Chapter 88： Tractor loan

While Sodaval and Hestina had a wonderful time, the Ploiesti Machinery Plant was also commissioned. In accordance with the usual practice, the Ploiesti Machinery Plant, which has an investment of up to 620,000 pounds, will definitely be attended by Crown Prince Edel. In fact, the crown prince did come to inspect it, not because of its size, but because of its products. A week after the machinery factory was put into production, Edel brought his guards to inspect. Plant Director Podos Rico greeted him with a group of current machinery factory executives. As the director of the assembly workshop, Sovalier also had a seat on the tail of the welcoming team.

The director of Portos Rico has been a little depressed recently. His baby daughter Hestina and Sovaril have been fighting hot recently, which makes him feel a little uncomfortable. It felt like his treasure for many years had been stolen by a thief, which made him feel angry every time he saw Sovalier. Sovaril certainly knew Hestina's father's unfriendly attitude towards him, but there was no way, who made him like Hestina. Now regardless of the relationship between the two future sons-in-law, Edel's car came to the door of the machinery factory.

A large group of high-level managers of the machinery factory immediately came to welcome the crown prince, under the leadership of the regained director of Portosliku. In fact, Edel has been a bit depressed recently. Since the two maids knew that he might marry the Austro-Hungarian princess, they began to ask for them frantically during the evening rest. The tiger couldn't stand a pack of wolves either, and Edel was soon defeated by the offensive of the two maids. If it hadn't been for his young body and strong resilience, he now estimates that his walking would be sour. Wouldn't he have escaped the inspection this time?

"I have seen your Highness." After seeing Edel stepping out of the car, a group of senior machinery factory officials saluted the crown prince under the leadership of Podos Rico.

"Okay, you are welcome."

After hearing the crown prince’s greeting, a group of people straightened up and stood aside. Under the leadership of the director of Portosliku, Edel walked into the factory.

Podosriku knew what the crown prince wanted to see, and directly took him to the few tractors that the factory had just built and introduced it. "Your Majesty, please look at this. This is a Volker tractor just made by our factory. It is designed with large and small wheels. The diameter of the two front wheels is 60 cm and the width is 10 cm. The diameter of the rear wheel under the driving position is 120 cm. Cm, 25 cm wide. This can effectively ensure that it runs on fields and dirt roads. He uses a 28-horsepower dual-cylinder inline diesel engine developed by the power laboratory to ensure the efficiency of this tractor. Please see, your Highness, and we It is also equipped with a large number of agricultural tools, so that it can be versatile in the countryside."

Edel followed his finger and saw that several tractors were neatly put together. One of them also has a plow, a rake, a small flour grinder, and a trailer for cargo, which fully demonstrates the versatility of the tractor. These are all Eder's talks about the future tractor and its main function to Portos Ricku, and now he put it here, it is not a manifestation of his own thinking.

"Director Podos Rico, you did a good job," Edel told him, looking at the tractor in front of him.

"Half of this tractor is the credit of your Royal Highness, I just made it." After receiving the crown prince's praise, Podos Rico gave the crown prince a little flattering.

After hearing the words of Director Portos Rico, Edel did not intend to struggle too much in this regard, and continued to ask. "How about the output of this tractor? How much do you plan to sell? How many people are interested in it?"

After hearing Edel’s question, the director of Podos Rico first talked about the production situation. "His Royal Highness, we have only started production now, and the personnel are not yet familiar with these equipment. Now we can only produce 20 tractors a day. I guarantee that in half a year, we will increase the output to 45 tractors."

After talking about the output, the director of Podos Rico talked about the price. "Because our tractors are generally used in the countryside. Taking into account the complex terrain in the countryside and the high requirements for durability, we plan to sell around 4500 lei."

Edel would sell for 180 pounds, which is not more expensive than the Model T, so I asked him a little puzzled. "Is this a bit too expensive?"

After hearing the words of the crown prince, the director of Portosriku added. "The main reason is that the production cost of diesel engines is a bit high, and the amount of rubber is relatively large (please refer to the current tractor tires). We must sell at this price to make a profit.

Edel continued to ask. "Then have you considered whether the market can accept it?"

Manager Portos Rico replied. "We have investigated that this tractor is quite suitable for people with large fields. There are almost 3,000 vehicles in our domestic market. Now our tractor is more advanced and fuel-efficient than the British Holt's tractor company. , I believe there is a demand for almost 50,000 vehicles in Europe, and even more sales in the United States."

Eder heard that he did not comment on the domestic estimate, because he knew that the director of Podos Rico had underestimated it. There are now 6.13 million hectares of arable land for major crops in Romania, and these lands are now basically cultivated with storage. Romania's land area is now 160,000 square kilometers, and 80% of the country's land area is plains. Excluding rivers, cities, roads, swamps, etc., the land that can be developed into arable land is about 4.5 million hectares.

The reason that restricts Romania's continued development is that there is not enough manpower to develop it. The total population of Romania is now 7.64 million. After deducting the urban population, there are 5.18 million people living in the countryside. The per capita planting area of ​​1.18 hectares of arable land can be regarded as the limit of energy-storing farming.

Considering that the tractor is more than four times more powerful, it is not as squeamish as the livestock. This tractor is put on the market, allowing Romania to cultivate more land to grow food. It will also allow more people to enter the city to expand Romania’s industry. Edel knew that in order to make money in World War I, food would be the key. Others can be tolerated, and there are substitutes to be exchanged, but food is not good. This is a must. Romania will be able to obtain sufficient profits from both camps in the future by relying on food, which is why he must first strengthen the army.

Edel talked about it after listening to the answer from the director of Portos Rico. "In view of domestic sales, you can initiate tractor loan business with ICBC."

Director Podos Rico couldn't keep up with the Crown Prince's forward thinking, so he had to ask. "His Royal Highness, what is a tractor loan?"

Edel saw this situation, so he had to tell him carefully about the pattern of lousy streets in his previous life. "This kind of loan business is to buy a tractor and you can only pay a certain percentage of the money. The other money is loaned to the buyer by the bank on the basis of the buyer's mortgage.

The director of Podos Liku still didn't understand a little bit, so he asked carefully. "His Royal Highness means that I sell a tractor of five thousand lei, and the buyer only spends two thousand five hundred lei, and the bank will give me the rest for him, right?"

The crown prince understood this pattern when he saw the director of Podos Rico, and replied satisfactorily. "Yes, that's what you said. The other part is the buyer's loan from the bank After learning about the situation of the machinery factory from the manager of Portosliku, Edel visited the factory again Walk around. Generally speaking, he is still satisfied with the inspection. Now Edel is worried that the tractor output will not keep up. After the inspection is completed, he told the director of Portos Rico before getting on the car. "Now I am right. The output of this tractor is quite promising, but your output is very problematic. "

Portosriku said after hearing the crown prince’s concerns. "His Royal Highness, I have a plan for this a long time ago. This is based on the method of Volkswagen. As long as there is a hot sign, we will continue to recruit people and transfer the current workers to three shifts. Gradually bring new people to work. In my It is estimated that only one week of buffer technology will increase the daily output to more than 25 vehicles."

After hearing what Podos Rico had said with confidence, Edel said something. "I believe you can do it well." He got in the car and went back.

A month later, the Volker tractor produced by the Ploiesti Machinery Plant was launched. After the first batch of more than 600 tractors are put on the market. Relying on the excellent quality, low cost of use (the price of diesel was less than one-third of gasoline at the time), and the versatile performance, the market response was quite good. Three hundred vehicles in the European market took only 7 days to sell It's over. The 300 vehicles launched in the country were sold out in just three days because of the Crown Prince’s idea.

Podos Rico realized that the plan he had done before was a joke. The only way to do this is to follow the pre-plan and ask the crown prince to add an additional £200,000, and then find a bank loan of £400,000 to urgently purchase equipment from Germany to expand the factory.

When the tractor met the same treatment as Volkswagen before, Edel was sitting in his office listening to the chief guard report on the changes in Romania over the past five years.