African Nationhood

The decoration style of this era was very simple. It mainly consisted of decorating a sign, renovating the facade, and then filling the store with mini cars.

Wen Zixuan and his staff found two newspapers in Cape Town, "African Businessman" and "Cape Town Bulletin", and asked them to help print advertisements.

The content of the advertisement is to publish a photo of a three-wheeled mini car on the front page of two newspapers, followed by the words in English: New mini car produced in Nanhua, priced at 69 pounds, 89 pounds, and 99 pounds.

This is to differentiate it from the Model T car that has already formed a brand. Now the total price of the Model T car in Europe has dropped to 159 pounds.

In the United States, the price has even dropped to $749, which directly defeated a lot of competitors (the original price of the Ford Model T in 1910 was still $900).

However, with the deepening of research on gasoline engines, there are more and more high-horsepower engines and cars with more luxurious configurations.

There are seven or eight brands in the UK alone, and American brands are becoming more diverse.

Only Germany and Eastern Europe are still dominated by Mercedes-Benz, which has launched several series of models in recent years.

For example, the Volkswagen series focuses on cheap Beetles, off-road Land Rover vehicles, and the fast and fast Maybach brand. These models are all introduced to Nanhua.

Nanhua has also launched the BMW brand, which is a level below Crown and focuses on business cars, and the Jetta brand, which is more popular for the masses.

Today's three-wheeled cars are a series under the Jetta brand.

……

After the advertisement went out, people came one after another to look at the car and test drive it.

However, the transaction volume is not high. In one month, more than 60 vehicles were sold.

For every car sold, their entire store can get a commission of 3 pounds, of which the sales manager gets 1 pound and other employees share 2 pounds.

This made everyone in the sales office a little discouraged, and Wen Zixuan was also a little puzzled by this.

Seeing that her husband was not interested, Wen Zixuan's wife Luo Ya comforted him and said: "This is normal. Selling more than 60 cars in a month is very good. After all, no one has experienced this kind of mini car.

When everyone is familiar with it, more people will buy it. "

This sentence reminded Wen Zixuan, and he immediately called his assistants, got in their tricycle, and headed towards the Governor's Palace in Cape Town.

……

When they arrived at the gate of the Governor's Mansion, the gatekeeper Ah San didn't dare to show his face when he saw that a Chinese had arrived. They asked Wen Zixuan's purpose of coming with a smile on his face.

Knowing that these Chinese people came to see Governor Milner, they smiled and nodded, "Please wait a moment, I will go and report."

Several of them soon arrived at Governor Milner's office. Governor Milner welcomed the sudden arrival of Wen Zixuan and others, warmly entertained them to sit down, and also had black tea and coffee prepared.

After greetings, Wen Zixuan explained his purpose.

"Governor Milner, I want to set up a taxi company here and need your assistance."

"Taxi company? Aren't you selling cars?"

Wen Zixuan smiled and analyzed: "The total population of Cape Town is 40, of which there are more than white people. Most of these white people travel by taxi every day.

The transportation costs for these hundreds of thousands of white people to travel are not small.

At 5p per day, each person will spend nearly 8 pounds on transport over the year.

Hundreds of thousands of people, this is already more than one million pounds.

This market is very huge. Once the profits are made, it will also promote the mechanization of urban transportation and improve the level of civilization in the city. "

After listening to Wen Zixuan's analysis, Governor Milner was immediately tempted.

If the Chinese in front of him hadn't reminded him, he wouldn't have noticed that this profit would be so considerable.

Although his heart was surging, he still remained calm, "Where's the style of your taxi?"

Wen Zixuan smiled and handed over the photo of the tricycle.

Governor Milner saw the photo of this three-wheeled motorcycle and was curious, "Is this kind of car safe?"

"Mr. Governor, please rest assured that the safety of such a tricycle is absolutely guaranteed, and it is definitely safer and faster than the cars in Europe." (Original Time and Space Europe and the United States have also launched a cheap version of the three-wheeled car called Cyclecar.

This kind of car is between a motorcycle and a car, similar to a convertible, but their single wheel is placed at the back and there are two power wheels in the front.

The horsepower is also very small, between 1.5 horsepower and 9 horsepower.

The price is half or two-thirds cheaper than ordinary cars.

With the massive price cuts of the Ford Model T and the launch of a large number of European cars imitating the Model T, this type of car quickly died out. )
“Safety is the only issue we have to consider when launching this car. In addition, the engine of our Jetta car has a maximum power of 40 horsepower, and its speed is comparable to that of an ordinary Model T car.

Moreover, it also has a pedal-type ignition, which avoids the inelegantness and embarrassment of sticking your butt out and shaking the car to ignite, and is more fuel-efficient than many cars.

This kind of car is used as a taxi, which is fast and cheap. "

Governor Milner didn't have any feelings when he heard about this new mini-car. He just hoped that the other party would bring up some topics that interest him.

"So what does this taxi company need from me?"

Wen Zixuan smiled, "You only need to give an order and sign a long-term contract with this taxi company. This taxi company will be the designated vehicle for civil servants of the Cape Town Colonial Government to travel."

This taxi company will be a public-private partnership, with the Cape Colonial Government holding 70% of the shares and us only holding 30%.

After hearing Wen Zixuan's proposal, Governor Milner was immediately tempted.

At 70%, it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. If the taxi company was fully owned, then this more than one million pounds would be the exclusive income.

If he wanted to enjoy this income exclusively, he only needed to issue a decree prohibiting the operation of taxis.

The taxi company he invested in can operate without being affected, because horses will inevitably defecate and pee in taxis, so such behavior is prohibited on the grounds that it will pollute the environment and spread diseases.

Three-wheeled vehicles are fast and convenient, and have no negative problems at all. They can perfectly replace the gap of taxis.

Moreover, gasoline is very cheap nowadays. As for the drivers, those Indian untouchables are paid 10 pence a day, which is sure to make them jump with joy.

"What if I want to take more shares?"

Wen Zixuan is well aware of the British idea, "Yes, we can relax the shareholding ratio to 8%.

We will invest the remaining 2% ​​in kind in the form of three-wheeled cars, and the Governor only needs to provide drivers and issue a ban. "

(Collusion between government and businessmen can easily influence the rise and fall of a market. This is the scary thing about capital. They can use all convenient conditions to exploit the lower-level civilians without making people aware of it.)
After some discussion, Wen Zixuan and Governor Milner finally decided to take out 100 three-wheeled motorcycles in the name of the Cape Town Sales Office and invest in the "Cape Town Taxi Company", accounting for 20% of the shares.

Governor Milner teamed up with several senior officials of the Cape Colony government to form a joint venture, spending 4 pounds, accounting for 80% of the shares, and continued to purchase 400 tricycles.

Use these 500 vehicles as starting taxis to support the market.

After the taxi company was officially established, the Cape Town colonial government officially issued the "Abolition of Taxi Carriage Order".

Taxi drivers could apply to the colonial government to become a new type of taxi driver and receive a fixed daily salary.

Although this decree attracted a lot of criticism, civilians had no way to fight against government agencies.

Most taxi drivers were forced out of the market, and tricycles became the mainstream taxis in Cape Town.

After riding it, people increasingly recognize this fast and efficient three-wheeled car.

The hood and windows on this kind of car allow the driver to get out of the car normally in rainy and sunny days, which is much more convenient than a horse-drawn carriage.

Governor Milner was really happy. Several of his shareholders were pleasantly surprised to find that the profit in the first month of operation was more than 20,000 pounds. As the operation period lengthened, the profit margin would only get higher and higher.

Their salary as an official is only one to two thousand pounds a year, and they already make so much profit as a taxi driver. If they control other industries, the profit will probably be even higher.

……

Wen Zixuan didn't pay much attention to Governor Milner's greed and lamentation. His main task was to sell cars.

His cooperation with Governor Milner successfully boosted the sales of three-wheeled vehicles at the sales office, with nearly a thousand vehicles sold in one month.

This is just a city in Cape Town, and the market in the future is still very broad. Nanhua's industrial products will definitely get better and better when exported overseas! (End of chapter)