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Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in oicq.net -> Historic -> New World 1620 Text Chapter 32 The Significance of Monopoly (2)
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- Time flies like lightning. The Phantom Club in Manchester's South District has a history of more than 20 years. In addition to the exquisite small bar that maintains its original pure wooden structure on the original site, there is also a seven-story high-end hotel building standing behind it.
Over the years, the Phantom Club, which was once favored by sailors and small clerks in the capital, has become a gathering place for the dignitaries of the upper class, and has become increasingly distant from ordinary citizens.
Unlike the so-called high-end stone buildings that use a large amount of concrete, gypsum, coal ash, and cheap artificial marble (terrazzo) processed from crushed stone, the Phantom Hotel almost entirely uses pure natural marble and granite. Overflowing with nobility under the luxurious decoration, it is the most valuable real estate owned by Yungling Group and one of the top landmark buildings in the southern district of Manchester besides the Parliament Building.
The cage-like retro elevator with metal fence and steam power rose to the top floor. When Deng Mingquan stepped out of the elevator, he tidied up his expensive handmade woolen windbreaker and applied hair oil on it. hair, and then signaled the hotel attendant to open the high-end business private room opposite for him.
The spacious business private room is covered with red carpets, and the walls and ceilings are elegantly decorated. There are also several mahogany wine cabinets of different heights placed in the corners, with a full range of famous wines, and a set of ring-shaped sofas. Wei also formed a circle in the center of the private room.
There are already many acquaintances sitting on the sofa, but as time goes by, the acquaintances are no longer young and vigorous, and some of them have gray hair on their temples.
After handing the windbreaker to the attendant and saying hello to a few people with whom he had the best relationship, Deng Mingquan felt a bad look on him.
Looking for a feeling, I turned my head and saw a luxuriously dressed lady sitting in a corner with a smile but not a smile. There was a hint of sneer and mockery in her eyes that was not easy to detect.
Before Deng Mingquan could speak, Zhang Li stood up and walked towards a small door on one side. There was also a smaller private room there, which was dedicated to discussing more topics.
When Deng Mingquan followed him into the private room. As soon as Zhang Li, who was sitting firmly on the throne, raised her hand, the attendant beside her picked up the bottle and poured two glasses of golden wine, and then quietly left.
"Haha, Sister Zhang looks good today. She is not at home with your old man this New Year's Day, but she is here to attend such a flashy party. By the way, I heard that your second daughter gave birth to a fat grandson for you last month. It seems that I have to prepare a big gift!"
They are all business partners for many years, or old comrades in the same camp and faction, and Deng Mingquan is not polite. He grabbed the wine glass and sat down opposite Zhang Li carelessly.
"Brother Deng, don't pretend to be stupid. Let's have a glass of wine alone here. My sister naturally has something to ask" Zhang Li snorted coldly, tilted her head to one side, and then a message came out of nowhere. The documents that came were thrown on the wine table, "We have said unkind words before, but your old brother Deng has been doing unkind things all year round."
Deng Mingquan seems to have known for a long time that this competitor has been staring at him closely, and he does not look at what the opponent throws at this time. He just spread his hands with a smile on his face: "Sister Zhang, isn't it just hundreds of tons of nanmu oil? If you throw it into the domestic market, it won't even make a splash, and you will only make a small profit. Why are you talking to you again?" Old Brother Deng cares?"
The document is a piece of business intelligence sent back to China by the North American Standard Oil Group's business representative in the Far East. The content is that last month, Huamei Wood Group secretly sent hundreds of tons of nanmu oil produced in the Far East to domestic oil agents.
"Carry about it? If I really cared about it, I wouldn't treat you to a drink today!" Zhang Li's face changed. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the wine glass and rubbed the surface of the glass with his fingers. "You have the ability to sell it to Europe. I have no objection. Everyone can just turn a blind eye. Why do you have to target the domestic market? Why? Don¡¯t you do what you agreed upon?¡±
As soon as these words came out, the wine in Deng Mingquan's glass rippled slightly, and a trace of anger gradually appeared on his face.
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The conflict between Standard Oil Group of North America and Huamei Wood Group in the fuel production and sales market only came into conflict in the past year or two. Although it did not last long, it soon became a difficult topic among liberals.
Since the 16th century, the production of expensive whale oil has been scarce, but the demand for fuel for lighting in Europe has been rising. Many merchants and even alchemists have been looking for ways to extract flammable fuel from other substances.
Even in the mid-19th century, due to backward resource collection technology, the price of crude oil was extremely high when the modern oil industry in North America just started. Converted to the value of Chinese and American currency in this era, one ton of crude oil is more than 100 US dollars, and even close to 200 US dollars in some areas.
American oil merchants in the mid-19th century refined oil fromThe sales of fuel oil to Europe are very profitable. Even if other by-products are not included, the huge profits in the early stages of the development of petrochemical industry can be seen.
Zhang Li was the first capitalist in China to invest in the petrochemical industry by relying on An Shaoqing's pillow style. Although cheaper oil cannot yet be truly extracted within the national territory, oil shale and coal tar processing have allowed Zhang Li's North American Standard Oil Group to grow rapidly like a fattened pig.
Standard Oil Group of North America has become the number one oligopoly in Huamei¡¯s mineral fuel oil production, but no one will just watch as Zhang Li¡¯s family monopolizes Huamei¡¯s fuel oil market 100%.
So in the past twenty years, both the state-owned energy and mining group with deep pockets and the Xinhua Chemical Group with strong technical strength have all had a foot in this industry. It was only Zhang Li who relied on her good communication skills and one-step advantage to establish the market monopoly of Standard Oil Group of North America.
With the current petrochemical processing technology, the cost of raw material extraction, processing and processing of oil shale is too high. Therefore, the total annual output of fuel oil refined from shale oil and coal tar in Huamei has just exceeded 10,000 tons, of which North American standards Petroleum Group accounts for 60%, and the remaining Xinhua Chemical Group and the state-owned energy and mining group each receive half.
This total output is completely insufficient for Huamei, which is undergoing a high degree of urbanization and rapid development of modern industry. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry, the domestic consumption of various types of fuel last year is not counted as industrial consumption. The consumption of ordinary local households, local municipal public lighting, and coastal lighthouses alone has exceeded 8,000 tons.
¡°The vast majority of fuel oil produced locally in Huamei, especially mineral oils mainly refined from shale oil, is supplied to the domestic market, and only a small amount can be exported to Europe. In recent years, there has even been a record of suspension of exports.
According to the private marketing agreement signed between Standard Oil Group and Xinhua Chemical Group many years ago, the former completely gave up the export of lamp oil to Europe, while the latter was not allowed to sell even one milliliter of lamp oil in China and the United States.
Zhang Lilei¡¯s unshakable position is to stick to her monopoly position in the domestic market. This is why Zhang Li has always been very wary of any competitors in private, and has spent huge financial resources and energy to consolidate her monopoly position and strive to improve her company¡¯s production efficiency.
Just last year, Zhang Li also teamed up with Zhou Junting, Lin Youde and others to use means to influence Congress and Binzhou local council to argue that "under non-industrial hard demand, the current domestic small thermal or hydroelectric power stations are too expensive and have an impact on the environment." "too large". The commencement of urban public power lighting projects in many Binzhou towns, including Jiangling City, Binzhou's second largest city, was forcibly postponed.
The real reason behind the scenes is that the electric lighting projects in these large towns will greatly affect the sales of lamp oil in Binzhou. In short, I just don¡¯t have enough lamp oil production, and I don¡¯t allow large-scale substitutes for lamp oil to appear at this stage.
The scene in which European and American coachmen desperately tried to slander and block trains was also dramatically staged in China and the United States.
In order to repay the support of Lin Youde and others, or to make up for the losses of Norinco in the production of power generation equipment, Zhang Li also generously injected a large amount of research funds into Norinco for long-term research and development of internal combustion engines that will have strong demand for oil in the future.
Deng Mingquan is the person who personally dislikes the dominance of Zhang Li's family the most, and his own ambitions are not small. Therefore, they deliberately developed a large-scale planting industry of Phoebe oleifera in the Far East and Southeast Asia, hoping to enter the domestic fuel oil market.
Although large-scale harvesting of Phoebe oil in Lanfang and Ming Dynasty Hainan Islands will take at least a year, the several thousand acres of Phoebe oil experimental forests owned by Huamei Wood Industry Group overseas in Mingzhu Island are already producing. Last year, nearly one thousand tons of nanmu oil was sold in the Far East and Europe. A lot of profit.
Phoebe oil is known as natural diesel in later generations. It can directly replace diesel without any processing. As a high-grade lamp oil, it is of excellent quality. After all production, operation and transportation costs are factored in, the total cost of biomass fuel produced by Huamei Wood in the Far East is only US$75 per ton.
Although the planting and collection cycle of Phoebe oleifera trees is relatively long. But once a long-term scale is formed, it can defeat any mineral fuel manufacturer in China and the United States in this era.
On the other hand, Zhang Li and others had not really obtained the shallow oil resources in western Binzhou. In order to solve the outrageous high cost problem of the shale oil and petrochemical industry, Standard Oil Group of North America has invested heavily in improving various production processes and technical processes over the years. Improve processing efficiency and dig deeper into the value of by-products, but even so, the domestic cost of each ton of mineral fuel oil will definitely exceed US$100 per ton.
In other words, whether it is sold locally or exported to Europe, several local mineral fuel manufacturers headed by Zhang Li, when the market price remains relatively unchanged, their products?The profit will be significantly lower than that of Huamei Wood Industry Group. The most serious thing is that it is very likely that Huamei Wood will gradually lose its market dominance in the next ten years as it continues to expand its biomass fuel production.
For this reason, Zhang Li and Zhou Junting quickly joined forces after receiving the news. In a secret negotiation last year, the two families reached an understanding agreement with Deng Mingquan. Each of the two companies gave up part of their market monopoly share, but clearly stipulated that the biomass fuel sold by Huamei Wood in China (including overseas territories) and Europe should not exceed 300 tons each year, and the rest can only be sold in other regions, or will be The sales agency rights were given to Zhang and Zhou.
In order to comply with this new market monopoly agreement, Zhang Li also honestly reduced the shale oil processing output and export volume in the Far East. But the fact is that after Deng Mingquan used up his sales share in the agreement early last year, exports to the Far East were blocked due to the situation in Ming Dynasty, so he privately shipped another batch of biomass fuel to the mainland for sale. As a result, he was stared at by his business competitors. Zhang Li got the handle.
The amount is a small issue, but the rules are a big issue. This is probably the reason for Zhang Li's strong dissatisfaction. Who can guarantee that Deng Mingquan will secretly transport back hundreds of tons without complying with the rules today, and will he secretly transport back thousands of tons in the future?
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The atmosphere in the small private room was dull, with only the mechanical wall clock making a dull and hollow sound. Zhang Li looked unhappy, while Deng Mingquan also looked livid.
At this moment, the private room door opened, and Zhou Junting, chairman of the board of directors of Xinhua Chemical Group, walked in with an elegant smile.
"Haha. Brother Deng and Sister Zhang are actually drinking in such a small dark room? It's hard to find Why, Sister Zhang is still using Brother Deng as a punching bag?"
After saying that, he looked at Zhang Li meaningfully. After getting some kind of feedback from the other party, Zhou Junting calmly sat on the other side of the sofa near Zhang Li.
Zhou Junting's appearance and unexpected politeness gave Deng Mingquan a bad feeling. Because he and Zhou Junting have become in-laws since the beginning of last year, and strictly speaking, they are already extremely close and die-hard allies. But in the current atmosphere, it seems that Zhou Junting is completely on Zhang Li's side.
"Haha I thought it was a big deal" A few minutes later, Deng Mingquan let out a long sigh and drank the wine in his hand mockingly. Then he stood up and said, "Sister Zhang, Lao Zhou, I definitely don't have the intention to be harmonious. But what I'm curious about is, why are you two staring at me so closely? Speaking of the biggest competitor in the future, the state-owned energy and mining industry The group is the biggest threat, right?¡±
After saying that, Deng Mingquan personally filled Zhou Junting's glass of wine and patted him on the shoulder as a joke: "Speaking of which, Lao Zhou and I are in-laws. The three of us are comrades in the trenches in the Eastern Union Group, but in the In other respects, you, Lao Zhou, are still overwhelming everyone."
After years of hard work, Zhou Junting knows almost every collaborator or competitor. I quickly understood what Deng Mingquan was referring to.
Indeed, the only real domestic industrial monopoly giant at present is Xinhua Chemical Group, even if the two industrial giants Northern and General Motors are combined. Maybe they may not be the opponents of Xinhua Chemical Group. Zhou Junting holds a monopoly on various chemical technology patents, which are currently the lifeblood of domestic industrial development.
"Old Deng, I'm hosting a party here today. I don't mean to embarrass you. Sister Zhang's attitude is not to cut off your financial path, Old Deng." Looking carefully at the eyes of his in-laws, Zhou Junting let go after a minute Wine Glass, "Both Zhang Li and Lao Deng are here today, so let me make it clear: now we have reached a critical juncture!"
"oh?"
Perhaps he didn¡¯t expect Zhou Junting, who was always confident, to be so cautious and serious. Deng Mingquan couldn¡¯t help but sit up straight.
"In another year, the technology patents registered by a large number of brothers and sisters in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China will expire one after another, and then the patents will be nationalized, including the coal tar patent in my hand and the shale oil patent in Zhang Li's hand. Patents." Zhou Junting frowned and pointed in the direction of the government office area, "According to the tone of Guan Ruzhong's cabinet before the holiday, they are preparing to implement the policy of foreign commercial authorization or auction transfer of state-owned patents. In other words, once these production patents are leaked out, The good days of our three families may be coming to an end"
"Humph, we have control of the Congress, it won't be so easy for him to continue, right?"
Looking at the unhappy expressions of Zhou Junting and Zhang Li, Deng Mingquan suddenly felt a little happy in his heart, but on the surface he still pretended to be very caring and supportive of each other.
After all, the biomass fuel industry is just a side job that can be consumed as long as you can, and it has no connection with these patents. Even if more capital enters the field of mineral fuel production in the future, in terms of petrochemical production technology in this era,Until truly cheap crude oil is mined, it will not be able to compete with his Phoebe oil for at least ten years.
"Don't you think it has a lot to do with you? Then I can also reveal that Xinhua Chemical Group's patents for wood retorting, wood tar, vegetable oil saponification, and paint processing will also expire. Previously, I only authorized it to you and Sun Can you guess what will happen to Yang and other few companies in the future?"
Probably knowing what Deng Mingquan was thinking, Zhou Junting added a little sneer in his tone: "If I guessed correctly, you only expanded the wood distillation production base in Haimen City, Haizhou last year. It is said that several companies, including Hong Changlin, are interested in it after next year. Set up a similar company. By the way, there are also several papermaking patents of yours. It is said that they will expire next year and be nationalized, right?"
"Are you saying that all these will be publicly authorized by the state?" Hearing this didn't matter, Deng Mingquan's face turned ugly when he thought about it again, "Again, as long as we have the final say in the Congress, Guan Ruzhong can't even think about messing up. Come!"
"You think too simply! As long as legislation is not involved, Congress has no power to interfere with the government's daily administrative decisions! Guan Ruzhong is smart enough to give up on the promotion of corresponding industrial legislation and purely follow the existing patents There is absolutely no point in making policies based on the content of the law. Moreover, who would stop such a good opportunity to legally obtain state-owned patents and product production rights?"
"After next year, everyone will rush to do industries that were not available before. Today the three of us can sit here and talk, but what about the future? How about I join the wood distillation and paper production next year?"
Zhang Li also sneered and directly stopped Deng Mingquan's idea of ??staying out of the matter.
"Okay, Lao Zhou, Zhang Li, what do you think we should do"
After taking one look at the two super capitalists who were absolutely standing together, Deng Mingquan knew that he didn't have much room to escape.
¡°There is no way, just use it as it comes, but we need everyone to cooperate resolutely.¡± At this time, Zhou Junting finally showed his usual confident smile. "Establish an industry alliance and implement an industrial alliance agreement. In other words, it is a standard 'cartel' monopoly organization. Of course, to make it sound nicer, this industry alliance will be packaged as an 'industry association' on the surface."
Cartel was officially born in Germany in the mid-19th century, but its predecessors can be traced back to the handicraft alliances in European cities before the 15th century. As one of the capitalist monopoly organizations. Cartels have monopoly control over commodity production, market prices, and market supply in the form of industry alliances.
Even after the emergence of anti-monopoly, cartels are the most common form of industrial collusion, pursuing the expansion and maintenance of the overall interests of the industry ¡°justly¡±, such as OPEC, the most famous oil export organization in later generations. But the consequences are also serious. It will turn a competitive market into a monopoly market, which is a typical oligopoly market and a monopolistic enterprise alliance that will be resolutely resisted by the anti-monopoly tide in later generations.
"However, Huamei has long been a tacit monopoly in industrial manufacturing and related markets, and there is not much competition at all. Therefore, even if the cartel appears on the stage, it will only change from an exclusive monopoly to a peer monopoly after the scale of the industry expands.
"The three of us each have our own advantageous industries, but only in the field of fuel production. As long as the three of us first establish the 'Huamei Fuel Industry Association', with the production scale, business channels and market share we now have, we will be able to Anyone who wants to be in this business has to join in. Those who don¡¯t want to join in, we can also use the simplest method to destroy it at the initial stage"
The elegance, nobility and shopping mall domineering that Zhang Li has cultivated over the years are combined at this time, and the straightforward words she speaks make Zhou Junting feel a little cold down his back.
"Haha, since it's good for everyone, I'd love it. But how to do it specifically?" Deng Mingquan thought about it for a while and felt it was very reliable. Then he stared at Zhou Junting with a smile, "Old Zhou, otherwise you will be the president. Do you think so?"
"Haha, I still have more troubles to deal with there. I'm just the head of the fuel business. It's up to you to decide who can do it best. You think so, Sister Zhang? As for me, I still have a few brothers outside. Let¡¯s talk, I¡¯ll trouble you two to come up with a result here, I will firmly cooperate!¡±
Zhou Junting is not modest, but he will face many more industrial competition problems in the future than the other two. Perhaps he will be the busiest person in this industry briefing meeting that he leads.
"Well, since Lao Zhou has so thoughtfully arranged for everyone to get together, I have to consider my other business plans. I think Zhang will be the president of the Fuel Association. Whether it is to control production in the future, or I firmly support any price war!"
After being educated by Zhou Junting and Zhang Li, now?All Deng Mingquan's thoughts went to how to maintain his old business of papermaking and wood processing, and he had no time to continue his intrigues with Zhang Li over the fuel business.
"The two old brothers believe in me, Zhang Li, so I will definitely protect everyone's interests and reduce everyone's burden."
Seeing that the goal had been achieved, Zhang Li finally showed an elegant smile.
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The gathering privately organized by Zhou Junting during the New Year's Day in 1646 was the prelude to a large-scale private connection between Chinese and American industrial capitalist groups.
¡°In the following more than a month, the heads of various large industrial enterprises controlled by the traversers, including the two industrial groups Northern and General Motors, successively began various forms of communication with each other.
Strictly speaking, Guan Ruzhong has revealed that he will gradually open up the commercial authorization of state-owned patents in the next year. This is not a true anti-monopoly and cannot shake the status of domestic elite monopoly capital. Its main purpose is to break the relationship between various elite monopoly capitalists. The artificial closed development idea of ??each doing his or her own thing.
This idea is Guan Ruzhong's helpless move. Although it will intensify the monopoly of various markets in a certain period of time, it also expands Huamei's industrial scale in disguise, allowing more ordinary private capital to have a place and legally enter Huamei. Industrialize large-scale production areas and improve China's national industrialization process.
¡°Perhaps in Guan Ruzhong¡¯s view, the current exclusive monopoly is not as good as the monopoly of the same industry, at least the latter can promote industrial scale.
As long as these industrial oligarchs who can influence Congress think they are fully prepared, the long-awaited "Industrial Scale Promotion Act" may be less hindered. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster! - Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report
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