to the upper class, and the capitalists can guarantee that it is absolutely safe without adding any chemicals, mainly because they themselves eat it.
Anyway, the cheaper the product, the less guaranteed the quality. This is a very basic common sense. You get what you pay for. This is absolutely in line with international practice. Everyone is about the same. So in this regard, Sheffield is definitely the conscience of the United States. Not only did he kill the middlemen, but he also basically did not touch the food that needed the periodic table, but only provided the raw materials.
But even so, relying on the sale of kerosene lamps as the main profit, the Rockefeller family's wealth is comparable to robbing a bank. As for whether it can compare with Morgan, who is actually in the banking industry, no one knows.
Now Rockefeller Jr. discovered the resurgence of the oil industry from the crawler tractors powered by internal combustion engines of the Sheffield United Company. He could not stop for a moment and came directly to discuss the development prospects of the internal combustion engine with Sheffield.
If he hadn't been so anxious about his family's business, he might have discovered that the alliance between Standard Oil, which he saw as an important strategic layout, and the Texas landowners had actually gone a step further and become a closer relationship. He regarded Sheffield as a business partner, and the other party actually regarded him as a brother-in-law.
At this time, Sheffield, as a brother-in-law, was still showing his loyalty to his brother-in-law, Rockefeller Jr., and expounded on the broad panorama of the development of the internal combustion engine. This was not because Sheffield was being servile and had to share with the Rockefeller family the oil that the Standard Oil exploration team had not discovered so far.
It is an inevitable fact that the Rockefeller family is indeed the oil hegemon of the United States. From patents to industrial chains, it is natural to say that Texas is not the only state with oil in the United States. Standard Oil controls many oil wells.
If the relationship between the two sides fell out over the profits of the oil industry, Sheffield might have to face the confrontation with Standard Oil for many years to come. Considering how rich the Rockefeller family was, who knew how long this confrontation would last? As long as it lasted more than a year, Sheffield would feel that he had lost a lot.
As a child of destiny, his time is so precious. If he loses a year, how many places can he go to for layout? Although the oil industry does make money, a reborn person must have a certain vision. Didn't Jack Ma say that he must have a vision and a future? Even if he doesn't have it, he must market it.
"Using oil instead of coal as fuel is another revolution in power. There is some truth in this. The emergence of the steam engine is a symbol of the first industrial revolution, and the fuel of the steam engine is coal. Therefore, in the era of steam engines, coal has become the undisputed queen of fuel." Sheffield said with a serious face, emphasizing his tone, "The internal combustion engine is a completely different power engine from the steam engine. It does not rely on coal burning outside the boiler, but on oil burning in the cylinder. The potential of this new power machine is far higher than that of the steam engine, and much higher."
Rockefeller Jr. nodded frequently, indicating that he and the Sheffield hero had the same view, and said, "The internal combustion engine will become another profit point for Standard Oil besides kerosene lamps. I am very much looking forward to it."
Rockefeller Jr. actually used his imagination to the best of his ability to show that after the promotion of tractors, the oil industry could keep pace with coal, but he still underestimated the internal combustion engine. Because he did not know that the explosive progress in the automobile industry would be the vehicle for oil to completely defeat coal, not tractors.
The internal combustion engine was used in cars to create a new means of transportation - the car. Once the car came out, it defeated the steam car driven by the steam engine. From then on, oil-burning cars became the dominant force on the road. The internal combustion engine created the appearance of the car, and the car helped oil defeat coal. This is the logical chain.
But don't expect Sheffield to remind the other party of this. The difference is that he has already started mass production of tractors. Moreover, farmers in the South should at least consider the unity among Dixies. They must buy tractors from Sheffield United Company of the same quality. The automobile industry is still in the planning stage and has not yet entered the mass production stage, so no information can be leaked, even if he is actually the other party's brother-in-law.
"I don't know when William will return to Texas. I just happen to want to go to United Company to see the tractor production line!" Rockefeller Jr. asked about Sheffield's itinerary. The implication was naturally that he wanted to ask if the other party could go with him.
"I may not go back recently. I am monitoring the data of supermarket chains and acquiring beverage companies." Sheffield simply rejected Rockefeller's kindness. Because of the backward transportation in this era, he had to waste a lot of time on the road. This was unavoidable, but it did not mean that he liked to do so. In Sheffield's eyes, wasting time on the road was a very boring thing.
How much time would it take to accompany Rockefeller Jr. back to Texas and then go to the Great West?
Moreover, in Sheffield's eyes, Coca-Cola and Pepsi are not unimportant compared to oil, and are also very important industries. Yes, the United States is unlikely to declare war on a country because of a brand of beverage, but it will do so for oil.
But it's not that Coke doesn't make money, but because of the importance of oil to industry. It is an important weapon for the United States to strangle potential enemies. Coke does not have this attribute, but for businessmen, a beverage consumed by billions of people is not necessarily much worse than oil. Sheffield will not go anywhere until Coke is settled.
"That's such a pity!" Rockefeller Jr. expressed his regret. He was still very happy in his heart, because in his eyes, Sheffield's behavior was a typical case of losing the big picture for the small. Although the supermarket chain was eye-catching, it seemed that when judging the importance of an industry, it was still impossible to get rid of the agricultural product approach.
"It's nothing to regret. My biggest wish is to run a farm and solve the food problem for the citizens of the United States." Sheffield also had a trick up his sleeve.
The next morning, Rockefeller Jr., who came with great enthusiasm, left Chicago directly to inspect the internal combustion engine-powered tractors that were very important to him, and to find another profit point for Standard Oil. He had long forgotten the marriage problem of Edith that he had been trying to persuade him about when he first came.
The heir of Standard Oil proved with his actions that although old Rockefeller had only one son, he did not choose the wrong heir. As for Sheffield's trip to Chicago, his sister was there. The same was true for Edith representing the Rockefeller family.
The first company Sheffield broke through was PepsiCo. In fact, there is no company called PepsiCo now. This thing called Brad Drink is just a copycat of Coca-Cola. Now even Coca-Cola is a small thing in the eyes of many industry giants, let alone Brad Drink, a copycat of Coca-Cola?
This year is the third year since the launch of Brad's drink, and it was not even called Pepsi-Cola. Sheffield also ordered to find a copycat product that tasted similar to Coca-Cola, and only then did he find the predecessor of Pepsi-Cola.
As for the promotion of Brad Beverage, it was almost the same as Coca-Cola, except that it was advertised as having the effect of curing stomach problems. Soon, people in Sheffield found pharmacist Kolbe Bradham, the founder of Brad Beverage, and proposed to acquire Brad Beverage, offering a price of 12,000 US dollars and symbolically retaining 2% of Kolbe Bradham's shares, which was more than five times the price of Coca-Cola's first resale.
For the various beverages that can cure diseases that are now everywhere in the United States, this price is already a sky-high price. The person who came to buy it even brought Kolbe Bradham to Chicago.
"I've thought of a good name for Brad Drink, it's Pepsi-Cola!" Sheffield looked at the somewhat embarrassed founder, and the pleasure of fan fiction killing the original author burst out again.
I am so hardworking.
(End of this chapter)
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