Let the Austrians build the power plant themselves, Joseph felt that there was no problem. After all, the science involved in this thing has been made public, and everyone understands the principle of the power station, and if nothing else, the British should be able to get their own power station out soon. At this time, taking advantage of this time difference, it is definitely a good thing to expand the power plants in France to the entire European continent, so that the electricity of the entire European continent depends on French standards.

But the production of electric lamps in Austria is a different matter. Electric light is almost undifficult in terms of scientific principles, and anyone who knows a little bit about electricity can understand how electric lights emit light. However, electric lighting is technically very difficult. It perfectly meets the two requirements of difficult copycating: first, the process is difficult; Second, the material is special.

In the manufacture of electric lamps, an important technical requirement is to evacuate air, and the efficiency of pumping directly determines the quality and service life of electric lamps. And in this regard, no one has the deep technical accumulation of the French. Even before the electric light was made public, "Bonaparte General Electric" had already registered a large number of patents for the extraction technology. In fact, although these technologies themselves have some difficulties, they are not really difficult for others to do it, but with these patents, Napoleon's France has the ability to make any goods that infringe on French patent rights unable to be legally sold in most countries on the European continent, so these patents have become a high wall to prevent others from entering this field.

Of course, there are many kinds of means of vacuuming, but the commonly used, the cheapest, and the easiest to achieve are all patented by "Bonaparte General Electric", so any foreign manufacturer, if they want to bypass these patents, will have to pay a huge price.

The second trouble is the special material. In fact, anyone who buys a light bulb and goes back, clicks it on the ground, breaks it, and then takes out the filament, you can see that the filament is carbon. But the problem is that everyone doesn't know what this thing is carbonized, at most they can only know that it should be carbonized by some kind of plant. It takes a lot of effort to find the right plant among the various plants.

And if you cooperate with Austrians to produce electric lights, even if Austrian electric lights are really only sold in designated areas, some relevant technical secrets can still be easily leaked. Thus, after careful consideration, Napoleon informed Metternich that France had "no particular opinion" regarding economic cooperation with Austria.

The so-called "no special opinion", that is, you can go and talk to people, and I don't care what the final outcome is. And a little like the later Ni Bang country, "we don't know about the rest of the matter". In fact, it is: it's done, I'm going to share it, I didn't get it right, this pot is not mine, and it has nothing to do with me.

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

Over the years, the prices of diplomats in France, as well as French diplomats in foreign countries, have increased. Although the official positions of ambassadors and consuls in France still need to consider other things such as loyalty and ability, other positions in embassies and consulates are really common for the higher ones. Because of course, these positions can easily get into business relations with the French, and then make a fortune.

His subordinates can make a fortune like this, and the ambassador or consul who is the chief officer is naturally not a corpse. Besides, enhancing economic and trade exchanges between the two countries is one of the important responsibilities of ambassadors and consuls.

So a man named François, with a letter of introduction signed by Metternich, approached "Bonaparte General Electric" and began to talk to them about buying the factory.

The name "François" may be a pseudonym, but the letter signed by Metternich is not a fake, and more importantly, the certificate of deposit issued by the Bank of Beauvang is not a fake. On that certificate of deposit, the money of a million francs was clearly there.

So the two sides had a frank discussion about cooperating to make money. Soon, a basic agreement was reached on most issues, leaving only one last problem, that is, the problem of the filament factory that matched the electric light factory.

The French insisted that it was impossible to manage a filament factory well with the technical and managerial level of the Austrians, and that the Austrian filament factory could become a loophole for some of the most important trade secrets to be leaked, so the French proposed that the filament should be produced in France, then shipped to Austria for assembly, and then sold by the Austrians in the designated area.

But François argues that doing so will only increase costs in vain. Moreover, the technical secrets of the French are protected by patents, so it is untenable to worry about the loss of technology.

Louis Bonaparte, who represents "Bonaparte General Electric", said that the transportation cost of filament is not high, and as for patent protection, although there is generally relatively perfect patent protection on the European continent, in some other more remote areas, patent protection is still very imperfect, or even close to none, for example, in Russia, although Russia has just enacted a patent law, it is difficult to say how well they are implemented. As for Turkey, there is no spectrum.

Of course, none of this is the most important, and the most important thing is to guard against the British.

"The British were the first countries in Europe to have a patent law, so no one knows how to exploit the patent law better than the British. Among other things, in those colonies of the British, there was a way for them to circumvent the Patent Act.

In India, for example, we all know that most of India actually fell under the control of the British East India Company. But at least nominally, there are still Indian maharajas in these places, right? The British could have set up illegal factories in the name of these Indians, produced illegal products, and sold them not only in India, but even in Europe through smuggling. Even, they only need Indians to put the factory in England in the name of this, and we can't do anything, because it's the Indians, not the British, who do it!

Theoretically, we can only retaliate against other commodities in one of the princely states of India. Hell, we don't have much to do with India in the first place, so what kind of revenge do we have? So, it's not unwarranted to worry about the risks posed by technology loss. Therefore, at least for the time being, the production of filaments cannot be in Austria.

In fact, even in France, we have several light bulb factories, but only one factory that produces filaments. Moreover, it is not economically feasible to build a filament factory specifically for a light bulb factory with limited output. ”

The latter reason is actually more convincing. After all, the Austrians operate this thing, in the final analysis, to make money. What's more, Louis came up with a whole new counter-proposal.

"Also, Monsieur François." "We have another suggestion, you know, there's a lot of demand for electric light right now, it's very profitable, so naturally we're going to expand production, well, that means we're going to build more light factories, and more filament factories." We welcome anyone who is willing to be our friend to earn money together. Mr. Fritz, if you are interested in the filament factory, I suggest you can invest in our filament factory and electric light factory, I don't know if you are interested or not. ”

If you just build an electric light 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 as soon as François heard this suggestion, his eyes lit up.

As Napoleon and Joseph expected, this François was actually a representative of the Austrian high-level, and he actually had a group of Austrian aristocrats behind him.

When France had just reached peace with Austria and other countries, Austria actually still wanted to "gather for ten years, learn lessons for ten years, and try to take revenge". But after these two years, I found that France was developing better and better, and at least for now, there was no sign of any end at all. And the gap between Austria and France in terms of national strength is also obviously getting wider and wider. If it is said that back then, although Austria could not beat France, if it worked hard, it could also make France bleed. But now, if there is another war between the two sides, even Archduke Karl finds it difficult to confront France, and even thinks that even if he tries hard, he can now splash the blood of the French at most.

In the face of such a dangerous situation, there is now a debate between the two lines in the upper echelons of Austria, and some people led by the Archduke Karl hope to develop industry and enrich the country and strengthen the army like France; On the other side, there was Emperor Fritz II. His Majesty the Emperor was very cautious about any change, and on the one hand, he was very worried that the development of industry and commerce would make the power of the commoners too strong, thus upsetting the fragile balance within the empire and leading to something unpleasant; But on the other hand, he also knows very well that the current situation has reached a time when it cannot be changed, and if he continues to be complacent, then the collapse of the empire is almost inevitable.

Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor knows that he can't help but change, but he can't go too fast. If you go slowly, you may be doomed; But if you go fast, it is estimated that it will be over. It is said that because he was worried that he would have the same result as his aunt and uncle, His Majesty the Emperor was so worried that he couldn't sleep at night, and he lost a lot of weight.

It is said that it was Metternich who later made a proposal to His Majesty the Emperor, suggesting that His Majesty should tie his own interests to those of France, so that social reforms should be easier with the help of France. Even if they did not have much support from the French, as long as the French did not deliberately carry out the export revolution in Austria and did not cause trouble, the situation in Austria would be much more stable.

Now the French have agreed to help Austria build power plants and build electric light plants, which is clearly in line with the claims of Archduke Karl of Karl for "a rich country and a strong army", or at least a "rich country"; Louis Bonaparte's proposal to invite Austrians to join "Bonaparte General Electric" was also in line with His Majesty's idea of tying up the interests of the Austrian upper class, especially the Austrian royal family, to France.

Although France is now a republic, Napoleon, as the first consul, has more power in his hands than most monarchies, and it can even be said that it is no less than the Sun King of the "I am the country". On the other hand, Napoleon's family is now as influential in France as the Bourbon family was back then. If it weren't for the fact that Napoleon was only the first consul after all, and was not a king who could be passed on to his descendants, then His Majesty the Emperor would have to start planning to marry Napoleon. Anyway, isn't it the traditional art of Austria?

In short, in François's view, this way of dealing with it is completely so that the hopes of both factions in the country have been satisfied to a certain extent, and it is simply too perfect. So he hurriedly asked about the news about the investment in "Bonaparte General Electric".

"Ah, Monsieur François, you may not know that 'Bonaparte General Electric' itself is a company with many investors, and the number of shares held by the Bonaparte family in the whole enterprise is actually less than 50 percent. In other words, we do not have a full 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 can't afford to change the distribution of equity across the business too much. Therefore, normally speaking, even if a general meeting of shareholders is held, under the current situation, the shares we can give up are unlikely to be too large. ”

This statement made François quite disappointed, but it would be good to be able to take a little stake. So he hurriedly asked, "So, how much equity can we get at most?" ”

When Louis heard this, he said: "Monsieur François, you know that 'Bonaparte General Electric' will definitely make a lot of money nowadays, and this is what everyone knows. This also makes it very convenient for our company to borrow as much as we want in any bank, at an interest rate significantly lower than the market rate. In this case, I don't think the shareholders' meeting will agree to give you any ordinary shares. My personal opinion is that it is estimated that it will not exceed five percent. ”

The estimate of "no more than five percent" disappointed François, who knew that investing in "Bonaparte General Electric" would certainly make a lot of money economically, in addition to political significance. But no more than five percent of the share is really overwhelming.

"Monsieur Bonaparte, more money, more money can expand the business faster, and make more money, why should the restrictions be so tight?" François asked, frowning slightly.

"Because the change of shares will bring about changes in the power structure within the company, which in turn will affect the future development of the company. The company's development is now very smooth, so most shareholders are naturally reluctant to let the company's power structure change too much. As a result, shareholders are naturally more willing to take out loans to fund their expansion rather than bring in more partners. I guess that's also a very natural, very easy thing to understand, right? "But maybe we can work together in another way." ”

"What do you mean by the other way?" François hurriedly asked.

"Ah, Monsieur François, have you heard of preferred shares?" Louie asked.

François shook his head in bewilderment.

The so-called "preferred stock" is a stock with "preferential rights". Shareholders of preferred shares have priority over the company's assets, profit distribution, etc., and their risks are smaller. However, preferred shareholders generally do not have the right to vote on matters other than matters involving the interests of preferred shareholders. Preferred shareholders also do not have the right to vote and be elected, and generally have no right to participate in the operation of the company, and preferred shareholders cannot withdraw their shares, but 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 shares were not too reflected, but brought a lot of management troubles, so this practice was not widely used, and even almost forgotten. In the original history, until the twenties of the nineteenth century, when a British company was developing the canal, it encountered financial difficulties, wanted to borrow money from banks, and the interest rate was too high, and it wanted to issue ordinary shares to attract new investors, so it reinvented the "preferred shares" hundreds of years ago, and the result was a great success. So this old "financial innovation" began to be widely used.

However, when Louis said "preferred shares" to François, it had been hundreds of years since the first less successful attempt at "preferred shares", and it was indeed unlikely that anyone who was not specialized in this knowledge would have known the meaning of the word, so it was quite normal that François did not know the word.

So Louis explained the concept of "preferred shares" to François in general, and then said to him: "I think you are willing to invest in our company, the most fundamental reason is to make money." In terms of making money, there is not much difference between 'preferred shares' and ordinary shares, and even in terms of dividends, there are certain discounts. And I think you should be satisfied with the current operation of our company and the prospects for development, and you should not want to change our company's business model and development ideas. Therefore, this kind of preferred stock should be a solution that is very suitable for the needs of both of us. ”