Fox of France

"Well, everybody thinks so," replied Lavoisier, "so does Joseph. He told me that one of the most profitable trades in the world today is steel, and the other is railways. Certainly so, at least for a short time." You know, the British have invested a lot of money in steel, but it seems that the progress is limited. Compared with our technology in this area, there is still a big gap between them and us. Even if they can come up with something , we can’t compare with us in terms of performance and cost. What’s more, we have high technology that can’t be written on a whole piece of paper, hehehe...

As for the railways, the English also have the skill in this field, thanks to Mr. Watt. But because they want to buy steel rails from us, their construction period and construction cost will be constrained by us. They can build in the UK for a while, but it is absolutely impossible for them to compete with us. So, to tell you the truth, all the money I have now has been invested in these two businesses. And these two trades are indeed bringing me more money over and over again. "

Speaking of making money, Lavoisier beamed with joy.

"It's just that the speed of the railway is not so fast?" Nathan Rothschild said.

"The main reason is that steel production is holding back." Lavoisier said, "However, the bottleneck of transportation capacity has been broken, and new steel plants have been established. It won't be long before the production of steel will have a rapid improvement. , then the advance of the railways can be made faster. Soon you will see railways all over France."

"I think the railways should be a very good buy outside of France, say in Austria and Prussia, or even the New World."

"It should be." Lavoisier hesitated and said, "I don't know much about the situation in these two countries. But Joseph said that the land problem is not easy to solve when building railways in these two countries. You know, The land they have is owned by nobles from all over the country, unlike our France, where the nobles have all been guillotined. So it is very troublesome to build railways on their side."

"However, there are at least a few sections of railways that are worth building." Nathan Rothschild said, "For example, building a railway from Lubin to the Oder River is very valuable."

Lubin has a large copper mine, and copper is also a very important commodity, especially when electrification is developing at a high speed, and the demand for copper is also increasing.

"I have a lot of business dealings with the guys in Austria. If we can get your support, I think we should be able to solve those troublesome land issues and build that railway."

Lavoisier thought for a while, nodded and said, "This is indeed a good deal, but I have no money to invest."

"Ah, Mr. Lavoisier, money is not a problem." Nathan Rothschild said, "Have you forgotten my self-introduction just now? I run a bank."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten, but I've borrowed quite a bit from the banks of the Commonwealth. A little half of the money I earn from my investment goes to those banks of the Commonwealth, and frankly, they The interest rate given to me is already very good - yes, under normal circumstances, you can't find such a low interest rate in all of Paris. But the reason why they are willing to lend me money at such a low interest rate is of course Because they know that my two investments will make money 100%, so although the interest rate is not high, there is almost no risk, so they only ask for such a low interest rate.

However, Mr. Rothschild, you know that the variables of the business in Austria are much greater than those in France, which means that the risk of investing in that place is also much greater. In this way, the interest rate of the loan will naturally be higher, but the income is not necessarily higher. Even taking into account the higher interest rate on the loan, the return is likely to be lower, so, while it's a good deal, for now, you see, I might not need to invest in it too much. "

Nathan Rothschild was silent for a while, and then sighed: "You are right, Mr. Lavoisier. However, if you are willing to do me a favor, maybe, maybe the risk of this business can be greatly reduced. Well, of course I won't ask you to help for nothing... Well, you are the most respected elder of Dean Bonaparte, and his wife is your niece. If you can convince him to invest in this project, well, it's not even necessary He really invested money, and this money can be paid by me. Dean Bonaparte only needs to enjoy a dry share. All I need is a name to put pressure on the Austrian government. As long as there is In such a name, they will definitely help us settle the land issue. If you can really help, we can also give you a share for free..."

This suggestion immediately moved Lavoisier, because this is a business without capital. It is even lower than the transaction cost without capital. Think about it, Joseph's brothers need to lead troops to fight a battle when they go to buy money without capital, such as looking for generous donations from the Pope. And for this business, only a name is enough, this is really... His heart suddenly jumped.

Lavoisier and Nathan Rothschild talked for a while, and they discussed the general intention, and then he said to Nathan Rothschild: "Mr. Rothschild, you are really a genius in business. I think Joseph should be very interested in this deal..."

The two were talking like this, but the train had already started to slow down.

"Mr. Lavoisier, Mr. Lavoisier, we have arrived, aren't you going to get off?" A young man in his twenties called out to Lavoisier.

"Ah, of course I'm going to come down and have a look. Well, wait for me. Don't be so anxious about everything. Anyway, the Peace Palace is not a train. It has no wheels and can't run. Well, Gauss, don't you think so?"

The waiters came up to help the passengers with their luggage, and Nathan Rothschild politely said goodbye to Lavoisier and Joseph's students and assistants, and then returned to his compartment.

As soon as he got back to his compartment, he couldn't help stamping his foot on the floor with excitement.

Nathan Rothschild understood that it would be very difficult for any business to make money without the endorsement of a strong political force. After all, violence is the guarantee behind all free trade. Who wants to trade freely with you if you don't have a big stick in your hand? Wouldn't it be more fragrant to rob directly?

Without violence, there is no profiteering. And in today's Europe, is there anything more violent than France and the Bonaparte family? With the relationship between them and the endorsement of violence, will the huge profits be far behind?

After everyone got out of the car, a waiter led them to the rest area to rest. After all, Napoleon came by the second special train. And only after Napoleon arrived and delivered a speech, the Pakistan Fair officially started.

So Lavoisier and Nathan Rothschild got together again and chatted about business; and Gauss, who had already skillfully took out a small notebook, wrote and drew on it.

After a while, another siren sounded from a distance, and then a train spewing smoke also entered the station and stopped at the platform.

This is a relatively short train. Apart from the engine and the tender, this train has only three sections. The middle section is Napoleon's box, and the compartments on both sides are filled with guards.

Because not long ago, the Ministry of Public Security uncovered a conspiracy against the first ruling—a group of royalists who wanted to restore their lost paradise tried to assassinate the invincible greatness of the French people when Napoleon went to inspect the renovation of the old city. Commander, the golden sun in the hearts of the French people. They planted a large amount of explosives on the side of the road where Napoleon passed by, in an attempt to assassinate Napoleon first, and then rebel and change the world.

However, the eyes of the people are discerning. Their evil conspiracy has long attracted the attention of the people of Chaoyang District—ah, no, the people of St. Antoine District. After receiving reports from the masses, the Ministry of Public Security attached great importance to it, carefully deployed it, and cooperated closely with other departments to capture most of the counter-revolutionaries in one fell swoop, and individual fugitive criminals would certainly not escape justice.

According to unreliable sources, the Minister of Public Security, Mr. Fouché, complained to the First Consulate that none of the conspirators would have been able to escape if the Ministry of Truth hadn’t come to grab credit and startle the snake. Of course, Lucien did not admit this, but said that if they hadn't joined urgently, there would definitely be more fish that slipped through the net.

Although the conspiracy of those royalists was shattered. But these guys will definitely not stop there, and will definitely continue to make trouble. In the words of Napoleon's speech in the State Council, it is: "Make trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again...until complete perdition, this is the basic logic of all feudal remnants, and they will never violate this logic!"

Therefore, after this incident, the security measures for Napoleon's travel were improved a lot. Although Napoleon was a little disgusted by this, he even felt that it separated him from the people. It is said that he complained in private that I have seen a lot of bullets and bullets, and the small tricks of the royalist elements are not counted in the drizzle! Besides, Lao Tzu is with the people, is there anything unsafe? When Lao Tzu is with the people, it is the strongest and safest time!

But even so, the security measures were stepped up a notch. For example, although the train that Napoleon was riding at this time looked no different from other passenger trains from the outside, in fact, the carriages on his special train were much heavier than ordinary carriages, because these carriages were almost An armored box with thick steel plates on all sides.

Napoleon left the carriage escorted by guards. He boarded the rostrum in front of the Liberty Palace again, and paid tribute to the businessmen from various countries who came to participate in the second Pakistan Fair. He told the businessmen that commercial activities communicate what is needed, bring about economic development, promote mutual understanding among people of various countries, and enhance friendship among countries, thus better guaranteeing the peace and peace of our era. development, so commercial activities themselves are the greatest charity.

After delivering an impassioned speech, Napoleon announced the official opening of the second Pakistan Fair. After Napoleon finished speaking, more than 2,000 pigeons were released, and the crowd cheered.

Then came various group gymnastics performances and demonstrations of various new technologies.

This time, the theme of the Pakistan Fair is the electrical age, so it is natural that all kinds of electrical appliances play the leading role. In addition to the well-known electric lights, telephones, and cable telegraphs, Bonaparte General Electric has displayed many new gadgets that people have never seen before. For example, a record player, such as a particularly bright arc lamp. Of course, what is exhibited this time is not a one-man show by Bonaparte General Electric. Many other companies have also displayed a lot of imaginative works. There are even small electric vehicles that use electric motors powered by lead-acid batteries as their power source. Of course, because of the limitations of battery technology, this thing can't go very far at all. But when it was displayed, this thing still attracted the attention of many people.

The inventor of this thing claims that this thing can replace horse-drawn carriages in the near future—at least it can replace horse-drawn carriages in cities. Because it has a huge market prospect, this thing will definitely make a lot of money in the future. As long as someone is willing to invest, It is enough to help him solve some minor technical problems and further improve the battery capacity and charging speed.

This is of course no small problem. Even in later generations, this is the most important problem restricting the development of electric vehicles. Of course Joseph knew that under today's technical conditions, trying to solve these two problems was nothing more than a dream.

But the problem is that other people don't know much about it. So this project, maybe it can really attract investment. Then use these investments to build a company, study the technology, and then declare bankruptcy, and then Bonaparte General Electric can buy their research results at a very low price.

In fact, many of the cool things on display today are similar baits. They are indeed very useful in the future and worth investing money in research, but even the landlord’s family has no surplus food, and even the Bonaparte’s family has no food left. Money promotes so many projects at the same time, so throw these things out, let those guys who dream of getting rich invest in research and development, and then let their companies go bankrupt at the right time, so that a lot of research can be completed at low cost.

Therefore, when Napoleon encouraged people to engage in the largest charity, he reminded everyone more than once: "Business has risks, and investment needs to be cautious."

However, this reminder is definitely useless. Of course, if this kind of reminder is useful, it is estimated that Joseph would not allow Napoleon to pretend to be this good man.

In fact, apart from these small things, recently Joseph and Napoleon are still discussing the idea of ​​allowing foreign capital to build railways in France. This idea was a genius idea put forward by the banker Mr. Bowen.

According to this idea, the military-industrial complex first hypes up the railway, making people think that building a railway is a huge profit, and "the train rings, and the gold is ten thousand taels". Anyway, the important users of railways and railways, especially the most important customers of freight railways are all It is an enterprise within the union. They are all cross holdings with each other, so it is entirely possible to use a trick of reducing the profit of users to increase the profit of the railway system. Anyway, for the major shareholders, this is just changing money from the left pocket to the right pocket That's all. As for minority shareholders—who cares about you?

In this way, the various reports of the railway companies will look messy, and foreign capital will be opened to invest in the railways. By this time, the lines that can really make money quickly, the most valuable lines, have basically been taken by the consortium. , The remaining ones are more built to tell stories in the stock market, and they are not particularly profitable or even if it is not because the railway freight rate is strong enough, there will be no profitable railways at all.

Then when these guys have almost built the railway, the railway controlled by the consortium can take the initiative to lower the freight price to give back to the public, and can directly bankrupt the railways built by foreign capital, and then, they can use super These railways have been acquired at low prices. Even considering the use of financial means, getting these railways in your hands may not require the military-industrial complex to actually spend money on the whole, and you can even let those foreigners build the railways and then hand them over to the military-industrial complex , still owes money to the military-industrial complex.

As soon as such a plan was put forward, it naturally immediately won the support of the Bonaparte brothers, and Joseph even applauded this genius idea. After careful analysis and discussion, everyone agreed that this plan is very feasible and worth trying, the chance of success is very high, and the benefits after success are very large. This plan even shook Napoleon's confidence in being number one in the world in no-cost business. And on the bright side, this plan also fully embodies the spirit of open free trade in France, and it can even take the opportunity to ask other countries to open their corresponding markets to France in the same way.

Of course, after praising this idea, both Napoleon and Joseph gave Lucien an order that was basically the same in content: "Keep an eye on this guy, and be careful not to let him sell us out!"

In fact, this kind of operation has really happened in the history of future generations. For example, during the peak period of the Lighthouse Country, most of the 400,000 kilometers of railways were built with European capital investment using similar means. And the first billionaire in the history of the Beacon Country, the railroad tycoon Vanderbilt, also relied on similar methods to make his fortune.

Today's France has become the lighthouse country of this era, so how can we not learn from the advanced experience of the lighthouse country in another time and space?

It is also an important mission of this Pakistan Fair to prepare traps and let these guys fall into them.

The chapters are not easy to break, so they will be combined into a large chapter of 5,000 words.