Kaiser Wilhelm II is one of Krupp's largest shareholders, and the company also keeps close contact with the German War Department and Admiralty. German officials, important foreign policy makers in Lu Haijun and ambassadors in Germany are all on Krupp's allowance list. In addition, Krupp also controlled three major newspapers, and in the crazy years before the outbreak of World War I, he aroused the furious patriotism of the German public by creating war panic or exaggerating the actions of other countries to expand their armaments.
Just as Krupp was to Germany, Vickers was the core pillar of the British military enterprise. Alfred. Krupp went to England to learn his wisdom in industrial technology when he was young. But 20 years later, when "Made in Germany" became synonymous with "advanced", the young Englishman Thomas? Vickers went to the Krupp factory in Essen as an apprentice, and then returned to his hometown, bringing valuable German technology and methods. Like Krupp, he initially only made some ordinary items, such as wheels of train carriages, steel pulley castings and cylinders, but from the1860s, he switched to the arms industry and soon became a famous British artillery manufacturer.
However, vexcor's success is not only based on advanced technology. 19 1 1 year, a British financial company analyzed the boards of the three major British military enterprises, and found that there were 2 dukes, 2 marquis, 50 counts and barons, 15 barons, 5 knights, 3 members of parliament, and 2 1 year in the board of directors of vexcor. In addition, several bishops are also members of the board of directors of vexcor. Critics at that time sarcastically said: "England is the mother of parliament, and Vickers is the stepmother of parliament."
Krupp, Germany, Vickers, England, Schneider, France (when we were an electrical appliance company, our familiar name was Schneider). Among the 200 shareholders of BNP Paribas, the so-called "200 families", the family of arms manufacturer Schneider occupies a place. Although this surname is suspected to be a German name, Schneider is an out-and-out Frenchman whose ancestors came from Alsace. The first generation of Snyder-Joseph Eugene Snyder was mainly a banker. By 1850, he was on the verge of bankruptcy, but he came out of the decline because he fully supported Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte louis bonaparte, who planned the coup. In the subsequent wave of railways in France, the Schneider family produced rails, railway equipment, cannons and ammunition for * *. 187 1 When France signed the humiliating peace agreement, Schneider had earned 1 100 million francs from the Franco-Prussian war.
Different from the powerful Krupp Company, Schneider Company took the Russian market as its main target and entered Slavic countries such as Serbia and Bulgaria with the influence of the Tsar. In addition, it also assisted Russia in manipulating French public opinion. For example, before and after the Russo-Japanese War, the famous Hawass news agency in France received a monthly allowance of 1 0,000 francs from Schneider Company to publish news beneficial to Russia. The money was paid by the Russian Ministry of Finance.
Russia is the favorite stage for foreign giants. Tsaritsyn Arsenal was built by Vexcor Company, and Schneider Company cooperated with Societe Generale, Skoda Arsenal of Austria-Hungary and Vienna Credit Bank to update the technology of Putilov Arsenal in St. Petersburg, the oldest arsenal in Russian Empire, and was able to start construction of Nikolayev Shipyard, the largest shipyard in the Black Sea region of southern Russia (where the "Liaoning" aircraft carrier was also built).
Moreover, these arms dealers began to control each other as early as before the war, and the control rights of many arms companies became international in the board of directors. Such as the famous "Alfred? The business of Nobel Explosive Company covers almost all parts of the world, from Sweden to South Africa and from Japan to South America. All these scattered businesses are concentrated in two huge enterprises: Nobel Explosives Company, which integrates British and German companies, and General Explosives Company, which integrates French, Swedish, Italian, Spanish and South American companies. Harvey United Steel Company, which produces armor plates for the British Navy, has Germans, Americans, French and Italians on its board of directors, while whitehead Torpedo Company in Austria-Hungary is jointly managed by French, British and Hungarians. These international leading groups ensure that arms dealers will have business under all conditions.
Arms dealers don't even forget patents. Before the war, Krupp invented a special safety pin for grenades. Vickers used this invention during World War I, which caused many German soldiers to die under grenades with Krupp safety pins. After World War I, Krupp Company sued Vickers Company for patent infringement, and filed a claim at the price of one shilling per insurance, amounting to 610.5 million pounds. The case was finally settled out of court, and Krupp received compensation from a branch of Vexcor in Spain.
Many moral people will be shocked by this: a group of small people with no sense of morality, using all means to profit from human suffering and even death. But weapons manufacturers don't think they are bad people. According to their theory, they only produce some industrial products. As for the use places and consequences of these products, it is obviously not their concern. For arms dealers, they feel no different from car or sewing machine manufacturers.
The "big stage" of car companies
In fact, arms dealers do have a great intersection with the automobile and sewing machine industries. When is Edmund? When General Allen led British troops into Palestinian areas in 19 17, he rode in an armored car made by Rolls-Royce. During the October Revolution in Russia, a group of sailors who occupied the Winter Palace also rode in Rolls-Royce armored vehicles. The world's largest sewing machine manufacturer, American Shengjia Company, was one of the main parts suppliers of Maxim machine guns during World War I, and also produced M 1903 Springfield rifles by itself. During World War II, Shengli Company also produced a large number of M 1 Garland rifles and Norton sights used by bombers for the US Army.
French car companies certainly don't want to fall behind. At that time, Renault was an ultra-luxury car brand comparable to Rolls-Royce. The price of a Renault "Coupe Deville"/KOOC-0/9/KOOC-0/2 car (once appeared as an important prop in the movie Titanic) is 5600 francs, which is equivalent to the salary of a French worker/KOOC-0/9. During the First World War, Renault produced ammunition and aircraft and developed the famous Renault FT- 17 tank. It arranges the cockpit in front of the car body and the battle room in the middle. The engine and driving device are placed at the rear of the car body and separated from the personnel cockpit by steel plates. The FT- 17 is also the first tank with a rotating turret in the world. These innovative and practical ideas have become the core elements that all countries must follow when designing new tanks.