I was the Founding Father of the United States

Chapter 97 Louisiana

According to British aristocratic tradition, newlyweds take a short trip after their wedding, usually to the groom's family's country estate to familiarize themselves with their property. After the trip, the bride returns to the groom's family and integrates into their community.

This is the origin of the term "honeymoon".

However, Chen Wenbin's "Robin City" was not yet completed, and the two manors he bought in the northern suburbs of London were not very impressive. In addition, Diana's belly was getting bigger and bigger, so he threw himself into work the day after the wedding.

Aside from treating nobles and wealthy people at Robin Hospital every day, he devoted most of his energy to preparing for the London Textile Company and establishing Robin Metals Company.

In early February, London nobles and businessmen invested £2 in PUIC, officially establishing the London Textile Company. After obtaining the patent rights to the Jenna spinning machine and the Diana sewing machine, the company quickly became the most financially powerful and technologically advanced textile enterprise in the entire UK.

The new company's shareholding structure is as follows: 35 percent is held by royalty and London merchants, and the remaining shares are held by the original PUIC shareholders, with Chen Wenbin holding 13 percent of the new company's shares.

Because Chen Wenbin was authorized by the original PUIC board of directors, the company's financing and merger process went smoothly. All that was needed was to send the explanation of the situation and the company's financing legal documents back to North America.

Chen Wenbin was well aware that in the future, as the conflict between the British government and the North American colonies intensified, the London Textile Company would inevitably be controlled by the London shareholders. Therefore, he reached a deal with Colbrook, or rather, a compromise.

He pledged to sell 2 percent of the shares to UK shareholders annually for the next four years, with the Robin Chan family ultimately retaining only 5 percent of the company's shares.

The specific price is determined by a fair auction held at the end of December each year, with the highest bidder winning.

In exchange for making concessions, he received three conditions from Colbrook.

First, if the company's North American shareholders want to sell their shares, they must do so through a fair auction, and the Robin family will have the same bidding rights as the London shareholders.

This clause is for the sake of Chen Wenbin's old friends and shareholders. He still needs these North American tycoons as allies, and he can't let them think that Boss Chen is colluding with the British to cheat them.

Colbrook's demand is to control the cotton textile industry and be able to reclaim his company shares in a dignified manner, and he has no objection at the moment.

Second, the London Textile Company signed a perpetual cotton supply contract with the Southern Development Company, established by Chen Wenbin (in which George III held a one-fifth share), and promised to give priority to purchasing cotton from the Southern Development Company at the same price.

This condition is intended to provide sufficient certainty for the Southern Development Company's financing expectations and the financialization of cotton.

Given the current situation, the London textile company, which owns the patents for spinning and sewing machines, will inevitably become a monopolistic giant in the British cotton textile industry, needing to purchase massive amounts of cotton every year, which will be supplied either by India or North America.

India has an advantage over North America due to its cheap labor force, so it is necessary to secure some procurement orders in advance.

As for the financialization of cotton, that's a more sophisticated operation to follow. Simply put, once cotton cultivation in the southern North America reaches a certain scale, Chen Wenbin could even issue his own paper currency using cotton and wheat as collateral during wartime!

It's important to know that cotton, like coal, was a raw material for the First Industrial Revolution!

Whoever controlled the cotton-producing regions held the very upstream of the Industrial Revolution, roughly equivalent to the position of oil during the Second Industrial Revolution.

Colbrook and the other London merchants understood Chen Wenbin's purpose in making this condition, but they also needed stable cotton suppliers. North America was much closer to Britain than India, so they agreed.

After all, they had no idea that the North American colonies would rebel just ten years later...

The last condition was for the sake of the North American textile industry. Chen Wenbin demanded that Robin Metals Company obtain the rights to produce and manufacture the Jenna spinning machines and Diana sewing machines in New World without paying any fees to the London Textile Company... This condition was also the one that Colbrook and others opposed the most.

They obtained the patent rights to create a monopoly, so how could they possibly allow Chen Wenbin to also set up textile and garment factories in North America?

Helpless, Chen Wenbin had no choice but to explain to them the actual situation in North America and the litigation costs of protecting patent rights... No matter how powerful the London textile company was, it was impossible to prevent carpenters and blacksmiths in North America from imitating the Jenna spinning machine and sewing machine. In fact, this was difficult to do even in Britain itself, and this was not the 21st century.

Finally, he used the new technologies of water-powered spinning machines and looms as bait, along with a promise not to sell textile machinery to the British mainland and to produce only a certain number of textile machines each year for the next ten years, to barely persuade Colbrook and others to agree.

After all, Chen Wenbin was telling the truth. The British King's land decree was ignored by North Americans, let alone by London merchants.

If we agree to Chen Wenbin's conditions, he can still openly restrict the popularization of textile machinery in North America. If we don't agree, it is estimated that in a few years every household in North America will have spinning machines and sewing machines!

……

2 month 16 day.

The weather was unusually clear.

That morning, Chen Wenbin did not go to the hospital or the factory. Instead, he took John Adams and Chris to the London port docks and boarded a 499-ton standard armed merchant ship named "Louisiana".

The wear and tear on the hull and deck clearly indicates that this is a second-hand, old boat. Apart from the low price of £3580 paid by Mr. Chen, it seems inferior to a new boat in every other respect.

"...How long and wide is this ship? It must have a carrying capacity of more than 500 tons, right?"

After boarding the ship, Chen Wenbin looked around, frowned slightly, and asked Eric Lovelat and Vincent Robinson beside him.

"Jazz!"

Sensing that Chen Wenbin seemed somewhat dissatisfied, Eric immediately replied, "You guessed right! The ship is actually 120 feet long and 35 feet wide, and its actual tonnage is not 499 tons, but nearly 700 tons."

The reason it was publicly stated as 499 tons is because, according to British law, merchant ships under 500 tons are not required to have a chaplain on board, thus saving some costs.

After saying that, he added, "Don't let her age fool you; she's a nine-year-old secondhand boat. She's very well maintained and won't have any problems sailing. Unless she unfortunately encounters an insurmountable storm, you have absolutely no need to worry about her having any issues!"

"Mr. Eric is right!"

Captain Vincent Robinson, wearing a tricorn hat and sporting a large beard, bowed slightly to Chen Wenbin and explained, "Sir, you may not understand the characteristics of ships. In our view, an old ship that has been thoroughly broken in and adapted to the sea is safer and more reliable than a new ship!"

If you depart in May, the Louisiana will deliver the immigrants you need to the mouth of the Mississippi River by August of next year at the latest!