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At the end of May 1858, Scrooge arrived in New York, preparing to sail to Europe to receive the honor of "Academician of the Academies and Academies" given to him by the British and French. Before leaving, Rockefeller and Scrooge had a long talk.

At that time, Rockefeller approached Scrooge, who he told him that he hoped Scrooge would give him a ride and get him a share of Scrooge's new company.

"Scrooge, you can really keep it a secret, until you make such an earth-shattering thing, and the whole world knows about it, I don't know." Rockefeller shook his head, as if to blame Scrooge for not being interesting enough.

"A breakthrough that has only recently ......," Scrooge seemed to explain.

"No need to explain, Scrooge." Rockefeller said, "I know the weight of this thing, and if I change it, I will keep it as secret as possible until I succeed, and even my father I will not let him know." I know, even now, you know for sure that you can't really monopolize this big market. This market is so big that I calculated that the European market alone is at least 3ooo to 5ooo million pounds a year. In front of such a market, any bullshit laws are waste paper. Such a number is enough for those Europeans to go to war for this. I think you know that too. You will also be bound to give up some, or even most, of your interests to compromise with others. Because this is the trend of the times, and you can't resist it. In that case, can you give me a ride with this thing? ”

"John, you have a point." Scrooge said, "Indeed, such a large market is not something I can eat alone." If nothing else, the British and the French, who have agreements with us to protect their patents, would have made it illegal for them to produce these drugs if I insisted on having them all to themselves, well, it would be very easy to get a sample and analyze what it was. With the level of science in England or France, this is not a difficult task. When the time comes, there will be this illegally produced sulfonamide everywhere in Europe, and the two governments will absolutely turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it. In order to avoid this, I would have to give away a portion of my profits to people who had enough influence in Europe. Form a community of interests with them, so that I can get that money safely. In fact, I was about to take a trip to the Royal Academy of Sciences and the French Academy of Sciences under the pretext of accepting invitations to those two countries, in order to finalize these matters. ”

Rockefeller listened and nodded slightly. This is indeed the Scrooge he is familiar with, even in the most proud time, he is still sane and sober. Always aware of where the limits of your power are.

"John, as you said, since I can't eat this big pie alone, it's not impossible for you to share the profit at all. Because now, although I don't have the power to swallow the pie alone, I have a certain say in how to divide the pie. But John, have you thought about it, why would I want you to get a share? The reason why I want to give the pie to some British and French people is because they have the power to keep my medicines in Europe, and the ability to keep the illegally produced sulfonamides from taking over the whole of Europe. I'm going to get the Morgan family a share of the deal, again because their influence in the U.S. will help me. I agree to let you get a share, because we're friends, but there must be a reason for profit. ”

At this point, Scrooge paused and looked up at Rockefeller, who saw that Rockefeller was sitting there calmly listening, not seeming to be embarrassed or angry by Scrooge's "Why should I let you get a share?" question.

"The reason why I am willing to give you a little bit of what I can get is because I am optimistic about your ability. In terms of the general ability to run a business, you're a lot better than me. The fact that we were able to start from scratch and have a small amount of savings now is certainly related to the fact that I can always find the direction of money, but your help is also essential. Now, John, I'm going to ask you a key question, and that is, what are your plans for the future? What kind of person do you want to be? If you just want to make a small fortune and live the life of a rich man, just like those descendants of Vanderbilt (Vanderbilt was the first billionaire in American history to have assets of more than 100 million, and its railroad empire was also the earliest monopoly organization in the United States. But within a few decades of Vanderbilt's death, his children and grandchildren quickly lost the property in a life of luxury, and 6o years after Vanderbilt's death, there was not a single millionaire among his children and grandchildren. So Vanderbilt's descendants became synonymous with extravagance and ruin). Then, with our friendship and your ability, as long as you follow me, even if it is just a manager who helps me run the business, it is not difficult to achieve this point. But, John, your talent doesn't stop there, and neither do I expect more from you. Scrooge said quite sincerely.

"And what do you expect from me?" Rockefeller asked.

"This starts with my vision of the future world." "The world of the future will inevitably be a world of big business," Scrooge said. Only a large enough business can survive. Why? This is due to the characteristics of production in the industrial age. In the case of the MacDonald 1857 rifle, the larger the scale of production, the lower the cost of allocating to each gun. It is thought that the large-scale purchase of raw materials will bring price concessions, and the more the output, the greater the development cost of each product. Therefore, if two companies are producing such rifles, and one of them is several times larger than the other, the former can easily defeat the latter even if it is only the most untechnical price war tactics. However, the big companies will not lose their profits, because once the small companies competing with them are crushed, and the monopoly is realized, the pricing power will be firmly in the hands of the big companies, and at that time, the profits will roll in.

However, this is not the ideal state, and the ideal state is that several companies that occupy an important position in different and interrelated aspects join forces to form an alliance. In this alliance, companies provide each other with more preferential support. For example, we use guò mutual control to control many of the most important industries from pharmaceuticals, arms, transportation finance, to mineral raw materials, and then we form an alliance, within the alliance, we have to pay each other lower prices than those provided to guys outside the alliance, so that anyone who operates alone in a certain industry is not our opponent, and we will be easily crushed. Moreover, this alliance of ours will also make any new adventurer who tries to enter our business have to face a high threshold to go into the clouds. In this way, who else can shake our hegemony? That's what I envisioned. ”

This grand idea was clearly out of Rockefeller's imagination. He thought for a moment, then said to Scrooge. "You mean you'd prefer me to invest in other industries that are closely related to your industry? And then we have a mutual holding to form an alliance? ”

"Yes," said Scrooge, "that way, I'll give you some uncapped preferred stock in my business." When you supply raw materials or services to my business at a price below the market, it may seem like you will lose money, but because you can get dividends in my business, it is really just that you are transferring your money from the left pocket to the right pocket. And when I offer you preferred shares, in exchange, you should also give me some of these preferred shares. ”

The so-called preferred stock refers to a type of stock that has priority over ordinary shares in the distribution of profits and residual property. Enterprises often defer or even do not pay cash dividends on common shares as needed, but generally do not have the right to postpone or cancel cash dividends on preferred shares; When a company goes bankrupt, when the remaining assets of the enterprise are distributed, the distribution of preferred shares must be completed before it can be the turn of the general shares.

Of course, such "priority" also comes at a certain price, that is, such shares generally do not have the right to vote on the company's business decisions. Nor can it circulate freely in the market (unless it involves issues related to its interests) but can only be redeemed by companies. Scrooge's intention to offer preferred stock to each other is also very obvious: he does not want the day when some of his partners suddenly join forces and kick him out of the company's decision-making hierarchy.

"I still have to think about it." Rockefeller said, "By the way, Scrooge, you have a good brain, can you help me think of what are the professions that are most closely related to your medicine and chemistry, and which are the easiest for us to achieve this kind of alliance?" ”

Scrooge thought for a moment, then replied, "One of the most closely related to medicinal chemistry is raw materials, and the other is energy. These two things are now focused on coal, but I think the future of oil will be more and more promising. However, I don't think now is the best time to enter the industry, you still have limited financial power and the relevant technology is not yet mature. It would be nice for you to pay more attention now. In addition, it should be noted that military warfare is a special requirement for food, and food is actually promising. At least for the next few years, it will give you the capital base to enter key areas. ”

"Thank you for the advice! Scrooge. Rockefeller stood up, "I'm going to think seriously about what you're saying today." ”

"Then John, I'm waiting for your good news." Scrooge also stood up to see off the guests, "Let's unite and hold the world firmly in our hands!" ”