I was a tycoon in World War I: Starting to save France

Chapter 22 99 Francs

Francis originally planned to say nothing. After all, if the ownership was in Charles' hands and he sold it, he would get nothing.

But Charles added:
"Although we have agreed on a buyer, we haven't signed a contract. If Mr. Francis can sell it at a higher price, we are willing to take one tenth of the transaction price as commission!"

Francis was stunned. At the current price, one tenth meant 6 francs. No one would refuse such a fortune.

Djokovic looked at Charles in shock. The reason why he said "the buyer has been negotiated" was to refuse to argue with his father on this issue and escape from here as soon as possible, but Charles took the initiative to talk to Francis about the commission.

However, Djokovic calmed down and thought about it, and felt that Charles was right. Personal feelings should not be mixed in doing business. It was because he was too emotional that his father did not think highly of him.

Charles has his own plan. The property rights of the tank should be sold as soon as possible. After all, this invention is nothing more than adding a few steel plates to a tractor. It is not difficult for French military industrial enterprises to imitate or circumvent the property rights with some effort. However, neither he nor the Bernard family has the strength to protect the property rights. It may be worthless over time.

Tank ownership is only meaningful in the hands of those who are capable of protecting their own rights.

Francis could not refuse the commission, and although he was reluctant, he brought Djokovic and Charles to Greve and Armand.

Grevy politely stood up and shook hands with Deyoka and Charles, and saluted Charles: "I have heard of you for a long time, Mr. Charles. It is a perfect invention. No one would have thought that the tractor could play such an amazing role on the battlefield!"

Armand leaned on the sofa with his legs crossed, without moving. He looked at Djoka and Charles from the side, frowning slightly as if he was a little disgusted.

Charles didn't care. He had heard that traditional nobles disdained to be on an equal footing with the lowly poor. Now it seemed that at least some nobles were indeed like that, and that man named Grevi was probably just putting on a show, and actually had the same idea as Armand.

"You have competitors, gentlemen!" Francis said, "I just heard that we registered the property rights in Paris this morning, and someone offered to buy it before we even left the house!"

Francis naturally put himself in the shoes of Party A and used the word "we" in his expression.

Perhaps to make the news more authentic, Francis added: "Bonnet, the owner of the Little Journal!"

"Oh?" Grevi was a little shocked. "Can I know how much he offered?"

Francis turned his attention to Djokovic.

Before Dejoka could speak, Charles replied quietly: "He offered 50 francs!"

Djoka looked at Charles in surprise. Charles' innocent face made Djoka doubt himself... Did Bonnet say 50? Why did I remember it was 10? Did I remember it wrong?
Armand chuckled, sat up straight and said proudly, "This means we won, gentlemen, our bid is 60!"

He had just suspected that the old fox Francis was working in cahoots with his son and grandson to raise the price, but now he realized that he was overthinking.

However, Charles added: "It is limited to domestic property rights!"

"What do you mean?" Armand asked puzzledly.

"The Paris Convention, Armand!" Grevy explained. "They can also apply for property rights in other countries!"

Armand was stunned for a moment, spread his hands and asked: "So..."

What does that mean in the end?
Charles looked at Francis in bewilderment: "Mr. Francis, how do you calculate foreign property rights?"

Francis said "hmm" and became excited. With the base of 50 added up, it would be at least a million. Wouldn't his commission increase by tens of thousands?
"I'm not sure either, gentlemen!" Francis said, "Can we count 30 for the British side?" "No, Mr. Francis!" Grevy protested, "Britain has no need to produce tanks. Their army is fighting in France, and they are using French tanks!"

Francis took advantage of the situation and said, "Then Russia, which needs to fight, can use 30 francs. Is that what you mean?"

Grevy immediately realized that he had fallen into Francis' trap. The total amount was 80 francs!

Then the negotiations entered a fierce stage:
"Russia may not use tanks. They have many more soldiers than us!"

“No, no, no one wants a large number of soldiers to die on the battlefield. Tanks can help win the victory and significantly reduce casualties. In addition, even if the UK does not have a demand to produce tanks, they certainly do not want to lag behind in military equipment, so the property rights are not worthless!”

"But why should we buy foreign property rights? It has nothing to do with us!"

"You don't have to buy it, but that means the foreign property rights still belong to us, which means we can register a British company to produce tanks in France. Do you still think this has nothing to do with you?"

……

Negotiation is something Francis is good at. Djokovic and Charles simply left the "war" and each of them took a small plate and chose their favorite food from the buffet on one side of the living room.

Djokovic chose a beef pizza and Charles picked a cream cake.

It is already past lunch time, and the two have been busy and have not had lunch yet, so they are already starving.

Deyoka was chewing his pizza with gusto while watching the nobles quarreling in the reception area with great interest. He sneaked up to Charles and said in a low voice:

"You lied, Ciel!"

Charles nodded.

"You lied, too, father!"

Djokovic laughed and praised:
"Well done! Look at them..."

……

After repeated bargaining, the ownership of the tank was finally sold for 110 million francs, but Francis attached a condition: to cooperate with the Francis Tractor Factory to produce the tank.

This was clearly an abuse of power for personal gain, sacrificing Charles' interests in order to gain the right to cooperative production for themselves.

Greve and Armand had no objection. They didn't have a factory and just needed a mature, ready-made tractor factory to produce tanks. The Francis Tractor Factory was not only the largest and most advanced tractor factory in France, but more importantly, it was the factory that invented the tank and assisted the military in winning the Battle of Dar Voise.

Obviously, the military would be more likely to accept tanks produced using Francis tractors.

Therefore, the two parties hit it off and gave the cooperative production rights to the tractor factory.

Dejoka still couldn't believe it was true: 110 million francs, minus the commission for Francis there were still 99 francs!
Earned 99 francs in just a few days without any risk!
Issues such as imitation and suppression of old military industries are what Grevi, Armand and Francis need to face and worry about!
(End of this chapter)