The year 1892 is almost unrecognizable in John's memory.

The deepest impression on him was undoubtedly the first day two years later, the previous year seemed to have disappeared, and there were very few things that could be found in his mind. Of course, John didn't know that if he hadn't crossed over, a physical education teacher would have invented a sport that would later become popular around the world around the New Year: basketball!

The popularity of basketball is a bit unexpected by John.

But the surprise here doesn't mean that it became popular quickly, in fact, in New York City alone, there are very few people who play basketball, and it is limited to universities and some middle schools. The students were enthusiastic about the less demanding game, which brought Nike and Adidas basketball shoes and basketball sales to a huge increase — making a lot of money, of course, but not a problem keeping two small factories alive and reaping the rewards handsomely.

At the end of the day, Americans are also poor.

The foundation of sports is the economy, and American workers in these days work more than a dozen hours a day, six days a week, who has the time to play basketball? And even if they have free time, a few dollars a week to support the whole family, and the only day off is to fall in love, go to parties, or whatever, not many people have the heart to play. Therefore, in the end, the only people who quickly embraced the sport of basketball were students who had both time and spare money.

Those who can afford to go to school this year will at least not be too bad.

"These two companies, let's keep them slowly."

After listening to the earnings reports for the two factories at the beginning of the new year, John laughed it off. He didn't plan to make a lot of money from these two companies for decades, but since they were able to support themselves, John didn't mind keeping them all the time, and the size was a piece of meat, right?

"In general, the focus is still on the pharmaceutical and automobile factories!"

On this day, it was time for dinner. John said with a smile: "The former performed really well last year, bringing us almost half of the profit of the German factory!" In the case of the latter, although the investment in the factory has not even been recovered, the reputation brought to the Huntelaar family industry should not be underestimated! ”

"Well, don't forget Motorola!"

With a smile, old Huntelaar couldn't help but remind his grandson.

The Huntelaar family's industry in North America. In addition to medical schools and hospitals, New York Electric Power, Carnegie Steel and Lego only hold shares, and receive dividends at the end of each year; Nike, Adi and elevator companies are small, and the annual profits are not very eye-catching, and the real important ones are actually pharmaceuticals, medical devices, automobiles and radios......

Oh, and now add Huntelaar Bank!

In early 1892, the Huntelaar family accountants reported to the two owners that the three Lego companies had paid them $110,000 in dividends - mostly from the Lego Company. The other two only gave some symbolically. Morgan and Carnegie had essentially the same business philosophy, using all profits to continue investing in the company and inflating them like balloons. The earnings of three small companies, including Nike, are just $20,000, which may not sound like much, but it is already very impressive in this day and age. The profit of the medical device company is nearly 80,000 US dollars, and the combined income is just over 200,000 yuan, which just offsets the loss of Huntelaar Bank!

Today, the United States is still in the midst of an economic crisis.

The bank still needs the Huntelaar family's blood transfusion, but because the family's industrial funds are gradually transferred to their own bank. It brought in a lot of cash flow, which made the bank's life much better. The loss for the year was kept below $200,000. The expectations of the elder Huntelaar were successfully met.

The bulk of the Huntelaar family's income is still pharmaceutical companies and radios.

Needless to say, the aspirin after the price reduction is still strong, beating competitors all over the place. Especially the ambitious French, the high cost of their drugs doomed them to a bottomless black hole. The entire North American market and most of South America are acquired by the Heinz pharmaceutical company in New York. Last year's sales grew by more than 60 percent, culminating in a six-figure profit for John. And the latter Motorola is even more crazy, selling nearly 600 radios in a year!

In this particular era, the windfall profits of radio made John unknown and smacked his tongue.

This is because Motorola lacks skilled workers and cannot produce enough radios. More than 1,000 orders poured in just after it was put into production last year. Until now, all deliveries have not been completed, and follow-up orders have saved more than 1,000 units! Motorola's factory is like a gold mine, and every radio is like a lump of shining gold!

But......

"John, I'm afraid we'll have to think about radio patents."

After being happy, old Huntelaar couldn't help but talk about the things that bothered him: "Today we had a meeting with the military department, and I'm afraid they will not be able to bear it...... Other small countries are fine, but Britain, France and Germany are not something that the United States can resist, and they are now strongly demanding that Motorola transfer the right to use the patent and allow them to build radio factories in Europe......"

"Well, let's transfer it."

After a slight groan, John simply nodded and smiled: "Haven't we already discussed this a long time ago?" We can't keep the radio in our hands all the time, and instead of making them wait impatiently and play scoundrels, it is better to get the benefits in our hands first. ”

John never overestimated the moral standards of the great powers of those days.

The United States itself is the number one copycat country in this century, and it has become a habit to steal European technology, and Europeans are naturally not merciless in copying American patents. It's just that in recent years, with the introduction of a series of patent bills, everyone has begun to converge, and the radio is also a "high-tech" product, without Tesla's help, it may not be so easy for others to imitate it immediately, so for a while, countries are still abiding by the rules.

But after a long time, it's hard to say.

After all, because John pushed for the early improvement of radio technology, this thing can no longer be simply regarded as a communication tool. In this era of great navigation, whether it is a warship or a merchant ship, the need for radio is extremely urgent, so for a country like Britain that relies entirely on the sea, the importance of radio is naturally self-evident. It is in this era that the British are the real hegemons of the world, and what they want from the Americans, the New World cannot be kept.

With a slight frown, old Huntelaar asked, "So...... John, do you think we should directly transfer the patent rights or build factories in various countries? ”

"Hmm...... Transfer it. ”

After a slight hesitation, John said with a wry smile: "Radio is not a pharmaceutical factory or an automobile factory, I think it is better to directly transfer the right to use the patent!" ”

Of course, John knew that his grandfather had the intention of teaching himself, but fortunately, he also had a lot of "solutions" from the future in his head, and after thinking for a while, he suddenly smiled: "But the cost of transfer may as well be higher, and it can't be transferred plainly, let Mr. Taylor tell them that they must purchase a certain number of radios, and then they can be eligible to get the production patent ...... at this price" (to be continued.) )