Gallieni glanced at the quotation sheet. A grenade was priced at 2 francs, making ten thousand grenades only twenty thousand francs. Without a second thought, he signed his name.
He didn't realize he had fallen into the price trap set by Shire:
The cost of producing a wooden-handle grenade was very cheap. Moreover, Saint-Étienne had ready-made powder, carpentry, and molding production lines. Piecing them together, a grenade factory quickly took shape.
Therefore, the final cost of a grenade was only around 35 centimes. Following the usual practice of doubling the price, selling it for 75 centimes would be enough, still ensuring a 100% profit.
But Shire knew Gallieni had no concept of grenades. Otherwise, he wouldn't have casually mentioned "ten thousand grenades" previously.
It wasn't a matter of "ten thousand grenades," but rather the consumption of several million, or even tens of millions of grenades per month.
