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 US 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 Dagety.
For Ambassador Dagety, this negotiation with the United States is an opportunity for him. As we all know, the importance of a diplomatic ambassador is determined by the status of the country where he is stationed 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, and for this he will definitely do his best.
To go.
After receiving the quotation from Secretary of State 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 to it. The price is too low. You are directly sending it to Rome."
When all of our country’s new ships are purchased, we need to consider the many risks and other hidden costs our country will bear.”
Ambassador Dageti was naturally confident in saying this, because this quotation was 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 was based on the Italian 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.
Even the wealthy U.S. government would find it difficult to spend so much money at once, which can account for almost 60% of the U.S. Navy’s military expenditures.
As for why the U.S. government is willing to pay such a high price to buy 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 has just fought against the Spanish and Italian navies that operate Italian warships, has an evaluation of the Italian warships.
Very high, I think the failure in this battle was all due to the performance of my own battleship.
Our own Indiana-class battleship is rubbish. Various problems occurred frequently in naval battles, so we lost a lot in a three-on-two battle. As for the Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser, don't even mention it. Compared with the opponent's Garibaldi, the world's best armored cruiser,
They are not even suitable for carrying shoes. In naval battles, there is a huge difference in firepower output and protection. This gap makes the American naval officers and soldiers who fight bravely curse their mothers.
At the same time, the U.S. Navy officers and soldiers do not trust the three Illinois-class battleships still being built in their own shipyards, saying that they are just modified versions of the Indiana-class, and they will still be garbage after being modified.
Therefore, the U.S. government must also consider the needs of its own naval officers and soldiers.
However, the goodwill of the U.S. government could not be understood by Ambassador Dagety. He also took out a quotation and said, "Your Excellency Secretary 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 battleships was about 20% higher than that given by the United States. For example, the Genoa-class battleship was directly priced at 6.5 million.
U.S. dollars, and the Garibaldi-class costume tour was as high as 8.4 million U.S. dollars, and the total price was pushed up to 54 million U.S. dollars.
This gap of 12 million US dollars made Secretary of State Hay frown. "Ambassador Dagerty, your country's offer is too high, and the gap is too big."
"How can it be considered high?"
Upon hearing that Secretary of State Hay did not directly say that he could not afford it, Dagerty knew that this was a joke and immediately defended. "Your country needs to understand our country's difficulties. First of all, when it comes to selling warships, if our country..."
In Ambassador Dageti's explanation, how much risk is Italy willing to take in selling these six warships to the United States? First of all, the Italian Navy will have a window period of at least two years for its main warships. At this time, if a navy's strength is not different from that of Italy,
If a big country declares war on Italy, then
Without the main battleships, it is impossible for Italy to win. In addition, the officers and soldiers currently equipped by the Italian Navy for these six battleships are already familiar with the battleships. If the United States buys these six battleships, then this will waste the Italian Navy's already-familiar warships.
The energy and money spent.
Having said this, Dageti 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, and our country cannot pay the cost."
However, although Ambassador Dagerty's words were fantastic, Secretary of State Hay was also a diplomat. It was impossible for him to agree to Dagerty's request. After a round of nonsense conversation, Ambassador Dagerty left.
Both of them knew that this time they were just reporting prices to each other to see the difference 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.
Yes, this Roosevelt is none other than the former Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt. This man is as tenacious in his political vitality as an immortal young man. His previous performance made President McKinley admire him very much, so he became the
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 negotiate much. The most we can negotiate is a price of US$50 million, which is the limit." Hay interjected at this time.
Finance Minister Lyman Gage turned to Navy Secretary Lewis who was silent and said, "Can't your navy reduce the number of purchases? For example, only purchase two battleships and two patrol ships. This can at least save money."
Fourteen hundred dollars, you can do a lot with that much money."
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. "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 well regarded among naval officers and soldiers,
Gao, we must buy six battleships at this time
.And Italy happens to have six, and four of them are immediately available, which is very important. You must know that what we faced off against the Japanese warships in Hawaii were six protected cruisers, which were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of strength comparison. We need these batches.
Battleships can immediately expand our maritime power."
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 still unclear.
Before the war with Spain, there were completely two attitudes.
Moreover, the negotiations with the British have also 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 because we have underestimated the difficulty of the war with Spain.
This underestimate requires spending more energy and money 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 current defeat of the United States 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
, even if it loses the war, the United States should express its attitude. It doesn't matter if we lose, we can repair it and start over.
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, it will happen 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 of America, which was formed by thirteen states, to transform into one of the world powers spanning two oceans in less than a hundred years.
"Roosevelt is right. We must make our voice 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, intervened at this time, and his words were regarded as 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 some price. The U.S. government is not rich enough, and it cannot satisfy the huge appetite of the poor."
President McKinley made a rare wisecrack.
Well, it seems that U.S. ship purchase negotiations are inevitable, it just depends on how much the Secretary of State can negotiate.
