Chapter XXVIII
Entlebuch had a large stack of notes in front of him, and as a representative of the journalists, he wanted to ask questions to Toynbee and Zhou Nan. If you give the initiative to those reporters, I am afraid that there will be a lot of people talking about it.
"The reporter of the Paris Echo asked: Mr. Toynbee, what do you think of Jonas Hoffmann Zhou, and does he deserve the propaganda of the media in Switzerland today?"
Toynbee looked at Zhou Nan and said with a smile: "Jonas is the most talented young man I have ever met, and if you read his article, you will know that the Swiss media have not done enough today, and he deserves unanimous praise from the media all over the world." ”
Although Zhou Nan today has let everyone see his eloquence and rich knowledge in the dialogue stage, Toynbee's praise still surprised the reporters present. Because Toynbee's answer did not have any reservations, this is a rare high evaluation for the English, who have always been a little arrogant, and even for Toynbee, who is a little arrogant.
"The reporter of the Rome Herald asked: Mr. Toynbee, you spent eight days watching Jonas Hoffmann's General History of the World, can you give us some comments?"
"This is an excellent historical work across the ages, and after reading his work, the impact on me was very huge, I was shocked at first, and then I felt admiration, and even read the book with admiration. When I saw his work, I felt that the "Historical Research" I had written before was so backward in terms of narrative style. However, seeing his works has also helped me tremendously, and I believe that I will make greater progress in my future articles. ”
Seeing the third note, Entlerbucher froze for a moment, looked up blankly and looked around the audience before standing up and saying, "Where are the reporters from Reuters?" Is your message confirmed? ”
A tall man with a hat stretched out his hand and squeezed through the crowd to the front of the stage. "Yes, the telegram I received at the telegraph office at noon, the news was confirmed."
Entlebuch straightened his shirt and said solemnly: "Gentlemen, ladies, distinguished guests. Just got an unfortunate piece of news. Mr. Keynes, the famous economist and logician, left us forever this morning. Now, please stand and pay tribute to the great founder of modern economics. ”
The noise died down immediately after an exclamation, and it was as quiet as if there was no one. Everyone stood up, and the people with hats also took off their hats and put them on their chests.
After a minute of silence, Entlebuch sat down again and continued: "Reuters reporter question: Mr. Toynbee, the topic of today's seminar is history and the present, and tomorrow's discussion will also be on the economic trend of countries after World War II and how to face the crisis. So at a time like this, what do you think of Mr. Keynes, who has just passed away today? ”
Toynbee did not seem to have recovered from the news of Keynes's death, and said with some distraction: "He was a great economist, and his theories seem to me to be our greatest treasure...... I'm sorry, I'm a little too shocked, please allow Jonas to answer this question for me, I'm even losing the ability to think now. ”
Compared to his shock, Zhou Nan was much calmer. He has seen a lot of births, old ages, sicknesses and deaths in his long life, and he doesn't pay much attention to a gringo who is originally a historical figure, although he is a great man.
Seeing that Toynbee turned the topic to him, he also said with confidence: "In my book, I have also borrowed a lot of Mr. Keynes's theories, and used his financial model to test the world economy today. In my heart, he was a great economist, and that was no different from the rest of the world. His economic theories and models will continue to serve and benefit the world in the future. ”
A reporter in the audience asked, "Mr. Zhou, when will your book be available to us?" ”
Zhou Nan smiled and said: "The first volume will be launched in mid-May, and the middle volume will also be listed in June, but the next volume will be a little later, and it should be available before the end of the year." ”
Zhou Nan originally wanted to wait until the contents of the middle and second volumes were all sorted out and published together, but he neglected that this was the era just after World War II, and everything was missing.
Even best-selling novels like Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings could only print 3,000 copies because of the lack of paper, let alone historical research theory books like Zhou Nan.
At this time, people's attention is not so much about spiritual enjoyment, but more about filling their stomachs.
Despite the strong support of the Liberal Democratic Party and the full cooperation of the three publishing houses, the supply of domestic paper was insufficient due to the shortage of imported paper. The three volumes of the "General History of the World" still had to be released one by one, and the first edition had only a print run of 20,000 copies.
Don't underestimate the 20,000 copies, which is already a sales target that many books can't reach, but everyone is full of confidence in Zhou Nan's book, and this is only the expected first edition.
The Liberal Democratic Party has issued a notice that if possible, it is hoped that all party members will have a set, and if it really has the support of the party members, the party alone will sell 50,000 copies of this set of books.
Of course, this is only theoretical.
The press conference continued, and Zhou Nan's experience was also an area of interest to all journalists. A few months ago, few people knew about Zhou Nan. But in a few months, Zhou Nan has already become famous in Europe.
His life experience, how he grew up, where did he learn his knowledge. These have been investigated by reporters and asked to the bottom.
Of course, in this era, there is no media for later generations, and there will be no private channel for a person who has just become famous and all his experiences have been fleshed out. Therefore, Zhou Nan appropriately hid his experience of serving the Germans, and there was not much deviation.
Although he had served the Germans, he was only the head of a department in a commercial company. His Arnhem experience was also very innocent, and there was no experience of bullying the Dutch. On the contrary, he had a good reputation in Arnhem.
In addition, he found his true love in Arnhem, fell in love with an English girl of British and Dutch aristocratic blood, and came to Switzerland.
At this time, Audrey was only seventeen years old, gentle and delicate, down-to-earth and generous, and her beauty also murdered reporters a lot of film.
Especially when some good deeds played the "Memory" music composed by Zhou Nan for Audrey at this time, Audrey was also invited to the stage, and the photojournalists took photos of the two of them snuggling.
These have added a lot of romanticism to Zhou Nan's experience, after knowing that Audrey also has British aristocratic blood, no one even cares about Zhou Nan's Oriental identity, on the contrary, those British reporters are excited and ask about Audrey's life experience.
However, because of the stain on Audrey's father, Audrey's specific identity Zhou Nan did not leak out, and even if they wanted to report it, they would not be able to selectively guide the report until Audrey went to the UK with her mother and discussed with Audrey's father.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that it was already dark and Zhou Nan's experience had not been dug up by the reporters, those reporters would not have let him go so easily.
When Entlebuch finally announced that Zhou Nan had prepared dinner for everyone, the reporters and the people who had come to the seminar applauded the two of them excitedly.
Toynbee was a little out of state because of Keynes's death, which led to Zhou Nan facing these reporters almost alone, which also made Zhou Nan take the limelight, and even made Audrey famous.
Back at Villa Sennar, Kelly had already prepared dinner, and Zhou Nan cooked some Chinese dishes for Toynbee. He had been at Villa Sennar for nine days, and today was a good meal.
Audrey slept in Zhou Nan's arms until night, still feeling like she was in a dream. From time to time, he asked, "Jonas, can I really be in the newspaper tomorrow?" Am I as famous as you are? Will people say I'm Cinderella? Aside from a pretty face, I seem to be nothing compared to your talent! ”
Zhou Nan could only keep comforting her: "You are like me, you haven't had a chance to release your talent yet, when you win the championship in the dance competition, when your dancing style fascinates everyone, at that time, I will become the object of everyone's jealousy." ”
She couldn't help but laugh happily. "No, no, you're the best, people will only be jealous of me......"
The next day's forum was not Zhou Nan and Toynbee as the protagonists, because the day before, many experts and scholars signed up for different discussion groups.
The following morning's discussion was divided into several panels, each of which focused on the economic situation of a particular country. Scholars from different countries expressed their opinions on the post-World War II economic situation, and finally recorded everyone's conversations.
The content of these discussions will be compiled and printed in a book. These brochures will be sent not only to everyone when the time comes, but also to every country.
However, in order to dilute the political factor, such a forum will also be supported by various countries in the future. All discussions point out problems and give different solutions, but do not give conclusive conclusions.
Because how to solve the problem still depends on each country to solve it. Their seminars are only theoretical.
This is also the fundamental reason why this kind of economic forum can be sustainable for a long time, if you really point fingers at a country's economic problems, saying that other people's methods are wrong and yours are right, it will only make all countries resentful.
The fundamental reason why the Davos Forum was so famous in later generations and became an unofficial world economic forum was that it did not involve internal affairs, faced the world economic situation with an objective attitude, and gave some theoretical opinions, but did not give specific measures.
Therefore, the Davos Forum has attracted more and more attention and support from all countries, and occupies the top spot in the economic forum.
Zhou Nan's purpose is to hold such a forum, downplay political factors, and only talk about the economy. This forum became famous later, and his position was secured.
Others did not see the power of this forum, but he knew it clearly, and this is the advantage of a person with a memory of the future.
As long as he does not self-destruct the Great Wall, in the future, his influence will only grow.