Chapter 354: Great Britain’s Conscience

"How many muskets can the Sacramento Arsenal produce every day? And when can my 5,100 muskets and related ammunition be delivered?"

After visiting the rifle production workshop of the Sacramento Arsenal, Hong Mingxiang asked about the production of muskets and when the purchased guns could be delivered.

"We can produce 120 muskets a day. As for the muskets purchased by Hong Junmen, they can all be delivered after paying the silver." Liang Yao gave Hong Mingxiang a clear answer.

The current production capacity of light weapons at the Sacramento Arsenal is second only to Springfield Armory and Colt among all American arms dealers.

This is when Liang Yao did not expand the production line.

With the current industrial level and number of industrial workers in California. As long as Liang Yao is willing, it is not a problem to double the production capacity of guns by investing more money in the Sacramento Arsenal, expanding another production line, and recruiting more workers.

However, there is no need for this. At present, the warehouse of Sacramento Arsenal has 32,500 Walter M1851E rifles in stock and 11,000 Walter M1851 rifles in stock.

These stocks are enough for Liang Yao's own use and export. Even if Liang Yao completes the expansion of 4 regiments in a short time and forms the Western Brigade, these stocked firearms are still more than enough.

Unless there are large orders from the Qing Dynasty, France or other countries in the future, Liang Yao will not consider expanding the production capacity of Sacramento Arsenal.

The operation of the arsenal must also take into account economic benefits. Blind investment is not conducive to the subsequent healthy development of Sacramento Arsenal.

Hong Mingxiang was very satisfied to learn that the batch of firearms he ordered could be delivered immediately.

His batch of guns is urgently needed, so naturally he hopes that it will be delivered as soon as possible.

After leaving the rifle production workshop, Liang Yao took Hong Mingxiang and others to visit the revolver production workshop.

Compared with the large-scale rifle production workshop, the pistol production workshop is much smaller. The output is also much smaller than that of rifles.

The daily output of revolvers is 30 to 40, but this output is enough to meet the needs of the army.

In Liang Yao's army, only officers above the rank of NCO are issued a pistol for free, and currently, including the militia in training, there are less than 300 officers above the rank of NCO in the army.

However, there is a tradition of soldiers buying their own weapons in the United States, and many soldiers will choose to buy a revolver at their own expense for self-defense.

The revolvers produced by the Sacramento Arsenal are patents No. 6909 purchased from the United Kingdom, which is the patent of the Colt revolver, and are authorized by Colt to produce the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver.

The revolver looks simple in structure and principle, but the actual mass production is another matter. The locking, firing, and firing structures are also relatively complicated, and there is still a technical threshold.

Moreover, if you want to mass-produce revolvers in the United States and put them on the market, Colt is a company that cannot be avoided.

Of course, in the field of revolvers, in addition to Colt, Liang Yao can also find Remington for cooperation.

These two companies are currently the two largest pistol manufacturers in the United States.

However, although the quality of the revolvers produced by Remington is similar to that of Colt, Colt's marketing is good, and there are big trees behind it to provide shade.

From the civilian to the official, everyone in the United States generally recognizes Colt's revolvers.

They believe that the revolvers produced by Colt are high-end and reliable, while the revolvers produced by Remington are low-end, inferior, and unreliable.

Only some senior users who are more familiar with pistols are willing to choose to buy Remington's revolvers.

These senior users are very clear that the Remington revolver, which is priced $5 lower than the Colt revolver, has the same performance as the Colt revolver of the same price, and is more cost-effective.

But there are still only a few experienced users who really know the inside story. More gun buyers are still willing to follow the trend and choose the revolvers of Colt, which has a better reputation.

Therefore, the sales of Remington's revolvers are very bleak, with only a few hundred sold each year.

It is far less prosperous than Colt, which has a large market in the UK, US government orders, and the US civilian market.

At the same time, the annual sales of revolvers produced by Colt were calculated in units of 10,000. If Remington did not have the business of hunting rifles, rifles and bullets, Remington would have gone bankrupt long ago.

After weighing the pros and cons, Liang Yao still felt that it was more cost-effective to cooperate with Colt. After all, Remington not only had patent disputes, but also the licensing price was not much lower than Colt.

Fortunately, the money was not wasted. The Sacramento Arsenal has three production departments: rifle production department, pistol production department, and cannon production department.

The pistol production department is currently the only profitable production department among the three departments.

There are two main reasons for this. First, Colt revolvers were popular in America at that time and had a good reputation among the people, especially among the pioneers in the West. With the help of Colt, the Sacramento version of the revolver also achieved good sales among the people.

Second, the Colt revolvers produced by the Sacramento Arsenal were made of more solid materials, better workmanship, and better matching bullets than the original Colt revolvers. Many officers of the US Army and Navy came to the Sacramento Arsenal to purchase revolvers.

Rich officers cherish their lives more than soldiers at the bottom, and are very willing to spend money on buying weapons with better performance and greater reliability for themselves.

However, the Sacramento Armory did not plan to continue producing Colt revolvers under license from Colt.

Although the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver is very profitable, every time a Sacramento version of the revolver is produced, Colt has to pay a large licensing fee. In the end, the profit margin left for the Sacramento Arsenal was not large.

Under Liang Yao's instructions, the R&D team of the pistol department of the Sacramento Arsenal is currently developing a double-action revolver that can bypass Colt's patent.

After visiting the pistol production workshop, Liang Yao selected 10 Sacramento version Colt revolvers packaged in wooden gift boxes as gifts to Hong Mingxiang. At the same time, he also gave Hong Mingxiang the ivory-handled carved Colt pistol he wore. .

This was a gift specially given by Colt to Liang Yao after he was promoted to brigadier general.

In addition to Hong Mingxiang, the entourage who followed also received a Sacramento version of the revolver.

Everyone was very happy, and after some test firing at the test site, they thought this was a perfect self-defense weapon.

"With such a continuous blunderbuss, even if you encounter someone with high martial arts skills, it will be difficult to get close!"

Hong Mingxiang's confidant Kang Enze was full of praise for the pistol in his hand after test-firing a bullet in the magazine.

Hong Mingxiang was also shocked by the rate of fire of the Colt revolver. This was the first time he had seen a firearm that could fire six rounds in a row.

Although Liang Yao also carried a Colt revolver when he went to Xiangshan before, he had never used this pistol in front of other people. Hong Mingxiang didn't pay much attention to Liang Yao's gun. She didn't expect that Liang Yao was wearing this gun at his waist.

"How much does this continuous fire gun cost?"

Before Liang Yao could sell Colt revolvers to Hong Mingxiang, Hong Mingxiang had already made up his mind to buy some Colt revolvers.

"It's 16 dollars each. As per the old rules, if Hong Junmen buys enough guns, he will get 100 bullets for each gun." Liang Yao said with a smile.

The profits of Colt revolvers are very high. Depending on the quality and workmanship of the pistol, the unit manufacturing cost of Colt revolvers ranges from US$4 to US$9.

Due to the need to pay Colt licensing fees and patent fees, the Sacramento Armory cannot compete with Colt in the field of mid- to low-end revolvers.

Currently only high-quality revolvers are produced, including various fees paid to Colt. The cost of the Sacramento version of the Colt revolver reaches $11 a piece.

The price of 18 US dollars a piece is quite conscientious.

At least more conscience than Colt.

The tricks played by unscrupulous entrepreneurs in a certain country in later generations were already practiced by unscrupulous entrepreneurs in the United States.

Colt's revolvers are available in three different versions and prices.

One is the foreign trade version sold to the British government, which I would like to call the conscience version. This version is the cheapest, with a unit price of only $5. The other is a civilian version sold to the public, with a unit price of US$5. The last one is a black-hearted version provided to the federal government, priced at an astonishing $25 per unit.

However, in addition to price differences, the quality of these three versions of revolvers also differs, but it does not mean that the higher the price, the better the quality.

But the higher the price, the inferior the quality.

The foreign trade models exported to the British government were of the best quality, while the revolvers provided to the federal government were of the worst quality.

With such actions, it is no exaggeration to say that Colt is the conscience of the British Empire.

Colt has also been complained and even sued for knowingly providing inferior weapons to the federal government, but has remained unscathed to this day.

The reason is naturally self-evident. Such a hugely profitable business must be indispensable for the transmission of interests. There are many politicians in the north and south who accept political donations from Colt's interests.

During last year's Whig party election, Army Commander General Scott accepted political donations from Colt.

Of course, Liang Yao also accepted it himself. Since all his colleagues in the Army had accepted him, if he didn't accept it, it would appear that he was out of tune. He didn't want to make the relationship with his colleagues in the Army too tense.

"Very good, very good. Can this gun be delivered immediately like a long gun? If possible, Hong will buy a thousand of them." This time Hong Mingxiang was very generous and did not think the price of the pistol was expensive.

Of these thousand revolvers, he purchased five hundred for himself. After getting some advice from Liang Yao, he sent people to Nanyang to pan for gold. He made some gold and was fairly well off. Just in time to buy some handy weapons to arm his men in the Nanyang gold rush.

After Hong Mingxiang placed the order, Hong Mingxiang's followers also expressed their intention to buy some.

In the end, a total of 1,520 Sacramento version Colt revolvers were sold, which was equivalent to clearing out half of the pistol inventory.

After this trip, the employees of the Sacramento Arsenal were delighted.

Employees at all levels of the Sacramento Arsenal hold 30% of the shares of the arsenal. The better the efficiency of the arsenal, the more dividends they will receive at the end of the year.