Chapter 38 Chemical Power
"I'm so busy!" Sheffield was busy building his own happiness on the pain of others. He spread his hands and said, "For now, I still have countries to visit, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom. They involve chemicals, firearms, and there are many other projects."
"I'll talk to Susan and let Annie go with you. This is all for your own good." Harry Sheffield snapped his fingers as if he had found a great opportunity. He was not interested in where his son was going. Anyway, he was not going.
"Thank you!" Sheffield forced a smile and nodded as the old man spoke. "I didn't expect the patent licensing to go so smoothly. Grandma is right."
"That was mainly the plan of my father. When the Franco-Prussian War broke out, my father was already seriously ill, but he stabilized the situation among the French people at that time by importing and exporting agricultural products in his personal name. That was how the relationship was established. It has nothing to do with me." Harry Sheffield shrugged and did not take credit in front of his son.
I learned! Sheffield suddenly understood, is agriculture a big stick? The industrial problem is whether you can survive well. The agricultural problem is whether you can survive. Kissinger said: If you control oil, you control all countries; if you control food, you control all people.
Agricultural hegemony is also the most stable hegemony of the United States in later generations. Through low tariffs and free trade, the agricultural products of the United States have shattered the food markets of most countries.
Haiti, one of the two major bootlickers of the United States, suffered this treatment in later generations. After the tariff threshold was lowered, American rice, which enjoyed federal government subsidies, quickly occupied the Haitian food market with its price advantage of being half the price of Haitian rice, and eventually reached more than 80% of the market share. A large number of farmers lost their jobs and the agricultural industry was destroyed.
You have to know that Haiti's food self-sufficiency rate was 95% before, and it is definitely not a country with insufficient agricultural foundation. To deal with populous countries like Japan and South Korea, or even desert countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the United States does not need to send troops to the border. It can cause widespread famine with just a flick of the finger through the international food suppliers in its hands.
In the field of agriculture alone, not to mention ordinary countries, even the Republic is no match. The United States will definitely have a lower price for the same crop. This is already good, and it can also maintain domestic food stability. For ordinary countries, the United States will raise the agricultural stick, which is enough to cause unrest in its opponents.
However, when thinking about the issue of agricultural products, Sheffield frowned slightly and said to the old man, "The price of domestic agricultural products is rising now. If we export them at a low price, what if this gets out?"
"To hell with those Yankees! Just do it!" Harry Sheffield said with disdain, "I heard from Richie Martin that the domestic economy is in recession and panic is spreading. It's their own panic buying that caused the price to go up. What does it have to do with us?"
"That makes sense!" Sheffield put his hands in his pockets, as if he had been persuaded.
"So you should take Anne with you. She has no one around her, so you can easily take her down." The old man clenched his fists and said shamelessly, "When I came to Paris, I was invincible with marquises, countesses, congressmen, banks, and financiers. At most, I met them three times and they succumbed to my personal charm."
"It's the money!" Sheffield endured the spit flying around, dodged the range with a tactical backward move, and added coldly, "I heard that this disease is rampant in Paris. As a son, I'd better remind you to be careful."
Sheffield really didn't want to put up with the old man's relapse, so he pointed at the ceiling and said, "Time is running out. I'm going to Belgium soon to discuss the issue of patent authorization. Then I'll go to the German Empire to investigate the chemical industry, and finally to London. London is where my grandmother told me to go."
The United States can export very few competitive products these days, and even the quality of its ancestral gun-making skills is not as good as Belgium's. But guns don't really require quality, as long as they don't explode and kill people.
Sheffield also doesn't appreciate things with too good quality. If the product quality is too good, wouldn't it destroy the market rules? Therefore, it is better to have a suitable point for quality issues, ensuring both scale and sales volume and quality. The former is more important than the latter.
Take Standard Oil for example. The reason why it successfully broke out of America and went to the world was inseparable from the discovery of the Pennsylvania oil field, which was the largest oil field discovered in the world at that time.
As for the Middle East, which became famous all over the world in later generations, the widely circulated saying at that time was that it was impossible to have oil under the vast desert of the Middle East. Rockefeller's Standard Oil seems so powerful now because at that time only the oil fields in Pennsylvania had large-scale production, which allowed Standard Oil to successfully break out of America and go to the world.
But in fact, no one talks about how powerful Saudi Arabia, a similar role in later generations, is. Just like the Republic cannot brag about the strength of its rare earth industry. You have occupied the source for so many years, so it is reasonable that you should be more powerful.
It was not until the 20th century when oil began to be used commercially on a large scale that it became the lifeblood of industry. However, this does not mean that the value of oil was not demonstrated in the 19th century. Kerosene separated from oil made oil an important resource for the first time. But it is not entirely true that it is more important than coal.
DuPont only seemed powerful in the United States, but in the field of chemical industry, Sheffield still felt that the Germans should be trusted. After all, as a senior German fan, he could remember a series of sarin and mustard gas, which were all completed by Farben Chemical Company. The world's number one was well-known, and it was definitely better than DuPont.
Harry Sheffield sent his son to the train station, took out a card and handed it to him, saying, "This is the contact information of the former president of Deutsche Bank's Paris branch, Gregor Sidon. If you encounter any difficulties in Germany, he might be able to help."
"Since you have the connections in this area, why don't you come with me?" Sheffield was about to raise his hand, but was pulled back by Anne who was holding his arm.
"I'm so busy!" Harry Sheffield refused solemnly. German women were really not within his appetite. "I even considered your life and persuaded Countess Susan to let Anne take care of you. What if you get lost during your first visit to Europe? You are the only heir in the family."
Sheffield got on the train without looking back, and the old man started chatting with the three people on the road below. It would be better to use this time to think about how to obtain patent authorization at a lower cost.
(End of this chapter)
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