Paris, Champs-Elysees, the small reception room at the Duke of Desay.

50-year-old Nicholas Appel sat in an empty room, expressing extreme impatience. Dry firewood had just lit up in the fireplace, and the indoor temperature was maintained at around 12 degrees. But Appel frequently used a hand towel to wipe the sweat flowing on his forehead. He stared at the door of the room, like a drowning person seeking a life-saving straw, without the demeanor of a successful businessman.

As the original inventor of canned food, in 1804, Nicholas Appell made Napoleon's solicitation of "practical food preservation methods available for the marching army" four years ago and quickly applied for the patent. Several months later, under the introduction of a fellow parliamentarian, Nicholas Appell contacted the National Food Strategy and Security Reserve Committee in Paris.

Over the years, with the efforts of the committee, glass bottled cans were highly promoted among seafarers from various countries and were very popular. Soon, French soldiers fighting everywhere began to like this type of fast food that could be eaten without cooking. In March 1809, Emperor Napoleon specially commissioned the Paris Academy of Sciences to reward Nicholas Appel, the inventor of bottled cans, 12,000 francs, to thank Appel for verifying the method of long-term storage of food.

The nature of a businessman is profit-oriented, and Nicholas Appel is no exception. In 1804, Appel came to Paris. He and others jointly opened a canned product factory in Paris. In order to ensure that he had long monopoly on the domestic canned market, Appel took advantage of the influence of his fellow parliamentarians and became the only supplier of canned goods procurement in the French army. In addition, Appel also set up high patent rights for his canned patents, and used commercial bribery and political means to suppress competitors around Paris.

In June 1809, Nikola Appel and other investors added tens of thousands of francs to build and expand their canning processing factory near Paris. The production capacity has soared from 200 yuan a day (2 pounds pack, the same below) to 900 yuan. Since July, the canning factory can bring more than 30,000 francs of net income to Nikola Appel and his partners every month.

Unfortunately, the glory of the past has become a past.

In May this year, Nicholas Appel unexpectedly received a French general Desay far away on the Spanish battlefield and commissioned a Parisian commercial lawyer to submit a letter of application for canning patents. At that time, Appel was raising money to expand the canning workshop in Paris, so he agreed to General Andrew Desay's client to transfer the canned patent rights he invented at a "sky price" of 20,000 francs, and allow the latter to legally produce canned foods throughout the European continent.

Unexpectedly, this move brought a catastrophe to Nikola Appel's canned kingdom.

After obtaining the right to use the Appel can patent, General Desai quickly improved the can packaging, replacing the easily cracked glass bottles with a solid tin can (tinplate), and also created a more advanced and efficient canning process, and applied for invention patents for tinplate cans in European countries (including the United States).

Nikola Appel, who was a smart businessman inventor, also noticed that it happened thousands of miles away, a competitor located on the west coast of the Mediterranean. He also deliberately sent someone to buy a batch of tinplate cans from Hruna for internal research. It is obvious that tinplate cans are not easy to break and have a longer shelf life than glass cans, which is convenient for marching and transportation and long-term storage.

But soon, Nicholas Appel and his partners came to the conclusion that Mediterranean canned foods with tinplate as packaging material will not have any impact on their canned food workshops in Paris for at least the next 10 years.

Appel first believes that the cost of tinplate cans is too high. In Paris, the production cost of tinplate cans is 8 to 10 times that of glass empty cans. In addition, it is extremely difficult to open tinplate cans, which is only suitable for soldiers to use bayonets to cut the cans or smash them open with stones. Most importantly, Appel believes that the production capacity of the Hruna canning field is seriously weak. Faced with a huge consumer group, both sides have been in the same situation of water in the well and water without infringement in the river.

If there were no time travelers, Appel's judgment on the prospect of canning was not an exaggeration. According to the historical trajectory, after Appel invented glass bottles, in 1810, the Frenchman Peter Durham applied for a patent for the canned tinplate he invented. In 1812, the British Brian Tonchen and John Haul purchased two French patents and began to produce and preserve food, first supplying them to the British Expeditionary Force in Portugal. In 1815, the British army commanded by Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo by eating canned tinplate.

After the end of Napoleon's era, Appel's canning method and tinplate cans began to be introduced to the United States. The mass production of tinplate cans did not become common until the mid-19th century. The main reason was that Americans invented can packaging machines that could completely get rid of their serious dependence on (empty) can technicians.

Now Andrew Desay is here, and the time traveler has completed his canning yard in just half a year. The development process of canning for nearly half a century. He "invented" the canning packaging machine, and with the help of manpower, water pressure and other technologies, the efficiency of canning has been increased by nearly a hundred times, and the cost of empty cans has been greatly reduced. Soon, in response to the needs of consumers, he "invented" a smart and convenient can opening tool with negligible costs, and applied for a patent, solving a big trouble for edible cans.

The cost of tinplate empty cans with greatly reduced costs, coupled with the cheap livestock fruits purchased in the area of ​​Hruna, Mediterranean canned food is cheaper than Appel canned food in terms of non-manufacturing comprehensive costs alone, not to mention the rapid improvement and improvement of production efficiency of the former, as well as the various policies of the Dominant of Hruna for canned food production.

Most of the workers used in the Mediterranean canned products farm are Catalan workers with lower wages, and their daily wages are only about one-tenth of those of Parisian workers. At this time, the average daily wage of workers in Paris factory (farm) is 3.5 francs, equivalent to 18 riyals, but in Gruna, Desay only needs to pay Spanish workers a daily wage of 1.5 to 3 riyals.

As for production capacity, in July, the daily production of Mediterranean canned food was only more than 100 listeners, with a monthly production of 5,000 listeners. However, by October, the monthly production of Mediterranean canned food had exceeded 300,000 listeners. Its sales scope is no longer limited to the Iberis Peninsula, but has also expanded to the Mediterranean region including France, and even sold to Russia and North America.

In 1809, the price of canned meat in Paris was 8 francs, equivalent to one-third of a worker's weekly salary. The canned pig head products of the same net weight produced by Hruna was only sold for 30 rials in Paris, equivalent to 6 francs. However, from the price point, Appel was embarrassed and had to announce a price cut to cope with the market impact of Mediterranean canned food.

If things ended here, it would be fine if both sides maintained the same price, but they might be able to live peacefully for a long time. After all, the main sales channels of Mediterranean canned food are still in countries around the Mediterranean and military supply. Unfortunately, Appel was unwilling to be brought to the Mediterranean canned food, resulting in the loss of market monopoly. He was so angry that he was not aware of his ability and provoked the Duke of Desay.

In September, while chatting with his fellow parliamentarians, Appel learned some inside stories from the Duilary Palace. It was rumored that Napoleon did not seem to like the perverted General Desai and conferred him as the unknown Grand Duke of Hruna. So Appel thought that the time for his revenge had come.

He searched for a group of professional gangsters on the street, specializing in destroying shops selling Mediterranean canned food, and intimidating the shop owners not to report the case. The effect at the beginning was quite obvious, and the Mediterranean canned food on the market in Paris almost disappeared after a week.

Unfortunately, not long after, revenge from Hruna followed one after another, and it was still higher and higher.

Those gangsters who participated in the smashing and selling Mediterranean canned shops were arrested by the Paris Police Station without exception. After a highly efficient trial, all of them were thrown into a stone mine 200 kilometers away to serve hard labor.

Immediately afterwards, Appel frequently encountered fires in the canning yard near Paris. Although the workers were not injured, the workshop stopped work more than ten times, and the losses were huge. Appel sent people to the Paris Police Station to report the case, but no one paid attention. When he later asked for help from the fellow parliamentarians, he learned that the police minister Fouche had ordered that the police branches in various districts of Paris were not allowed to accept the case. At the same time, the Paris military police also received the order from General Savari and stood by and watched the "canning storm".

At this time, Appel realized that he had kicked the iron plate, but the disaster was far more than that. In early November, the Paris Military Products Procurement Director sent someone to notify Appel and his partners: starting next month, the number of orders purchased by the Military Products Logistics Department for the purchase of Appel cans will be sharply reduced to less than 40%. As for other orders, they will naturally be handed over to the Dominion of Hruna.

In early December, a batch of canned meat from the territory of Hruna was suddenly placed in the cabinets of various stores, and then became the first choice for ordinary citizens of Paris to rush to buy Christmas food. Nonetheless, this canned food, known as Spam, was extremely cheap, with only 2.4 francs (12 riyals), 1.2 francs per pound, which is cheaper than fresh pork sold in farmers' markets.

********** Author's supplement: In Paris in the early 19th century, a pound of bread costs 6-8 sou (copper coins, 20 sou is 1 franc), and a pound of fresh pork costs 30 to 40 sou, equivalent to 1.5 to 2 francs*********

At this point, the canned tinplate produced by Hruna has completely defeated the canned glass bottles produced by Appel in all aspects of price, packaging, taste, popularity and other aspects.

Before mid-December, Desai did not intend to completely kill Appel's can. He only gave the other party a profound lesson and gave him a retreat. In fact, the Spam cans specially supplied to Paris citizens, even the 300,000 French troops on the Iberis Peninsula were not supplied in time. The Military Intelligence Bureau took the letter from Grand Duke Khruna and forced 100,000 directly from the factory to haul it.

As soon as people get older, they are prone to being confused, and this is especially true for Appel.

When the partners asked to withdraw their shares, Appel was still unwilling to admit defeat. He lost all his money and repurchased the shares in his partners. In addition, Appel was determined to go up the tier line to get rid of the current dilemma, but he did not choose to negotiate with his competitors.

With the help of fellow parliamentarians, Appel deliberately met General Duroc and Marshal Udino. In order to win over the two, he gave two powerful people a 20% stake in the canned workshop. General Duroc and Marshal Udino also accepted it happily and agreed to persuade the military chief to significantly increase orders and curb the dumping of Mediterranean canned food in Paris from both transportation and taxation.

The conspiracy reached by Appel, General Duroc and Marshal Udino reached the Duke of Desai in less than two days. So, at the meeting of the Noble House, Desai took advantage of the situation and beat Marshal Udino, one of the "Three-Party", to the head of the pig, and General Duroc was also humiliated.

As for Appel himself, he received an "invitation letter" to visit the Duke of Desay's residence.

He said he was a guest, but he was actually a guest. Appel sat in the reception room for two hours before waiting for a young servant next to the duke to come in.

Thier directly handed Appel two documents, asking him to make a decision immediately after reading it, and not to let the lawyer and notary in the next room wait too long.

A document is a statement of transfer of full shares of the Paris Can Farm. As compensation, the Duke of Desay will pay 150,000 francs to Appel himself;

Another document was to submit an indictment to the Paris District Court, proving that General Duroc and Marshal Udino had robbed him, and before half a franc was released, he obtained 40% of the shares of Appel Can Workshop.

Ten minutes later, under the joint witness of the lawyer and the notary, Appel signed the two documents. He then took the 15 franc check and left Paris with a sad expression.

Through the window glass of the study on the second floor, Duke Desay saw Appel's staggering back and sighed in his heart that he generously gave the inventor of canning two opportunities to compromise. Unfortunately, the stubborn old man was not grateful, so he forced him to kill him and completely withdrew from the canning business world.

At this point, the canned food of Hruna can be said to be a unified world in France. However, as soon as the old crisis disappeared, new threats rushed to the scene.

In the early military intelligence briefing, an important message was mentioned: British Brian Tonchen and John Haul opened a large canning factory in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, after acquiring the canned glass bottles invented by Appel and the canned tinplate invented by Desay. These two French patent rights were three years ahead of the original history.

Desai regretted that he shouldn't have sold the canning machinery and its patents to the British too early, but there was no way he could do this. He had to use this in exchange to obtain the steam engine and hydraulic machinery invented by the British.

"This damn canned war has just begun!"
Chapter completed!