My Italy

In a relatively private room at the State Department in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay is secretly meeting with a guest.

Secretary of State Hay took office in October, mainly because the former Secretary of State William Rufus Dey was mainly born in law and was not proficient in the affairs of the diplomatic world, so the former ambassador to the United Kingdom took over.

The new Secretary of State Hay also performed well after taking over. During the Paris peace talks, he tried his best to ensure that American interests did not suffer too much loss. Therefore, the next negotiation with Italy on the purchase of ships will still be conducted by this person.

"Ambassador Dageti, our country is very sincere this time. Would you like the ambassador to take a look at our quotation?"

With that said, the new Secretary of State handed a quotation to Ambassador Dagerty.

For Ambassador Dagety, this negotiation with the United States is an opportunity for him. As we all know, the importance of a diplomatic ambassador depends on the status of the country he is stationed in and the relationship with his country.

Take Italy as an example. The ambassador to Germany and the ambassador to the United Kingdom are definitely the two highest-ranking ambassadors in the diplomatic system, followed by the ambassadors of Austria, France, and Russia, who are in the second echelon, and then the Qing Dynasty, the United States, and Japan The three countries are in the third echelon, and the rest are the ambassadors of other countries.

There has been little interaction between Italy and the United States in recent years, so for Dageti, this purchase of ships by the United States is an opportunity for him, an opportunity for the Roman princes to see his abilities, for which he must do his best. To go.

After receiving the quotation from Secretary Hay, Dagerty frowned as soon as he saw it.

"Your Excellency Hay, this quotation from your country does not show enough sincerity at all. I don't need to send it back to Rome. I can tell you now that Rome will not agree because the price is too low. And you have not considered the other parties at all. One question is, when you purchase all of our country’s new ships, have you considered the many risks and other hidden costs that our country will bear for this?”

Ambassador Dagety naturally has the confidence to say this, because this quotation is really not enough. In this quotation, the United States offered a high price of US$5.5 million for each of Italy's three Genoa-class battleships. As for the Garibaldi class, it even offered a price of US$7.2 million. The price given by the United States is based on Italy's external selling price plus 10%.

In addition to these six warships, the United States also paid for a complete set of drawings for these two warships, with the total price reaching US$42 million.

As for why the U.S. government is willing to pay such a high price to purchase packaged Italian warships, in addition to being forced by form, there is also the will of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. Navy, which had just fought against the Spanish and Italian navies operating Italian warships, had a very high opinion of the Italian warships and believed that the failure of this battle was all due to the performance of its own warships.

Our own Indiana-class battleship is rubbish. Various problems occurred frequently in naval battles, which resulted in a huge loss for us in a three-on-two battle. As for the Pennsylvania-class armored patrol, don't mention it. Compared with the opponent's Garibaldi, the world's best armored patrol, it is not even worthy of carrying shoes. In naval battles, both firepower output and protection are far behind. This gap makes the bravely fighting U.S. Navy The officers and soldiers scolded their mothers angrily.

At the same time, U.S. Navy officers and soldiers do not trust the three Illinois-class battleships still under construction in their own shipyards, saying that they are just modified versions of the Indiana-class, and they will still be garbage after modification. Therefore, the U.S. government must also consider the needs of its own naval officers and soldiers.

At another time, this price would be good, and Italy might agree to it, but not now. Even if this amount of money is equivalent to 60% of the U.S. Navy's military expenditure, it won't work.

However, Ambassador Dagety could not understand the goodwill of the US government, so he also took out a quotation and mentioned it. "Your Excellency, Secretary of State Hay, this is our country's quotation for the sale of warships. Please take a look at it."

Hai received the Italian quotation, which was much higher than the quotation given by the U.S. government. First of all, the selling price of the six warships was about 20% higher than that given by the United States. For example, the Genoa-class battleship is directly priced at US$6.5 million, while the Garibaldi-class cruiser is as high as US$8.4 million, pushing the total price to US$54 million.

This gap of 12 million US dollars made Secretary of State Hay frown. "Ambassador Dagety, your country's offer is too high, and the gap is too big."

"How can it be considered high?"

Upon hearing that Secretary Hay did not directly say that he could not afford it, Dagerty knew that this was a joke and immediately defended himself. "Your country needs to understand our country's difficulties. First of all, regarding the sale of warships, if our country..."

In Ambassador Dageti's explanation, how much risk Italy is willing to take by selling these six warships to the United States. First of all, the Italian Navy will have a window of at least two years for its main battleships. At this time, if a country whose naval strength is not much different from Italy declares war on Italy, it will be impossible for Italy to win without its main battleships. In addition, the officers and soldiers currently equipped by the Italian Navy for these six warships are already familiar with the warships. If the United States buys these six warships, this will waste the energy and funds that the Italian Navy has already spent on this.

At this point, Daggerty continued. "So the sale of this batch of warships cannot be compared with the previous sales by our country, because it will disrupt the deployment and plans of our navy. The cost cannot be completely paid by our country, and the cost of risks must be taken into consideration."

However, despite what Ambassador Dagety said, Secretary of State Hay is also a diplomat. It was impossible to just agree to Dagerty's request, and after a round of nonsense conversation, Ambassador Dagerty left.

It's just that both of them knew that this time they were just informing each other about the prices and first looking at the gap between the two.

After Ambassador Dagerty left, Secretary of State Hay left the room and moved to the next room within two steps.

There were many people in this room, including President McKinley, Secretary of the Navy Lewis, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman Gage, Presidential Advisor Roosevelt and others.

This Roosevelt is none other than the former Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. This man is like an immortal little strongman, and his political vitality is quite tenacious. His previous outstanding performances have made President McKinley appreciate him very much, so he Became a consultant.

"Everyone has heard the conversation I had with the Italian ambassador just now. The Italian's price is very high and it is not easy to negotiate."

Hay took a glass of water handed by Roosevelt's adviser, took a sip and spoke to the people present.

"I heard Italy's request. The price of $54 million is indeed too high."

"I feel like we can't talk much. The most we can talk about is a price of 50 million US dollars, which is the limit." Hay interjected at this time.

Finance Minister Lyman Gage turned to the Navy Secretary Lewis who was silent. "Can't your navy reduce the number of purchases? For example, only purchase two battleships and two patrol ships. This can save at least 14 million US dollars. Such a large amount of money can do a lot of things."

The Finance Minister's words attracted everyone else's attention to the Navy Minister, and even the President looked at him.

In the face of everyone's attention, Minister Lewis immediately defended himself. "Everyone, I have said before that the navy needs at least six warships to protect our country's interests from being harmed. And given that our country's self-made warships are not highly regarded among naval officers and soldiers, we must purchase six warships at this time. And Italy happens to have six, and four of them are immediately available. This is very important to know that we are facing off against the Japanese warships in Hawaii with six protected cruisers. We are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength comparison. We need these warships to be able to use them. Expand our maritime power immediately."

After Secretary Lewis finished speaking, the Roosevelt adviser who loved the Navy immediately added.

"Everyone, our purchase of six Italian warships is mainly to express our country's tough attitude and show its strength. In Hawaii, our country is in a confrontation with Japan. In Panama, our country's negotiations with the French on the canal are not going well. France's attitude towards our country is... Before the war with Spain, there were completely two attitudes.

Moreover, the negotiations with the British have stalled. From these signs, we can see that our country has fallen into a state of shrinkage in foreign affairs and cannot expand its own interests for the United States. This is all caused by us underestimating the difficulty of the war with Spain. And this underestimation requires more energy and funds to make up for it, otherwise the United States of America, which is destined by destiny, will be stuck in a diplomatic quagmire and unable to move. "

In Roosevelt's narration, the sequelae of the United States' current defeat were immediately revealed. It is obvious that in Roosevelt's view, the United States should not be obsessed with money issues at present, but should give priority to expressing its attitude. Yes, attitude is the most important thing. Even if it loses the war, the United States should express its attitude. It doesn't matter if we lose the battle, we can repair it and start over again.

In Roosevelt's view, this is the expression of the American spirit. It is necessary to let all countries know that it is not important for you to defeat me once. What is important is that I can rely on my unique conditions in North America to continue to fight you. If it doesn't work once, it will be twice. If it doesn't work once, then three times. It was with this self-confidence that many of the forefathers in the early days of the founding of the United States were able to lead the United States, which was formed from thirteen states, into one of the world's powerful countries spanning two oceans in less than a hundred years.

"Roosevelt is right. We must make our voices heard. We cannot be intimidated by a setback. The United States of America will not be intimidated by difficulties. It should face difficulties bravely."

President McKinley, who had participated in the Civil War, interjected at this time, and his words were the final decision on this ship purchase.

"Okay, I will talk to the Italian ambassador." Secretary of State Hay also took over the topic.

"It's very good, but you still have to negotiate a lower price. The U.S. government is not rich enough, and it cannot satisfy the appetite of the poor."

President McKinley made a rare wisecrack.

Well, it seems that U.S. ship purchase negotiations are inevitable. It depends on how much the Secretary of State can negotiate.