Chapter 22 990,000 francs

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

But Charles added:

"Although we have negotiated with the buyer, we have not 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 means 60,000 francs. No one would refuse this wealth.

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

However, Deyoka calmed down and thought about it, and felt that Charles was right. Business should not be mixed with personal feelings. He was not favored by his father because he was too emotional.

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 the tractor. It is not difficult for French military enterprises to imitate or circumvent the property rights. However, he, including the Bernard family, does not have the strength to protect the property rights. It is worthless after a long time.

The property rights of the tank are meaningful only in the hands of those who are capable of protecting their own rights.

Francis could not refuse the commission. Although he was reluctant in his heart, he still brought Deyoka and Charles to Grevy and Armand.

Grevy stood up politely and shook hands with Deyoka and Charles, and saluted Charles: "I have heard of you for a long time, Mr. Charles, 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 and did not move. He looked at Deyoka and Charles with his face sideways, frowning slightly and seemed to be a little disgusted.

Charles didn't care. He heard that traditional nobles disdained to be on an equal footing with the lowly poor. Now it seems that at least some nobles did so. The man named Grevy was probably just putting on a show, but in fact he had the same idea as Armand.

"You have a competitor, 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 "we" in his wording.

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

"Oh?" Grevy was a little shocked: "Can I know how much he offered?"

Francis turned his eyes to Djoka.

Before Djoka could speak, Charles whispered, "He offered 500,000 francs!"

Djoka looked at Charles in surprise. Charles's innocent face made Djoka doubt himself... Could it be that Bonnet was talking about 500,000? Why do I remember it was 100,000? Did I remember it wrong?

Armand chuckled, sat up and said proudly: "This means we won, gentlemen, we bid 600,000!"

He just suspected that Francis, the old fox, was working 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 in confusion.

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

Armand was stunned and asked with his hands spread out: "So..."

What does it mean is the final offer?

Charles looked at Francis with a blank face: "Mr. Francis, how to calculate foreign property rights?"

Francis said "um" and became excited. 500,000 is the base and it will be at least a million. Wouldn't his commission increase by tens of thousands?

"I'm not sure, gentlemen!" Francis said, "Can we calculate 300,000 for Britain?"

"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 has a need for fighting, can calculate it with 300,000 francs, is that what you mean?"

Grevy immediately realized that he had fallen into Francis' trap. This addition would be 800,000 francs!

Then the negotiation entered a white-hot stage:

"Russia may not necessarily use tanks, they have much more soldiers than us!"

"No, no, no one wants a large number of soldiers to die on the battlefield. Tanks can win and greatly reduce casualties. In addition, even if the UK does not have the 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 can choose not to buy, but it means that 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 what Francis is good at. Djoka and Charles simply left this "war". They each held a small plate and chose their favorite food at the buffet on one side of the living room.

Djoka chose a beef pizza and Charles chose a cream cake.

It is now past lunch time, and the two have been busy until now and have not eaten lunch yet, and they are already hungry.

While biting pizza with relish, Deyoka watched the nobles quarreling in the reception area with great interest. He sneaked up to Charles and said in a low voice:

"You lied, Charles!"

Charles nodded:

"You lied too, father!"

Deyoka laughed and praised:

"Well done! Look at them..."

...

After bargaining over and over again, the ownership of the tank was finally settled at 1.1 million francs, but Francis attached a condition: to cooperate with the Francis Tractor Factory to produce tanks.

This was obviously a pretext for personal gain, sacrificing Charles' interests to win the right to cooperate in production.

Grevy and Armand did not object. They did not have a factory and just needed a mature and 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 Darvoise.

Obviously, it was easier for the military to accept the production of tanks by Francis Tractor.

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

Deyoka still couldn't believe it was true: 1.1 million francs, minus the commission to Francis, there were still 990,000 francs!

990,000 francs were earned in a few days, and there was no risk!

The problems of imitation and suppression of old military industries are what Grevy, Armand and Francis need to face and worry about!