Fox of France

Let the Austrians build their own power plants, Joseph sees no problem. After all, the science involved in this thing has been made public, and everyone knows the principle of the power station. If there is no accident, the British should be able to come up with their own power station in the near future. At this time, taking advantage of this time difference, it is definitely a good thing to expand the power plants of France to the entire European continent, so that the electricity of the entire European continent depends on French standards.

But producing electric lamps in Austria is another matter. There is almost no difficulty in the scientific principles of electric lights. Anyone who knows a little common sense about electricity can understand the principle of light from electric lights. However, electric lights are technically very difficult. It perfectly meets the two requirements of being difficult to imitate: first, the craftsmanship is difficult; second, the material is special.

In the manufacture of electric lamps, an important technical requirement is to evacuate the air, and the efficiency of the air extraction directly determines the quality and service life of the electric lamps. In this regard, no one has the deep technical accumulation of the French. Before the electric light was disclosed, "Bonaparte General Electric" had already registered a large number of patents on pumping technology. In fact, although these technologies themselves are somewhat difficult, they are not really so difficult that others cannot do them. However, with these patents, Napoleon's France also made it impossible for any products that infringed French patents to be sold in continental Europe. The ability to sell legally in most countries on the world, so these patents are a high wall preventing others from entering this field.

Of course, there are many other means of vacuuming, but the most commonly used, cheapest and easiest to implement are all patented by "Bonaparte General Electric", so any foreign manufacturer wants to bypass these patents , have to pay a huge price.

The second trouble is that the material is special. In fact, anyone who buys a light bulb, smashes it on the ground, breaks it, and then takes out the filament can see that the filament is carbon. But the problem is that no one knows what it is carbonized. At most, we can only know that it should be carbonized by some kind of plant. It also takes a lot of effort to find suitable plants among various plants.

And if you cooperate with the Austrians to produce electric lights, even if the Austrian electric lights are really only sold in designated areas, some related technical secrets will still be easily leaked. Therefore, after careful consideration, Napoleon had Metternich informed that France "has no special views" on economic cooperation with Austria.

The so-called "holding no particular opinion" means that you can go and talk with others, and I don't care what the outcome of the talk is. And it is very similar to the "we don't know what happened next" in the Nihongo Kingdom of later generations. In fact, it is: if it is done, I want to share a share. If it is not done, this pot is not mine and has nothing to do with me.

As soon as Metternich heard it, he understood that there was something to discuss about this matter, but the French must have other requirements. However, as long as there is something to talk about, a certain result will definitely be reached, and as long as a certain result is negotiated, then he will have a share of the credit, and there will be a reward for him.

Over the years, the prices of diplomats stationed in France, as well as French diplomats stationed abroad, have increased. Although the official positions of ambassadors and consuls in France still have to consider other things such as loyalty and ability, but other positions in embassies and consulates are really generally awarded to those with the highest price. of. Because of course, with these positions, it is easy to establish a business relationship with the French, and then make a fortune.

The subordinates can get rich like this, and the ambassador or consul who is the chief official is naturally not a vegetarian. Besides, promoting economic and trade exchanges between the two countries is one of the important responsibilities of ambassadors and consuls.

So a man named Francois, holding a letter of introduction signed by Metternich, found "Bonaparte General Electric" and began to talk to them about buying a factory.

The name "Francois" may be a pseudonym, but the letter signed by Metternich is not fake, and more importantly, the deposit certificate issued by Bowan Bank is not fake. On that certificate of deposit, the funds of one million francs are clearly there.

So the two sides had a frank discussion on the matter of cooperating to make money. And quickly reached a basic agreement on most issues, leaving only the last issue, that is, the issue of the filament factory matching the electric lamp factory.

The French insisted that with the technical and management level of the Austrians, it is impossible to manage a filament factory well, and the Austrian filament factory may become a loophole through which some of the most crucial commercial and technical secrets are leaked. Therefore, the French It was proposed that the filament be produced in France, then shipped to Austria for assembly, and then sold by the Austrians in the specified area.

But Francois believes that doing so will only increase costs in vain. Moreover, the technical secrets of the French are protected by patents, so worrying about technology loss is untenable.

Louis Bonaparte, who represents "Bonaparte General Electric", said that the transportation cost of the filament is not high. In remote areas, patent protection is still far from perfect, or even almost non-existent. For example, in Russia, although Russia has just formulated a patent law, it is hard to say how well they are implemented. As for Turkey, there is no spectrum.

Of course, these are not the most important, the most important thing is to guard against the British.

"The British are the first countries in Europe to have the Patent Law, so no one knows how to exploit the loopholes of the Patent Law better than the British. Not to mention, in the colonies of the British, they can have a way Bypass the Patent Act.

For example, in India, we all know that most of India has actually fallen under the control of the British East India Company. But at least in name, there are still Indian princes in these places, right? The British can establish illegal factories in the name of these Indians, produce illegal products, and then not only sell them in India, but even sell them in Europe through smuggling. Even, they only need Indians to bear this name and directly put the factory in the UK. We have nothing to do, because it is Indians who do this, not British!

In theory, we can only take retaliatory measures against other goods in a certain Indian state. Heck, we don't have much contact with India, what kind of retaliation is there? Therefore, it is not superfluous to worry about the risks brought about by technology loss. Therefore, at least temporarily, the production of the filament cannot be in Austria.

In fact, even in France, although we have several bulb factories, there is only one factory that produces filament. Moreover, it is not economically cost-effective to build a filament factory for a light bulb factory with limited output. "

The latter reason is actually more convincing. After all, the Austrians operate this matter, in the final analysis, it is still to make money. What's more, Louis put forward a brand new counter-proposal.

"In addition, Mr. Francois." Louis said, "We have another suggestion. You know, the demand for electric lamps is very high and it is very profitable. Therefore, we naturally need to expand production. Well, this means that we To build more lamp factories, and more filament factories. We welcome anyone who is willing to be friends with us to make money together. Mr. Fritz, if you are interested in filament factories, I suggest that you can invest in our filaments factory and electric lamp factory, I don’t know if you are interested.”

If you just build an electric lamp factory and make money in the Balkans, although you can make some money, the total amount is still quite limited. But if you can take a stake in "Bonaparte General Electric", it is simply picking up money. So when Francois heard this suggestion, his eyes lit up immediately.

As Napoleon and Joseph expected, this Francois is actually a representative of the Austrian high-level. He came this time, and there is actually a group of Austrian nobles behind him.

When France had just reached peace with Austria and other countries, Austria actually wanted to "gather together for ten years, learn lessons for ten years, and seek revenge". But after these two years, I found that France is developing better and better. At least for now, there is no sign of it going to end at all. And the gap between Austria and France in terms of national power is obviously getting bigger and bigger. If it is said that Austria could not beat France back then, but if it worked hard, it could still make France suffer. But now, if there is another war between the two sides, even Grand Duke Karl finds it difficult to fight against France, and even feels that even if he tries his best, he will be able to splash the blood of the French at most.

Faced with such a dangerous situation, there is now a dispute between the two lines in the upper class of Austria. Some people headed by Archduke Karl hope to develop industry and make the country rich and strong like France; on the other side, Emperor Friedrich Ci II. His Majesty the Emperor is very cautious about any changes. On the one hand, he is very worried that the development of industry and commerce will make the common people too powerful, thus destroying the fragile balance within the empire and causing bad things; but on the other hand, he is also very clear , the current situation has reached the point where it has to be changed. If it continues to stand still, the collapse of the empire is almost inevitable.

Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor knew that he had to change, but he couldn't go too fast. If you walk slowly, you may be doomed; but if you walk fast, you may be doomed. It is said that because he was worried that there would be the same result as his aunt and uncle, His Majesty the Emperor was so worried that he could not sleep at night, and he lost a lot of weight.

It is said that Metternich later made a suggestion to His Majesty the Emperor, suggesting that His Majesty tie his own interests with those of France, so that with the help of France, it should be easier to carry out social reforms. Even if they can't get much support from the French, as long as the French don't intentionally export revolutions in Austria and don't make trouble, the situation in Austria will be much more stable.

Today, the French have agreed to help Austria build power plants and electric light plants, which is obviously in line with Archduke Karl's claim of "rich the country and strong soldiers", at least in line with the claim of "rich country"; and Louis Bonaparte proposed, The proposal to invite Austrians to join "Bonaparte General Electric" is also in line with His Majesty's desire to bind the interests of the upper classes of Austria, especially the Austrian royal family, with France.

Although France is now a republic, as the first ruling Napoleon, the power in his hands definitely exceeds that of most monarchies, and it can even be said to be no less than the "I am the country" Sun King back then. On the other hand, Napoleon's family now has an astonishingly great influence in France, no less than the Bourbon family back then. If it wasn't for Napoleon, who was only the first ruler after all, and not a king who could be passed on to his descendants, then His Majesty the Emperor might have planned to marry Napoleon. Anyway, making love or something, isn't it a traditional Austrian art?

In short, in Francois' view, this method of handling completely satisfies the hopes of the two factions in the country, which is simply perfect. So he hurriedly asked about the investment in "Bonaparte General Electric".

"Ah, Mr. Francois, you may not be clear, 'Bonaparte General Electric' itself is a company with many investors, and the number of shares held by the Bonaparte family in the entire company is actually less than 100% In other words, we do not have a complete controlling stake. This also means that any large-scale share expansion must be approved by the general meeting of shareholders. However, you also know that we cannot allow the entire enterprise to distribute shares There have been too many changes. Therefore, normally speaking, even if a general meeting of shareholders is held, under the current situation, the shares we can sell are unlikely to be too large."

This statement made Francois quite disappointed, but it would be good if he could get a share. So he hurriedly asked: "So, how much equity can we get at most?"

After hearing this, Louis said, "Mr. François, you know that 'Bonaparte General Electric' will definitely make a lot of money now, and everyone knows that. This also makes our company very convenient in financing. We You can easily borrow as much money as you want at any bank at an interest rate that is significantly lower than the market rate. In this case, I guess the general meeting of shareholders will not agree to give up many ordinary shares to you. My personal opinion is that it is estimated that it will not exceed five percent."

The estimate of "not more than five percent" disappointed Francois a bit. He knew that investing in "Bonaparte General Electric" would definitely make a lot of money economically as well as politically. But the maximum share of no more than 5% is really unsatisfactory.

"Mr. Bonaparte, with more funds, you can expand your business faster and earn more money. Why is the restriction so tight?" Francois asked, frowning slightly.

"Because changes in shares will bring about changes in the company's internal power structure, which in turn will affect the company's future development. The company's current development is very smooth, so most shareholders are naturally unwilling to let the company's power structure change. There is too much change. Therefore, shareholders are naturally more willing to use loans to obtain expansion funds instead of bringing in more partners. I think this is also very natural and easy to understand. You are right No?" Louie explained, "But maybe there's another way we can work together."

"What do you mean by the other way?" Francois asked quickly.

"Oh, Monsieur François, have you ever heard of preferred shares?" Louis asked.

François shook his head in bewilderment.

The so-called "preferred stock" is a stock that enjoys "preferred rights". Shareholders of preferred shares have priority over the company's assets, profit distribution, etc., and the risk is relatively small. However, preferred stockholders usually have no voting rights in matters of the company other than matters involving the interests of preferred stockholders. Preferred shareholders do not have the right to vote or be elected. Generally speaking, they have no right to participate in the company's operations. Preferred shareholders cannot withdraw their shares and can only be redeemed by the company through the redemption terms of preferred shares.

This kind of "preferred stock" was actually invented by the British in the 16th century, but because the market was not standardized at that time, and the business was not developed enough, the advantages of preferred stock were not fully reflected, but brought a lot of management problems Therefore, this practice is not widely used, and even almost forgotten. In the original history, until the 1820s, a British company encountered financial difficulties when developing the canal. It wanted to borrow money from a bank, and the interest was too high. It could not attract new investors if it wanted to issue common shares. Investors participated, so the "preferred stock" hundreds of years ago was reinvented, and the result was a great success. So this ancient "financial innovation" began to be widely used.

However, when Louis said "preferred shares" to Francois, hundreds of years had passed since the first unsuccessful attempt of "preferred shares". It is impossible to know the meaning of this word, so it is very normal for François not to know this word.

So Louis talked about the concept of "preferred shares" to Francois in general, and then said to him: "I think the most fundamental reason you are willing to invest in our company is to make money. In terms of making money, 'preferred shares' 'It's not much different from ordinary shares, and there are even some discounts in terms of dividends. And I think you should be quite satisfied with our company's current operating conditions and development prospects, and you probably don't want to change Our company's business model and development ideas. Therefore, this preferred stock should be a solution that is very suitable for the needs of both of us."

Something happened at school, that's all for today.