138.

pp. 280-281

CLET002009

16 July 1892

Ing. Tito Ricordi

Director of the Workshops

City

With reference to yours of today: confirming the necessity of adopting all possible and perhaps impossible measures for maximum cost savings, I must make a few comments regarding jobs done for third parties.

In principle, I am not opposed to taking on such work, but I’m very concerned about the conditions one is forced to accept. Due to competition being pushed to the extreme, one is forced to also cut costs to the extreme! On what reliable basis are the prices calculated?.. As I already pointed out, signor Mora, who is an excellent artist, makes his calculations just like an artist, that is to say, imprecisely!!... Every time I have had to deal with his claims about schedules and costs, I later found that he committed enormous errors! — Thus one is missing the very preliminary basis necessary to correctly make a quote about the work, where instead one needs more or less detailed plans! I recall the risks Mora led us into with the publicity poster for Genoa!!.. Having avoided these, it is doubtful we will be reimbursed for the expenses we incurred! Who knows what the poster for the mirror ended up costing!... and in order to obtain two dubious promissory notes we had to accept a discount, if I recall correctly, of more than 600 lire, an enormous sum in the context of the total invoice. For the posters for the races, we accepted the job of pasting them up as well, which ended up costing us far more than estimated. The Candiani job, certainly a loss!... In conditions such as these what profit can we possibly get out of jobs for third parties?... I’m afraid, unfortunately, that we will not even reach break-even with the expenses, and the fact that this is a probable outcome is quite eloquently demonstrated by the state of our cash reserves. In no other sector of our central administration did we have such extraordinary costs, which led to such a remarkable imbalance. Even if the jobs done for third parties were to cover our costs, it is nonetheless a loss for us at the end of the day because we anticipated the investment several months in advance, and if we had left that capital in the banks we would have earned at least 3%!... so we had a double loss of income and a double increased expense.

Before coming to a radical decision such as laying off workers or suspending the above-mentioned jobs, however, I want to calmly examine the situation and above all know on what data the estimates were prepared. If these data are based on reliable information, then I want to know whether we have trustworthy guarantees for the payment, etc. etc. In the hope that you can reassure me about all this, I’ll see then what I can decide. Yours most affectionately, Giulio Ricordi

By the end of this month, we have to pay 60,000 lire!!!.. After which, there will be almost no liquid left in the bank accounts!!!.. That is the situation!