Chapter 38: International Tobacco Trust

  "Hmm!......"

  Covering his head, which was aching from the hangover, Sima realized that he had indeed drunk too much yesterday. How much wine did he drink? Even Sima himself couldn't remember, only that later on, holding his cup, he would go to each table and toast with two cups, because of his good drinking capacity, even in the past when he was in the government agency, he had never felt this uncomfortable before.

  "What exactly do you want to do?"

  He lifted the copper faucet, poured some slightly icy tap water on his face, and only felt a bit more comfortable under the stimulation of the cool water. He raised his head to look at himself in the mirror, where he saw that both eyes were filled with red blood vessels, and Sima couldn't help but ask.

  Simar found himself increasingly deviating from his original idea. At first, Simar just wanted to set up a factory here to cover up the existence of the time-space anomaly point, and he didn't think much about other things, let alone like now.

  Simar can't even remember why he spent money and effort to get those dozens of mechanical drawings in the first place. And then having someone try out each component one by one, what's the point?

  Even if it's just a desolate gravel beach, slowly rising up is a large factory, even if anyone who participates in the construction will be fascinated.

  Moreover, Sima was the one who made all this happen, and he had a soft spot for such large factories to begin with. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been possessed by evil spirits to think of building such a large factory in this place.

  Now that he has become a successful Sima, he naturally cannot let this already-built factory fall into a mere processing workshop. Sima wants to put his own name on this factory and leave his mark on this era. This is perhaps the entrepreneurial spirit of men.

  "That's right! It must be this reason."

  It dawned on him why he had lost his composure and been so agitated the day before. Sima had originally just wanted to be a bystander in history, using this time-space node to gain benefits for himself.

  But now Sima is terrified to find that he has already begun to sink into history, from the moment the first flour machine was sold, Sima had actually begun to dissolve into this time and space.

  Standing behind the window of his own villa's attic, looking at the factory outside the window, this is Sima's first time seeing his own factory in the early morning. Today there are many first times, the first time spending the night in his own villa, the first time having breakfast in this space-time, the first time... many first times.

  "Should I give up? Or should I?"

  Simar looked at the distant huge factory building. Although it was only a semi-simple factory building with asbestos tiles as the main wall, it had melted into Sima's blood and sweat.

  Although he did not lay a single brick with his own hands, the effort Sima personally put in was unimaginable to ordinary people. Large quantities of cement, steel beams, and asbestos tiles were all transported by Sima himself, although most of the cement was later purchased from the Qixin Cement Plant of this era.

  However, no one can deny the hard work and dedication Sima has put into building this factory. In Sima's heart, this place is not just a factory, but a symbol of his own career, more like his own child, and he cannot bring himself to abandon it.

  "How could I forget that I quit smoking long ago."

  Some anxious Sima patted his pocket, but found that there was no cigarette at all. In fact, Sima had quit smoking a few years ago, but in the past few months, he would occasionally smoke a cigarette when he felt annoyed.

  Slowly getting used to it, when the mind is in a state of confusion, I involuntarily think of smoking. This villa, although it's Sima's new home, can indeed be described as a new home, but even if you search the entire villa, except for the water pipe that the chef smokes, Sima probably won't find a single cigarette.

  "He should have cigarettes there."

  Simma remembered that Shi Daomu was a real tobacco ghost, basically every day with cigarettes in his mouth. Simma quickly put on his outerwear and walked towards the White Building where Shi Daomu lived, not far away, to see if he could get some cigarettes to smoke and relax his mood.

  "Hey! Strom, how was your sleep yesterday?"

  After knocking on Strom's door, the servant opened it and walked in to see Strom eating breakfast in the dining room. Sima asked casually.

  "Great! Yesterday's rest was just what I needed. Thank you."

  Shidom saw his boss stand up and say that yesterday was really exciting for Shidom, the feeling of being in the spotlight was great, it's rare for a mechanic like himself to experience such excitement.

  "Stu, this is what you deserve, got a smoke?"

  Listening to Sidoum's voice, it's clear that he's still a bit excited. Sima of course knows what he means by thanking himself, this is something he deserves for his outstanding work.

  "This is all I have left, if you don't mind, I can give half of it to you."

  Shi Daomu pointed at the half pack of pink packaged "Da Ying Piao" cigarettes left on the table.

  "Hehe! I only need one, it's enough for me, don't worry about sharing your food with me."

  Simma sat down at the dinner table, pulled out a cigarette and said. As a former heavy smoker, Simma knew how hard it was to be without cigarettes, so taking away half of Strom's remaining pack was not quite right, especially since he only wanted to smoke one cigarette to calm his nerves.

  "That's perfect, everything is convenient here, but I really can't get used to not having cigarettes. The kind of smoke those workers are smoking has a terrible tobacco taste."

  Although the living conditions here are much better than those in Tianjin, it is after all just a newly built factory in a desolate and uninhabited place. Things like cigarettes, which are rarely seen in rural China, cannot be bought here or in Kongjiazhuang. If you want to buy cigarettes, you can only go to Zhangjiakou to buy them.

  "I don't like the taste of this cigarette. Unfortunately, there is no mixed flavor Virginia in Zhangjiakou, you know I'm not too fond of the roasted flavor of Da Ying brand, as my boss, can I make a suggestion to you?"

  After finishing breakfast, Shidao got up and went to the living room with Sima, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath, saying.

  Flavored cigarettes are mostly sold to foreigners in China, while in Zhangjiakou only this kind of roasted cigarette that Chinese people are used to is most suitable for the nation.

  Zhangjiakou is not a big city like Beijing or Tianjin, and various types of cigarettes are not readily available. The Virginia brand cigarettes I was used to were not sold in Zhangjiakou.

  "Hmm! What's on your mind? Tell me and if it's reasonable, I'll get Old Gao to bring you some Virginia cigarettes from Beijing."

  As for the opinions of others, Sima would often adopt them. As an outsider, if he wanted to achieve good results, he had to take other people's opinions seriously. And in adopting other people's opinions, Sima obviously did much better than many people.

  "You know that a pack of Da Ying Piao cigarettes sells for 10 copper coins, but its cost is at most 3 copper coins. It can be bought in almost all cities in China. More importantly, this cigarette is produced by the British-American Tobacco Company, and every month, the company can earn tens of thousands of silver coins from just this one brand of Da Ying Piao cigarettes alone. It's not a lot, but you should know that the British-American Tobacco Company has hundreds of tobacco brands in China!"

  Several months ago, Strudthoff had been forced to work as a mechanic at the British-American Tobacco Company's Tianjin factory, but when the manager of the Tianjin branch found out that Strudthoff was German, he unceremoniously kicked him out of the factory.

  But in that month of work, Stoum still gained some understanding of the tobacco company. If it weren't for that period of work experience, Stoum would never have known that a package of several copper yuan cigarettes could be so profitable.

  "You mean to say that just this ordinary cigarette can bring in tens of millions for the British American Tobacco Company every year? How is that possible?"

  Although he knew that cigarettes must have been very profitable, it was in the future. In China in 1915, how could there be such a large cigarette market? Sima couldn't help but feel some doubt.

  "You must believe me, I used to work at the Tianjin branch of British-American Tobacco Company. If you enter the cigarette industry, I'm sure you'll make astronomical profits, far surpassing those from producing spinning machines, yarn machines, and sewing machines."

  After finishing a cigarette, Shi Daomu leaned back on the sofa and said casually.

  The British-American Tobacco Company mentioned by Shi Daomu is now the world's largest tobacco trust enterprise. At the end of the 19th century, the American Tobacco Company (comprising the American Tobacco Company, Ogden Tobacco Corporation, and Continental Tobacco Company) dumped cigarettes in Britain, and the British tobacco industry formed the Imperial Tobacco Company to counter it, resulting in mutual losses. As a result, both sides decided to jointly invest in expanding overseas markets.

  In September 1902, Imperial Tobacco Company, Ltd., Ogden Tobacco Corporation, American Tobacco Company, Continental Tobacco Company, United Cigar Stores Company and others jointly invested $30 million (approximately ￡6 million) to establish the International Tobacco Trust in London, England.

  Branches were set up in China, India, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries. Before the establishment of British American Tobacco, British Whelers Company had imported cigarettes into China and sold them through Gongfa Yinghang in China. The American Cigarette Company imported cigarettes into China through Meisheng Yanghang (acquired by American Tobacco Company in 1902).

  The American Tobacco Company set up a small cigarette factory in Shanghai to produce cigarettes, which were sold by the American trading company Lao Jinxing. After the establishment of the British-American Tobacco Company, it took over the sales contracts of the American Tobacco Company and Lao Jinxing, and also took over the Pudong Cigarette Factory owned by the American Tobacco Company, renaming it the British-American Tobacco Company's Pudong Factory (later known as BAT's No. 1 Factory).

  Later, the British-American Tobacco Company in China divided its business into cigarette manufacturing by American Tobacco and cigarette sales management by British-American Tobacco. After more than a decade of effort, this British-American Tobacco Company has sold its self-produced cigarettes to every city in China and occupies half of the market.

  Domestic companies like Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co., Ltd, Huacheng Tobacco Co., Ltd and Fuxin Tobacco Co., Ltd are struggling to resist the step-by-step advance of the world's largest tobacco trust. Moreover, it is not only British American Tobacco, but also Japanese tobacco enterprises and Hong Kong-based British companies that are competing for this highly profitable market in China. Every year, foreign companies can earn tens of millions of silver dollars just from tobacco alone, with profits far exceeding those of ordinary enterprises.

  As the founder of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company said, "Tobacco is an item that more and more people are smoking every day, a small stream forms a river."