The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had run into some trouble. Its ports were piled high with stones and fodder—truly piled high, filling every warehouse and disrupting the Pacific Mail Steamship Company's storage operations.
If the Pacific Mail Steamship Company kept playing the price-war game, it would sooner or later lose everything. And even if the Pacific Mail Steamship Company worked day and night without rest, it still could not ship all those stones away.
New York City's decrees did not carry much weight in the southern states, and Vanderbilt could only watch as his share shrank bit by bit.
But this was not the end. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company's monopoly business had run into trouble as well.
Suddenly, both Nicaragua and Panama announced additional transit fees for Pacific Mail Steamship Company vessels, while Southern Emperor Steamship Company vessels remained entirely unaffected.
"This is unfair competition!"
Vanderbilt roared, but this time, even the Mayor of New York City truly had no solution. He could only say helplessly, "How about I write you another prohibition order? One banning them from charging your fleet?"
Huge embarrassment was written across both their faces.
Vanderbilt went to seek out his congressman friends again. These men held the real power in America, yet even they could do nothing about the troubles Vanderbilt had recently brought upon himself.
After all, Nicaragua now belonged to the Austrian Empire, while Panama belonged to the Kingdom of Spain. They were not the two soft persimmons of history.
As time passed, Vanderbilt encountered another problem. His ships had actually run into pirates in the Pacific. The pirates did not harm the crews; they merely seized the cargo and the ships themselves.
Vanderbilt's ships were armed, in fact, but the pirates they had encountered this time were simply too vicious. The