"Oh, I'll let Knight Lawrence talk to you about these things in detail." Prince Albert did not continue the topic, "Let's talk about other things. You may not know that I am Cambridge Chancellor of the University. My son, Prince Edward is also studying at Cambridge. Cambridge has been committed to the study of natural sciences since the great Sir Newton. Knowing your arrival, many scholars have expressed to me that they hope to be able to You are invited to lecture at Cambridge."

"Ah, this is also a rare opportunity for me to communicate. Thank you very much for your invitation, Your Majesty the Prince." Of course, Scrooge would not refuse such an opportunity to improve his reputation.

"Oh, my wife and I are very interested in the part of your "Research on the Causes of Some Infectious Diseases and the Effect of a Chemical Substance on Them" about avoiding puerperal fever in pregnant women, but, My knowledge in this area is still quite insufficient, and there are some problems that I haven't quite figured out. Well, can I ask you a few questions? In addition, in recent years, I have always felt that my energy is not as good as before, always I am very tired, but I can't sleep at night. You are so researched in medicine, what do you think about it?"

"His Royal Highness, you know, I am not a doctor. I have no qualifications to practice medicine. I am just a chemistry enthusiast who accidentally discovered something." Your Highness, you have very little rest time every day, and you sit at a desk for a long time dealing with your affairs. I know that this way of working and resting is very unfavorable to your body. Maybe you should do more things like jogging and swimming sports."

"Ah, Dr. Watson keeps saying that about me. It seems that what Dr. Watson said is correct." Prince Albert smiled, shook his head, and turned to another topic. "In your thesis, there is a section of the mathematical method of data analysis that I don't quite understand. Can you explain it to me..."

...

After lunch, Scrooge left Windsor Castle and returned to London under the "dark sky". Knight Laurence escorted him back to the hotel. At this time, it is already the time when the lights are first on. Therefore, Knight Lawrence did not immediately negotiate with Scrooge on how to cooperate but agreed on the time tomorrow morning.

After sending Lawrence away, Scrooge began to recall the conversations Prince Albert had with him and speculate on his intentions.

"When Prince Albert mentioned the sulfonamide patent to me, he said 'I and Victoria' and he didn't add the word Queen after Victoria. What does that mean? Well, if I remember correctly, in Queen Victoria During the period, the life of the traditional British aristocrats seemed to be not very good. Although the traditional income from the land had not decreased, it was nothing compared to those emerging business people. The great nobles that people envy, except those who react quickly and have already gone to do business, many of the rest will become poor (relatively). Before that, life was quite poor. Although the nobles looked down on those upstarts in business and industry, if possible, who would not want to explode? Prince Albert did not mean that he wanted to sell this business Let’s make it a business for the husband and wife to earn money from their own houses?” Scrooge thought so.

Since the Glorious Revolution in England, private property has become sacrosanct. Kings can no longer collect taxes as they, please. Moreover, even the taxes collected are not something the king can spend indiscriminately. Although the territory of the United Kingdom is expanding day by day, and the fiscal revenue of the United Kingdom government is also increasing, the thicker the snake, the bigger the hole and the government's various expenditures are also increasing, and the money that can be distributed to the royal family is still very little. Pitiful. Considering that the queen has so many children, it will cost more in the future. Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that Prince Albert wanted to use this to get some private money for the royal family.

"If Prince Albert has such a plan, then this negotiation should not be too difficult." Thinking like this, Scrooge fell asleep.

The next morning, Knight Lawrence arrived as scheduled. He told Scrooge that Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness Prince Albert planned to build a factory for the production and sale of sulfa drugs, funded by the royal family and some great nobles. For that, they needed Scrooge's cooperation. As for the way of cooperation, Scrooge can choose one of three ways. The first way is that the British give her a sum of money and sell his patent at one time; the second way is that Scrooge takes his patent as a shareholder. As for the share, both parties need to study carefully; During the patent term, the factory will pay Scrooge a certain amount of patent fees for each product sold. Of course, they need to discuss in detail how much this fee will be.

In Scrooge's view, the first model is the least desirable. First of all, although the current market is not small, in the future, the market for this drug will expand rapidly to a level that some people can't even imagine now. Under the current situation, negotiating a one-time transfer price can allow Scrooge to get a lot of cash quickly, but it is very difficult for the cash to find a business that is more profitable than sulfa. This is not to say that after adopting this method, Scrooge will not be able to use this patent to gain influence in the British-controlled area. So this method, for Scrooge, is not cost-effective.

For Prince Albert and Her Majesty Queen Victoria, it may not be easy to come up with a large sum of money at once. The royal family indeed has a lot of money, but the royal family needs to spend more money. It takes money to maintain so many palaces and castles and maintain a huge team of servants. Among other things, the sewer system of Windsor Castle, where Prince Albert and Queen Victoria lived for a long time, is a mess, but at least when Prince Albert was still alive, the royal family really couldn't afford to repair it. If a large sum of money is given to Scrooge immediately, then the money for expanding production can only be borrowed from those Jewish vampires, and then the repayment of the principal and interest is another expense. Therefore, Scrooge felt that the royal family should not be too cold about this plan.

Among the remaining two plans, Scrooge prefers the way of holding shares through patents. Because this can not only ensure that they can make profits with the expansion of the market, but also allow them to gain a certain right to speak in the British economic circle. Therefore, Scrooge decided to set the main goal in this direction.

But just like fighting, when you have determined a main target, the next step is to hide this intention. Therefore, Scrooge did not directly talk about how to buy shares with patents but asked about the price of one-time buyout patents with great interest.

"You know, my factory in the United States is seriously under capacitated right now, and I urgently need a sum of money to expand production capacity. Although I can also rely on credit and other means to raise this money, that requires negative interest and requires I agreed to some other conditions. Therefore, a sum of money that belongs to me is always better." Scrooge said carefully while observing the expression of Lawrence Knight.

"I want to know, how much are you willing to pay for this patent?" Scrooge asked.

"It depends first on the scope of your patent license. If it is worldwide, the price will be higher, if it is only European, it will be lower, if it is limited to the United Kingdom, then it will be lower ’ said Lawrence Knight.

"It is impossible worldwide because it will lead to competition among patent owners. You know, in North America, we also have our factories, and we are also producing sulfonamides. If your sulfonamides enter the North American market, it will Compete with us, and finally lowering prices with each other, resulting in a large reduction in the benefits we all gained." Scrooge replied, "Even in Europe, there will be many problems. Those countries in the European continent must not be reconciled to this The market is giving it away and they will copy it when they get a sample. Of course, they have a treaty with us to protect the patent, but if they act like they don't see this illegal behavior? Then the United Kingdom Can they be stopped? Like if the French did this, would the United Kingdom declare war on France? I don't think it's possible. Unless His Royal Highness is already preparing a war to conquer the continent of Europe and just needs an excuse. And once these countries start imitating it, these imitations will not only flood their markets but may even endanger the markets under our control through smuggling. This is not what we want to see." Scrooge said while Watch Lawrence Knight's reaction. He saw Lawrence nodding slightly, knowing that his reason had been approved by him. So he continued:

"So, I think, the scope of authorization of this patent can only be the United Kingdom and its territories. The sulfonamides produced in your country are not allowed to be sold to other regions, and the sulfonamides produced in other regions are not allowed to be sold in the regions controlled by your country. Only by competing with each other can everyone's interests be guaranteed."

"You're right," Lawrence said. Before the negotiation, Lawrence felt that even if Scrooge was a monster, he must have his limits. The more energy a person spends on one aspect, the less it will be on the other. If Scrooge has achieved so much in science, he has likely been less successful in other respects. For example, some scholars in Cambridge he has met have a level close to that of children in dealing with people. But Scrooge was not such a person, which greatly exceeded his estimation.

"If the scope of authorization is limited to the United Kingdom and its territories, then the market itself is only about 10 million pounds per year. (This figure is too small in Scrooge's view) It is common practice now that the patent fee does not exceed five percent of the selling price, so the total over the fourteen-year patent period is seven million pounds. But because it is a one-off payment, obviously you can't get that much. We can only offer you a fee of £1 million at most," Lawrence said.

"This price is too low, I can't accept such a price," Scrooge said. At the same time, he noticed that Lawrence didn't show any disappointment after hearing his answer, and even seemed a little more relaxed.

"This is the largest number we can come up with." Lawrence Knight replied, "If you find it unacceptable, then let's talk about another way of cooperation."