Chapter 338: The Arms Dealer Who Was Pitied
Chapter 328 – The Pitted Arms Dealer
The northern government was in trouble, and the southern government wasn’t much better. The first thing is the internal power struggle, the Confederate government that has just been formed is entirely the result of compromise and balance among the states.
As an improvised straw man, executive power naturally could not be counted on. Most of the affairs have to be established in the state government to cooperate with the situation, in order to carry out.
Under a dual leadership, all sorts of confusion are inevitable.
After the victory of the Battle of Cincinnati, it should have taken advantage of the victory and concentrated on ending the industrial centers of the Northern government at one stroke, but it turned out that the Southern government was striking on all sides.
Successive attacks were made on the bordering states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.
The four-front attack seemed to be a powerful and realized the imperial enemy, but it was also a lost opportunity to end the war quickly.
This kind of stalemate war was the favorite of the Great Powers, and arms merchants from all over the world gathered in North America, wanting to divide the feast.
Inside a manor house in Missouri, the owner, John Casey, smiled and asked, “Finkel, how’s the talk going?”
Finkel hung his head and said, “Forget it, my friend. This business is impossible, the state government actually wants to purchase breechloading rifles.
God, the dominant weapon in the world right now is the front-loading rifle. Besides, what’s the difference between a bullet loaded from the front and a bullet loaded from the back, doesn’t it all just shoot out?”
For the sake of this war, Finkel had gotten two hundred artillery pieces and thirty thousand rifles, ready to make a fortune while he had the chance. The artillery was naturally sold at a high price, but the rifles were not so lucky.
During the war years, everyone was the most realistic and used whatever weapon worked well. There was no doubt that the breechloading rifles, which could be shot lying down, were more competitive than the front-loading rifles.
The Confederate government was already at a disadvantage in manpower, and although it went from a historical 1:2 to 2:3, they still couldn’t afford to die, and the state wanted to minimize soldier casualties as much as possible.
John Casey shrugged and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you on that one. If it was normal times, it wouldn’t be hard to convince the state government to purchase a bunch of weapons, but this is a time of war.
We have to take the military’s opinion into consideration, everything is about winning the war. The breech-loading rifles provided by the Austrians do work well, and I’ve even tried them myself.
Both the rate of fire and the hit rate are greatly improved. The only weakness, probably, is the lack of range, but that’s not much of a weakness.
Above the battlefield, most soldiers can only have hits to speak of within two hundred meters, and a range of eight hundred meters is enough.”
Finkel grumbled in retaliation, “Damn, if you knew why didn’t you tell me? It caused me to waste my energy for nothing, if I had known, I would have gone to the north, I came here for your sake.”
John Casey said without changing his face, “This is not of your own making, who told me that the weapons in his hands are the most advanced in the world?”
Finkel said disgruntledly, “My lot is indeed the most advanced in the world, at least among front-bore guns.”
John Casey said helplessly, “Well, even if that’s true, it doesn’t help. Who let you come late, if it was a month earlier, this batch of guns would have been open for acquisition by the government.
Not anymore, the facts have proven that the front-bore guns are being phased out. The government won’t joke with the lives of its soldiers by procuring this backward equipment.
Why don’t you modify this batch of guns, I’ve read that it’s not difficult to convert them into breech rifles. Although it adds a little bit of cost, can’t it all be earned back later?”
Finkel frowned, a flash of dissatisfaction. Conversion was easy to say, but this wasn’t Europe, it was the American South, and there weren’t many factories capable of converting rifles.
And one of them was John Casey’s arsenal. It was said to be an arsenal, but in reality it had only just been remodeled.
Before the North-South split, it was still just a machine shop. But John Casey shrewd, the South just declared independence he ordered equipment from Europe, and from the country’s several arsenals to dig people, the machine shop into an arsenal.
It was naturally impossible to develop a new type of weapon with a hastily created haystack.
The production capacity also did not meet John Casey’s expectations, and now it could only produce three artillery pieces, eight hundred rifles, and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition per month.
To utilize the full capacity of the production line, it would be impossible to do so without a year or two.
Obviously this was something John Casey could not wait for. Who knew how long this civil war would last, and once it was over, it would be a problem for the arsenal to survive.
The advent of the breech-loading rifle gave John Casey a turnaround. Converting to a front-bore rifle would undoubtedly be much quicker than producing a line of rifles.
With his connections in Missouri, he would have no problem at all selling the old converted rifles to the government for the price of a new one.
However, not every gun could be converted; there were rifles that were easy to convert, and there were rifles that cost more to convert than they were worth.
The tens of thousands of rifles that Finkel had were undoubtedly suitable for modification. The relationship between the two was not bad, but in the face of interests, relationships were the least reliable.
John Casey’s arsenal equipment was bought from Finkel, and now that the wind and water had turned, this time he was ready to ruthlessly slaughter Finkel.
As for whether Finkel would refuse, naturally, he wouldn’t. As long as you use your brain to think about it, you know that this batch of guns can’t be sold in the south, and still can’t be sold in the north.
Can’t expect the Austrian arms merchants to just sell weapons to the southern government, but not sell arms to the northern government, right?
The breech-loading rifle is not a high-tech product, get the sample want to copy the time of a month, if Austria does not sell European countries will still sell.
Moreover, the northern government will make its own copy. Now the United States is the world’s number one copycat country, copying a rifle is not easy?
After leaving the American market, it would be difficult to market these tens of thousands of rifles again. It would be difficult to sell these tens of thousands of rifles without the American market, and considering the increased transportation costs, it would be better to cooperate and make some money.
Finkel directly said, “Alright, my friend make an offer, as long as the price is right I’ll sell it to you.”
As a qualified arms dealer, since he had guessed John Casey’s purpose, he naturally wouldn’t choose to modify it and be pitted for another sum of money.
John Casey smilingly quoted, “Twenty-five thousand pounds.”
Hearing this figure, Finkel immediately became furious and stood up and said, “Why don’t you go rob?”
John Casey comforted, “As for the fuss, my friend. In business, this kind of obsolete weapon is now worthless.
Other than making modifications, you’ll just have to sell them to the indigenous tribes, so many guns you’re going to sell until that year?
It’s also risky for me to acquire these guns for modification. Modification takes time, and in case the civil war ends suddenly, it’s all in your hands.
For the sake of an old friend, I’ll add another three thousand pounds, which is already the highest price.
You should know that the Southern government has just signed a huge military order with Austria, they sold two hundred thousand breech rifles to the Southern government at once.”
Finkel’s face changed greatly, this was undoubtedly bad news. With that he returned to normal, two hundred thousand rifles seemed like a lot, but in reality after being spread out over fourteen confederate states, it averaged out to less than fifteen thousand rifles per state.
This was far from enough to meet everyone’s needs, especially for a state like Missouri, which was on the front lines, it was a drop in the bucket.
Front-bore guns don’t sell well, and that’s because Americans have plenty of them in their own hands. In a country where everyone has a gun, if you don’t have a gun of your own, you’re embarrassed to say you’re an American.
Finkel bargained, “One hundred thousand pounds, this is already the lowest price in the international arms market.”
After contemplating for a few moments of effort, John Casey quoted again, “Twenty-nine thousand pounds, who let us be old friends!”
“Ninety-five thousand pounds, it can’t go any lower.”
“I’ll add another two thousand pounds, it can’t go any higher.”
……
(End of chapter)