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Ford Motor Company 's First Experimental Car

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INTRODUCTION
A. Corporate Background
Ford Motor Company, American automotive corporation founded in 1903 by Henry Ford and 11 associate investors. Henry Ford built his first experimental car (Quadricycle) in a workshop behind his home in Detroit in 1896. After formation of the Ford Motor Company, the first Ford car (model A) was assembled in July 1903. By October 1 of the same year, Ford Motor Company turned profit of $37,000. Five years later, in 1908, the highly successful Model T was introduced. Demand for this car was so great that Ford developed new mass-production methods in order to manufacture it in sufficient quantities. In 1913, he introduced the world’s first moving assembly line for cars; and in 1914, to further improve labor productivity, he introduced the $5 daily wage for an eight-hour day (replacing $2.34 for a nine-hour day). In 1919, the company was reincorporated, with Ford, his wife, Clara, and his son, Edsel, acquiring full ownership. They, their heirs, and the Ford Foundation (formed 1936) were sole stockholders until January 1956, when public sale of the common stock was first offered.
The company’s first international sales branch opened in Paris in 1908. By mid-1914 there were more than 500,000 Model Ts on the roads of the world; by 1923 the company was producing more than half of America’s automobiles; and, by the end of the 1920s, Ford had more than 20 overseas assembly plants in Europe, Latin America, Canada, Asia, South Africa, and Australia.

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