The nineteenth century had to be called a paradise for entrepreneurs. In this age of ever-advancing industrialization, investing in industry brought remarkably handsome returns.
Though the risks were high as well, they were practically nonexistent for Ernst. After a year-long tug-of-war—
"Gillette" razors had at least become familiar to the public. The customers who had already bought them had been firmly secured, and repeat buyers were appearing.
"Gillette" had embarked on the road to profitability. Naturally, Ernst would not stop there. In his previous life, what had truly made "Gillette" bigger and stronger was the opportunity presented by the World War; the United States military had carried Gillette to the entire world.
Ernst had also caught a favorable era. As the Iron Chancellor, Bismarck attached great importance to the military, and after taking office, he put forward the famous Blood and Iron Policy.
That was, to increase industrial development in service of the military while strengthening the union of the military forces of the German states.
According to the history Ernst knew well, next year would mark the opening salvo of Prussia's war to unify Germany: joining forces with Austria to declare war on Denmark and reclaim the two northern duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.
Thus, while Prussia was reorganizing its army, Ernst personally went to the Prussian Royal Palace to promote "Gillette" razors to King Wilhelm I.
Ernst focused on the urgency of time should war break out. Traditional razors were not only unsafe but difficult to use, and their blades required separate time for maintenance. "Gillette," on the other hand, only needed its blades replaced, saving all that time.
Of course, to dispel King Wilhelm I's concerns, Ernst voluntarily offered to supply twenty thousand sets of "Gillette" razors at a loss to support the kingdom's military development.
Whether he made a loss did not matter. What mattered was letting those Prussian soldiers experience the convenience of "Gillette."
People were lazy by nature: if they could sit, they would never stand; if they could lie down, they would never sit. Ernst had felt this deeply during university in his previous life. Just take buying cigarettes—he had usually been too lazy even to go downstairs.
At that thought, Ernst suddenly froze. Hm, "cigarettes." He felt as if his brain were about to explode!
But he was still in the royal palace. Ernst tried hard to calm himself, and after settling the matter of "Gillette" military trials with King Wilhelm I, orders were no longer the only thing on his mind.
After leaving the Prussian Royal Palace, Ernst sat in his carriage and began to imagine it. How had he failed to think of cigarettes, a business that was practically pure profit? No, he still needed to squeeze his brain dry.
If he wrote down some things from his previous life and produced them in the future, would he not become rich?
There were cigarettes in this era, of course, but they were handmade. Machines for mass-producing cigarettes had not yet been developed or popularized.
For Ernst, all he had to do was find some experts to crack the technology for large-scale cigarette production. Then he would be the first to eat the crab.
Moreover, cigarettes were something that satisfied human needs on a spiritual level, so their market was simply enormous. There might be competitors, but how could costly, inefficient manual labor compete with machine mass production?
Ernst decided that once he returned, he would find partners. He also needed to record all sorts of things from his previous life that made daily living more convenient yet required little technical sophistication, and bring them out ahead of time.
Hm, it was also time to establish a new company. At present, "Gillette" was really just a factory producing razors alone.
If he made more things in the future, he would certainly have more than one factory. How would he control all those factories then? He would still need to hire professionals to help manage them.
As the Prussian Army began equipping itself with "Gillette" razors produced by Ernst's factory, things turned out exactly as Ernst had predicted. Those rank-and-file soldiers loved these time-saving, labor-saving razors. The replaceable blades had limits on their use, but their low price, convenience, and practicality covered up that flaw, and orders for blades followed in turn.
This way, the Prussian Army could continue expanding its equipment of the new razors while ordering blades at the same time, and Ernst did not remain idle either.
Besides Prussia, there were other German states! Naturally, Ernst would not let them slip through his fingers, and he began stepping up efforts to promote his razors among the armies of various countries.
What, you did not need them? The Prussian Army used them and said they were good—how could you even say that? The Prussian Army's successful use became Ernst's classic case study for selling the product.
If they did not believe him, they could personally visit Prussian military camps and see for themselves. By this means, Ernst successfully promoted these razors in many small countries.
Good news came one after another. The razors being promoted within the military soon caught the attention of interested parties, and some owners of precision instrument factories began introducing them as well.
Hair was a major nuisance for precision instrument factories, and requiring workers to shave was necessary. Now, these factories required their workers to use Ernst's "Gillette" razors directly.
The new razor industry had entered the fast lane of rapid development, and the ambition-filled Ernst began making even grander plans.
The newly established Hohenzollern Development Company began sending sales teams to other countries, with the Austrian Empire and Russia as important markets.
For relatively conservative countries like Russia, Ernst stressed that members of the sales teams should focus on the progressiveness of the new razors. They were the crystallization of industrialization, symbols of hygiene and safety.
Russia was still in the Tsarist era at this time. As everyone knew, Russians longed for the West, and this longing was especially strong during the Tsarist era.
As for the Austrian Empire, the sales teams mainly used the advantages gained after Prussia equipped itself with these razors to persuade Austrian officials.
At the same time, Ernst actively developed markets in other countries. His main business covered all of Europe, while he sought agents in North America.
North America had been Gillette's home ground in Ernst's previous life, but Ernst could not possibly go to the United States himself to direct factory construction.
Patents alone were a major problem. The United States at this time was a thoroughgoing nation of imitators, and Ernst had no desire to test the Americans' conscience.
He might as well establish an office in North America and cooperate with those major American capitalists.
With the aristocratic background of continental Europe, the Hohenzollern Development Company had some small degree of influence in the Americas. At the very least, no one made things difficult for this small company with Old Continent aristocratic roots.
Furthermore, "Gillette" razors had not yet been widely promoted, so capital would not personally enter the fray. Through discussions with an American capital group, Ernst successfully had "Gillette" razors equipped within the U.S. military—though that was a matter for the future.
It was merely a patent license, but the Americans would handle the factory and construction funding. Ernst could collect a ten percent share in US Dollars every year for nothing.
This was already a good result. When "Gillette" began to explode in the future, Ernst would not need to keep his eyes fixed on this single tender shoot alone. According to Ernst's vision, the Hohenzollern Development Company should already have become a large, diversified corporation by then.
Now Ernst had received a piece of good news: his mass-production cigarette line had been completed.
Before long, the kind of rolled cigarettes from his previous life—though there were no filters yet—would appear in convenience stores and factories throughout Germany. Naturally, major consumers such as the military would not be left out.
No one in this era paid attention to the dangers of cigarettes, so Ernst did not even need to print the words "Smoking is harmful to health" on the packaging.
Of course, industrialization had filled Europe's major cities with black smokestacks. Thick smoke and dust were not necessarily less harmful to the body than smoking.
While selling "Gillette" razors, Ernst had already set his sights on producing all kinds of small commodities.
For example, flush toilets had not yet been widely popularized on a large scale. Ernst was also preparing to set up a separate factory for them. Britain already had mature products, so Ernst would mainly be responsible for expanding their promotion. Establishing a contract manufacturing factory would not be excessive, and later he could even produce private-label goods.
With cigarettes available, lighters certainly could not be absent. Ernst decided to produce kerosene lighters first; these would count as one of the Hechingen Company's flagship products.
Ernst had many more ideas he wanted to bring out, but his current capabilities had not yet reached that point. Funding alone carried some risk.
Ernst had already passed the startup stage. For now, steady expansion was enough. As war drew ever closer, the good days still lay ahead!
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