Starting Parameters
Difficulty Settings - Normal, with 100 Million Starting Funds.
Location - Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Date - January, 1900
Background
The explosion over the previous ten years in Europe and the United States of a burgeoning automobile industry largely overlooked Canada. Though little more than a curiosity, a fanciful mechanical toy for those with money to spare in its early days, many engineers saw the promise of further exploration of this new method of transit. This was especially true in the United States and Canada, where vast tracts of land had to be crossed in many areas, and where the greater speed and carrying capacity of the automobile promised greater commercial and industrial efficiency. The only issue, especially in Canada, was that there was no native automobile industry, and tariffs of prototypical vehicles from the United States or even mother Britain made imports prohibitively expensive.
Thus was born Landmair. The brainchild of Baron Mount Stephen, the very same man who had created the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 19th Century, he saw the need of a railway across the country to maintain Canadian economic relevance. Now, in the 20th, he saw the revolutionary nature of the automobile and, with his own money as well as that donated by his close cousin, the Lord Strathcona, he financed Landmer (IPA: /lændmÉ›Ê/), an Anglo-French portmanteau meaning LandSea, a uniquely Canadian approach to the promise of a transportation revolution in all realms in the upcoming century. Ever the forward thinker, and knowing too that experiments into aerial flight were progressing quickly, by January 1900, just prior to the final documents were signed, Landmer changed its name. Maintaining the pronunciation, Landmer became Landmair, encapsulating all three environments of the upcoming transportation revolution in two languages.
Philosophy and Goals
The coal of the AAR is to take a Montreal-based car company and make it become the leading transportation giant in North America, and eventually the whole Western Hemisphere. The monetary values, while significant, are there primarily as a safety net, not as a way to 'break' the system if you will.
I chose Canada for its 30% tax rate (compared to 40% in the United States), plus the fact that while infrastructure is comparable to the United States, its Labor Costs are approximiately one half of the United States. Montreal in particular was chosen for its proximity to the major American markets in the Northeast (Philadelphia, Newark, and New York). Given the early Canadian entry into World War One, I am concerned about that, however I believe it will be manageable. And depending on how the Depression plays out, I expect that being situated outside of the epicenter of the economic collapse, that is the United States and the weak European postwar economies will allow me to continue through this period with only minor adjustments. Beyond that, I've not put much thought to it.
Outside of cornering the Canadian market, ideally, and selling when and as possible in the primary American markets, I hope to expand to not only the whole of North America and the western Hemisphere, but also to attain respectable UK, West German, French, and Commonwealth markets (India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand primarily).
Production for the West will be focused in Canada, while Commonwealth markets will hopefully be supplied by cheap Indian labor.
---
With all that aside, updates will be coming as worthwhile things happen.
Difficulty Settings - Normal, with 100 Million Starting Funds.
Location - Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Date - January, 1900
Background
The explosion over the previous ten years in Europe and the United States of a burgeoning automobile industry largely overlooked Canada. Though little more than a curiosity, a fanciful mechanical toy for those with money to spare in its early days, many engineers saw the promise of further exploration of this new method of transit. This was especially true in the United States and Canada, where vast tracts of land had to be crossed in many areas, and where the greater speed and carrying capacity of the automobile promised greater commercial and industrial efficiency. The only issue, especially in Canada, was that there was no native automobile industry, and tariffs of prototypical vehicles from the United States or even mother Britain made imports prohibitively expensive.
Thus was born Landmair. The brainchild of Baron Mount Stephen, the very same man who had created the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the 19th Century, he saw the need of a railway across the country to maintain Canadian economic relevance. Now, in the 20th, he saw the revolutionary nature of the automobile and, with his own money as well as that donated by his close cousin, the Lord Strathcona, he financed Landmer (IPA: /lændmÉ›Ê/), an Anglo-French portmanteau meaning LandSea, a uniquely Canadian approach to the promise of a transportation revolution in all realms in the upcoming century. Ever the forward thinker, and knowing too that experiments into aerial flight were progressing quickly, by January 1900, just prior to the final documents were signed, Landmer changed its name. Maintaining the pronunciation, Landmer became Landmair, encapsulating all three environments of the upcoming transportation revolution in two languages.
Philosophy and Goals
The coal of the AAR is to take a Montreal-based car company and make it become the leading transportation giant in North America, and eventually the whole Western Hemisphere. The monetary values, while significant, are there primarily as a safety net, not as a way to 'break' the system if you will.
I chose Canada for its 30% tax rate (compared to 40% in the United States), plus the fact that while infrastructure is comparable to the United States, its Labor Costs are approximiately one half of the United States. Montreal in particular was chosen for its proximity to the major American markets in the Northeast (Philadelphia, Newark, and New York). Given the early Canadian entry into World War One, I am concerned about that, however I believe it will be manageable. And depending on how the Depression plays out, I expect that being situated outside of the epicenter of the economic collapse, that is the United States and the weak European postwar economies will allow me to continue through this period with only minor adjustments. Beyond that, I've not put much thought to it.
Outside of cornering the Canadian market, ideally, and selling when and as possible in the primary American markets, I hope to expand to not only the whole of North America and the western Hemisphere, but also to attain respectable UK, West German, French, and Commonwealth markets (India, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand primarily).
Production for the West will be focused in Canada, while Commonwealth markets will hopefully be supplied by cheap Indian labor.
---
With all that aside, updates will be coming as worthwhile things happen.