1855 United States Tycoon

Chapter 69 Cooperation (1)

“Oh, these things, I will let Lawrence Knight talk to you specifically.” Prince Albert did not continue this topic, “Let’s talk about other things. You may not know, I am serving as Cambridge The superintendent of the university. My son, Prince Edward is also studying in Cambridge. Cambridge has been committed to the study of natural sciences since the great Sir Newton. Knowing your arrival, many scholars have expressed to me that they hope to You are invited to give lectures in Cambridge.”

“Ah, this is also a rare opportunity for me to communicate. Thank you very much for your invitation, Your Majesty.” Of course, Scrooge would not reject this opportunity to brush up his reputation.

“Oh, my wife and I are very interested in the section you mentioned in “Research on the Causes of Some Infectious Diseases and the Effects of Certain Chemicals on Their Treatment” to avoid puerperal fever in pregnant women. However, My knowledge in this area is still quite inadequate, and there are some problems that I have not figured out too much. Well, can I ask you a few questions? In addition, in recent years, I have always felt that my energy is not as good as before. I’m tired, but sometimes I can’t sleep at night. Do you have any research on medicine like this, what do you think about it?”

“His Royal Highness, you know, I am not a doctor, in fact, I am not qualified to practice medicine. I am just a chemistry lover with a little discovery by accident.” Shi Gaozhi was humbled, “However, I heard that the Prince Your Highness, I have very little time to rest every day, and I sit at my desk for a long time to deal with affairs. I know that this way of working and resting is very bad for the body. Maybe you should do more like jogging and swimming. sports.”

“Ah, Dr. Watson has always said that to me. It seems that what Dr. Watson said is correct.” Prince Albert smiled, shook his head, and turned to another topic. “In your paper, there is a mathematical method for analyzing data. I didn’t understand it too well. Can you tell me something…”

After lunch, Scrooge left Windsor and returned to London under the “dark sky”. Lawrence Knight escorted him all the way back to the hotel. This time is already the time when Hua Deng first started. Therefore, the Lawrence Cavaliers did not immediately negotiate with Scrooge on how to cooperate, but set the time for tomorrow morning.

Having sent Lawrence away, Scrooge began to think about Prince Albert’s conversations with him, speculating about his intentions.

“When Prince Albert mentioned the sulfa patent to me, he said’I and Victoria.’ He didn’t add the word queen after Victoria. What does this mean? Well, if I remember well, in Queen Victoria During the period, the life of the British traditional aristocrats did not seem to be very good. Although the traditional income derived from land has not decreased, it is simply not worth mentioning compared with those emerging business people. The great aristocrats that everyone envy, except for those who reacted quickly and ran away to do business long ago, many of the remaining people have actually become poor (relatively), it seems that even the noble Queen, when there is no Before ascending to the throne, the days were quite poor. Although the nobles looked down on those nouveau riche businessmen, but, if possible, who wouldn’t want to explode? Prince Albert meant that he didn’t want to take this money. The business turned into a business for the two of them to make private money, right?” Scrooge thought.

Since the Glorious Revolution in Britain, private property has become Sacred inviolable. The king could no longer collect taxes as he pleased. Moreover, even those taxes collected cannot be squandered by the king. Although the territory of the United Kingdom is growing and the fiscal revenue of the United Kingdom government is increasing, the hole is as big as the snake is, and the government’s expenditure is also increasing. The money that can be distributed to the royal family is still small. pitful. Considering that there are so many children of the Queen, more money will be spent in the future. In such a situation, it is not surprising that Prince Albert wants to use this to make some private money for the royal family.

“If Prince Albert had such a plan, then this negotiation shouldn’t be too difficult.” Scrooge thought while falling asleep.

Early the next morning, the Lawrence Knight arrived as scheduled. He told Scrooge that Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Albert planned to fund the construction of a factory for the production and sale of sulfa drugs by the royal family and some great nobles. For this, they need Scrooge’s cooperation. As for the way of cooperation, Scrooge can choose one of three ways. The first method is for the British to give her a sum of money to sell his patents at one time; the second method is for Scrooge to buy shares with his patents. As for the shares, we ask both parties to study carefully; the third is The method is to pay Scrooge a certain amount of patent fees for each product sold during the patent period. Of course, they need to discuss how much this fee is.

In Scrooge’s view, the first model is the most undesirable. First of all, although the current market is not small, in the future, the market for this drug will expand rapidly to a point that some people cannot even imagine. Under the current situation, to negotiate a one-time transfer price, although Scrooge can quickly get a large amount of cash, but it is very difficult for the cash to find a business that makes more profit than sulfa. of. Not to mention that after adopting this method, Scrooge will not be able to use this patent to gain influence in the area under British control. So this method, for Scrooge, is absolutely uneconomical.

For Prince Albert and Her Majesty Queen Victoria, it may not be easy to come up with a large sum of money at once. It is true that the royal family has a lot of money, but the royal family needs to spend more money. Maintaining so many palaces and castles and maintaining a large servant team requires money. Among other things, the drainage system of Windsor Castle where Prince Albert and Queen Victoria lived for a long time was in a mess, but at least while Prince Albert was still alive, the royal family really couldn’t afford to repair it. If a large sum of money is immediately given to Scrooge, then the money for expanding production can only be borrowed from the Jewish vampires, and then the debt service is another expense. So Scrooge felt that the royal family should not be too cold with this plan.

Of the remaining two plans, Scrooge prefers to invest in patents. Because this will not only ensure that you can profit with the expansion of the market, but also give you a certain right to speak in the British economic circle. Therefore, Scrooge decided to set the main goal in this direction.

But just like fighting, when you have determined a main target, the next step is to hide this intention. So Scrooge did not directly talk about how to buy shares with patents, but enthusiastically asked about the price of one-time buyout of patents.

“You know, my factory in United States is now seriously under-capacity, and I urgently need a sum of money to expand production capacity. Although I can also rely on credit and other means to raise this amount of money, it is a negative interest, and I have to agree to some other conditions. Therefore, a sum of money that belongs to me is always better.” Scrooge said carefully, while speaking, while observing the look of Lawrence Knight.

“I want to know, how much are you willing to pay for this patent at once?” Scrooge asked.”It first depends on the scope of your patent authorization. If it is worldwide, the price will of course be higher, if it is only in Europe, it will be lower, and if it is limited to the United Kingdom, it will be lower. . “Lawrence Knight said.

“It’s impossible worldwide because it will lead to competition among patent owners. You know, in North America, we also have our own factories that are also producing sulfa. If your sulfa enters the North American market, it will Competing with us, and finally lowering prices, the benefits we all get are greatly reduced.” Scrooge replied, “Even in the European part, there will be many problems. Those countries in the European continent must not be willing to take this The cupped hands in the market give way. They will copy it after they get the sample. Of course, they signed a patent protection treaty with us, but if they take the same attitude of pretending not to see this illegal behavior? Then joint Can the Kingdom stop them? For example, if the French do this, will the United Kingdom declare war on France for this? I personally think this is impossible. Unless His Royal Highness is already preparing a war to conquer the European continent, just It needs an excuse. And once these countries start copying it, these copycats will not only flood their own market, but may even endanger the market under our control by smuggling. This is obviously not what we want to see.” Scrooge said on the side. , Watching the reaction of Lawrence Knight. He saw Lawrence nodding slightly, knowing that the reason for own had been approved by him. So he continued:

“So, I think, the scope of this patent can only be granted to the United Kingdom and its territories. Sulfonamides produced in your country cannot be sold in other regions, and sulfonamides produced in other regions cannot be sold in areas controlled by your country. This avoids self-sufficiency. Only by competing, can everyone’s interests be guaranteed.”

“What you said makes sense.” Lawrence said, before the negotiation, Lawrence felt that even if Scrooge was an evildoer, he must have his limits. If a person’s energy is used more in this area, it will definitely be less in another area. Since Scrooge has made so many achievements in science, he is likely to be worse in other areas. For example, some of the Cambridge scholars he met were close to children in terms of how to behave in the world. But Scrooge was obviously not such a person, which was far beyond his estimation.

“If the scope of authorization is limited to the United Kingdom and its territories, then the market itself is only about 10 million pounds per year. If the third method is adopted, according to the current usual practice, the patent fee will not exceed the percentage of the selling price. The fifth, so the total amount within the 14-year patent term is 7 million pounds. But because it is a one-time payment, obviously you can’t get that much. We can only provide you with a fee of one million pounds. “Lawrence said.

“This price is too low, I can’t accept such a price.” Scrooge said. At the same time, he noticed that Lawrence did not show any disappointed expression after hearing his answer, and even seemed to relax a little bit.

“This is the largest number we can come up with.” Lawrence Cavaliers replied, “If you feel unacceptable, then let’s talk about other ways of cooperation.”