Chapter Thirty-six: Professional Manager Seeks Collection

  New book uploaded, seeking collection and recommendation

  A large number of boxes and bales loaded with raw rubber, opium, rhubarb and rubber seeds were unloaded from two sailing ships moored at the Liverpool dock, and hundreds of coolies shouldered and lifted them onto a row of horse-drawn carriages waiting by the dock.

  Mayer. Bronshtein, accompanied by several newly recruited apprentices from the pharmacy, was sweating profusely as he carefully checked and unpacked the goods. Those products that were not of good quality or insufficient in quantity needed to be recorded immediately and then argued with the supplier. As Zhu's reputation grew, he received invitations from the French Academy of Sciences and the British Royal Society, and even rumors of ennoblement emerged. The business of H洛因 pharmacy improved significantly, and the medicines containing diethyl morphine and hydrochloride morphine indeed had miraculous therapeutic effects, which many hospitals and doctors were happy to use.

  By March 1843, the small pharmacy on Dovers Place in London was unable to meet demand. Therefore, Thomas De Quincey decided to set up a pharmaceutical factory in Manchester to produce patented medicines such as diethyl ether, morphine hydrochloride and codeine phosphate series. From then on, the pharmacy also transformed into Hero Pharmaceutical Company.

  At the same time, Coswell William, who had resigned from the Bank of Bahrain and co-founded a rubber products company with Zhu Jishi, also returned to Manchester from the Americas, not only successfully raising ￡10,000 in capital but also ordering several hundred tons of raw rubber and thousands of pounds of rubber tree seeds. The establishment of "Jason-Coswell Rubber Products Factory" was thus put on the agenda, and finally, under Coswell William's suggestion, Zhu Jishi bought a bankrupt textile mill and used it as the common site for both the pharmaceutical factory and the rubber products factory.

  These past few days, the raw rubber and seeds that Kosperl Wilhelm ordered have arrived at Liverpool Port, as well as a batch of medicinal materials ordered by Hero Pharmaceutical. Zhu Jishi also rushed over from London to personally supervise the unloading of the cargo. In reality, he just stood on the dock, strolling around with Kosperl Wilhelm, occasionally opening a box and taking out various goods to examine them carefully, smelling their aroma, before sighing and saying to Kosperl Wilhelm: "Kosperl, don't be fooled, I can barely recognize this Coptis chinensis, but as for opium and raw rubber, I truly have no idea what's good or bad. This business is really amateurish, but when it comes to managing a factory, I'm afraid I wouldn't even know where to start, I'm really worried that we'll lose all our capital."

  This is indeed true, doing business is also a subject of study, what does Zhu Jishi know? He's not even as good as Mrs. Du Lan in this regard, at least she has run a clothing store for many years and has some business experience. Fortunately, Zhu Jishi now holds four patents and is doing a monopoly business, otherwise he would definitely lose everything!

  But the last time was opening a small pharmacy, manually refining and configuring some medicines. Now preparing to open a pharmaceutical factory and rubber products factory! This is big industry! And they are all businesses that no one has done before, how to do it, really have no bottom line.

  During this period, Dr. Zhu didn't even have the mood to compile "English-Chinese Dictionary", and instead devoted all his energy into setting up a factory, but still had no confidence in it. Kosperl Wilhelm laughed and said: "Jason, actually I've never managed a factory before, but that's okay, we don't understand industry, we can hire managers who do. This year Europe's economy is quite bleak, almost every industry is shrinking, so it shouldn't be too hard to find good managers. We also need to hire some engineers, preferably those familiar with chemistry, to help us design the production line and streamline the manufacturing process."

  Zhu Jisheng nodded slightly, "You're absolutely right, I do have such plans. I also want to hire a few chemists, microbiologists and pharmacologists to set up a laboratory to develop new drugs. In addition, we need some product designers, the rubber company needs a product design department. By the way, the pharmaceutical factory's products seem to be too many now, if we can sell out the production authorization of those miscellaneous patented medicines and concentrate on producing diethyl morphine, hydrochloride morphine and hydrochloride scopolamine these three raw materials as well as several new drugs that can be used as fist products..."

  Kosper. William smiled and nodded, "Jason, you said you can't manage, but these methods I think even the most professional managers can't come up with." He paused and continued: "Why don't we do this, let me take care of hiring a manager, I still know some excellent managers in the business world."

  Zhu Jishi smiled and said to Kosper Wilhelm, "That's great, Kosper. I was thinking of setting up a holding company, let's call it Jishi Holding Company. How about you being the general manager?"

  "General manager of the holding company? Jason, are you going to put all the burden on me?" Kosper Wilhelm laughed.

  "Are you going to do it?"

  "Cheers! But this manager of mine doesn't come cheap!"

  "Five percent stake! Five percent of Zhijie Holding's shares, plus a yearly salary of ￡1,000. Is that enough?"

  "That's enough, that's enough! Jason, thank you!" Kosper Wilhelm looked at Zhū Jìshì with gratitude and nodded heavily, "Please rest assured, as the general manager, I absolutely will not let you down."

  Jizhi Holding Company currently owns 75% of Hero Pharmaceutical and 50% of Jason-Kosper Rubber Company, with a nominal capital of ￡17,500. A 5% stake is less than ￡900, but Kosper William knows the true value of Jizhi Holding. The patents for the three raw materials and vulcanized rubber alone are worth over ￡300,000 at present! As for the value that these patents can create in the next 20 years, it's hard to imagine. If we add up his 5% stake in Hero Pharmaceutical and Jason-Kosper Rubber Company, this second young master of a trading company with little inheritance can be said to have completed his original accumulation and become an honorable member of the bourgeoisie.

  However, the 5% stake in Zhu Jishi was not given for free. This Kosper Wilhelm's background, he had already figured out through Engels, Kosper Wilhelm's family is also a well-known family in the European and New World business circles, although it is not as famous as the Baring family or the Rothschild family in Europe, but its reputation in the New World is by no means inferior to that of the Du Pont family.

  Of course, Kosper Wilhelm is not a core member of the Wilhelm family, otherwise Zhu Ziyu would not be able to get close to him. However, he has some connections in the European and American business circles. After traveling around the New World, he secured ￡10,000 in funding and brought back 1,000 pounds of rubber tree seeds. He also reached an agreement with Kew Gardens, Britain's largest botanical garden, to entrust them with cultivating the rubber tree seedlings in a greenhouse and studying the growth habits of these diverse types of rubber trees, so as to pave the way for establishing large-scale rubber plantations in the future.

  These two contributions alone are worth the 5% stake in JST Holdings, not to mention the connections in the British financial world that can raise a large amount of funds for Hero Pharmaceutical and Jason-Kosperl Rubber Company.

  The conversation between the two had just ended when Zhū Jìshì saw the figure of Countess Isabelle appearing on the dock, walking slowly towards him.