"Karl, organize a secret conference of international crude oil companies. Everyone is here to make money; there's no need to keep locking horns to the bitter end!" Ferdinand said lightly.
The way he said it, it was as if the persistently low international oil prices hadn't been caused by him in the first place.
But this fine state of affairs was about to end. The profits of oil companies might be lavish, but who would ever complain about earning even more?
Once everyone joined forces and monopolized the international crude oil supply, wouldn't those profits multiply severalfold?
At the most brutal point of the price war, eighty percent of oil companies had been operating at a loss, while the weaker ones had been squeezed into bankruptcy.
It had begun in 1918 and lasted until the end of 1926. That entire period had been the bleak midwinter of the oil companies, and everyone could only struggle to hold on.
Most of the time, they could only maintain meager profits, with occasional losses. No one would believe it if these facts were told aloud, but they were the truth!
After the World War ended, crude oil consumption plummeted, and oil prices began to fall.
Later, with Bulgaria's large-scale oil development, and under Ferdinand's deliberate control, oil prices went into a headlong plunge.
After the United States split apart, crude oil consumption in the international market fell once again. There was no choice but to keep cutting prices.
It was only after Bulgaria acquired the Caucasus region, when Ferdinand felt things had gone far enough, that he finally stopped. The international crude oil market then began returning to normal.
Once bitten by a snake, one fears a well rope for ten years!
The capitalists had been tossed about badly. After all these years,