Chapter 47: Cocaine Seeks Collection and Recommendation

  New book uploaded, seeking support

  On the afternoon of April 30, 1843, at around 3 or 4 o'clock, the sky had already darkened. A half-new horse carriage was rumbling along the streets of Manchester's industrial district. On both sides of the road were rows of factories, mainly textile mills. Even in this economically difficult time, most of the factory chimneys were spewing out thick black smoke, and the roar of machinery filled the air, deafening to the ears.

  After spending a month in the picturesque Windsor Castle, returning to the Manchester industrial area filled with coal smoke and manure stench, Zhu Zhiyi suddenly felt as if he had traversed through time and space once again.

  The horse carriage stopped in front of the only factory on the street that didn't have the sound of machinery coming from it, and as soon as Zhu Jishi got down from the carriage, a familiar shout came from the shadows.

  "Jason! Jason! Is that you? Are you done with your work at Windsor Castle?"

  Zhu Jishi fixed his eyes and went, just to see Willie Haiming carrying a cane coming out of the factory, looking like some kind of factory manager.

  "Will, what brings you here? Are you here for an interview?"

  Will Heming strode up to Juzi, waving his hand and laughing: "No, no, no, I'm not a reporter for the North Star Newspaper anymore. The salary there is too low, if I keep doing it, sooner or later I'll become a poor man. So I decided to work for you, Kosper gave me a job, Jason, now you're my boss."

  "Will, are you working for me?" Zhu Jishi hesitated for a moment, looking at him suspiciously, "What kind of work do you do?"

  "I'm the head of security at the factory, it's a very important job, and I'm currently patrolling the plant area."

  Just as they were talking, a brand new carriage rattled by from the side and drove directly into the factory area. This carriage was much more exquisite than the second-hand one Zhu Jishi had just bought. There were workers watching the gate at the factory entrance, but they did not block the carriage's passage, apparently... Through the glass window of the carriage, Zhu Jishi vaguely saw an old foreigner with a big beard sitting in the compartment, closing his eyes and resting.

  Zhu Jishi hesitated for a moment before asking Wilbur Haymine: "Whose carriage is this?"

  "It is Mr. Ricardo D. Rodriguez's carriage."

  "Ricardo D. Rodriguez? Who is he?" Zhu Ziyu asked Will Heming somewhat perplexedly.

  Will Heming smiled: "He's the boss of Rodriguez Trading Co. in Spain, a friend of Isabel's who is very interested in our morphine and diacetylmorphine, wanting to get agency rights for Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Also, he brought back from South America some strange leaves which are said to be the 'holy grass' used by the Incas to alleviate hunger and fatigue, wondering if we can develop something new with this leaf."

  The sacred grass of the Incas? This is... coca leaves! Good stuff, can be used to extract cocaine, this thing is a great stimulant, can be used to produce stimulating beverages and medicinal wines, the earliest Coca-Cola contained cocaine components. Moreover, Austrian psychologist Freud once published an article entitled "On Coca", which strongly advocated for the use of coca-based drugs to treat asthma, morphine addiction and other diseases. In addition, cocaine is also a very good anesthetic, widely used in local anesthesia.

  Actually, the development of cocaine had long been included in Zhu Jishi's plan as a 19th-century big poison king. Once the central laboratory of Hero Pharmaceutical was established, it would start to extract coca alkaloids and another important toxic substance M yellow alkaloid - after reacting with red phosphorus and iodine, the famous methylbenzene amphetamine would be produced! This drug has a very unpleasant name called B toxin, but before the 1960s, this drug was not considered a poison. During World War II, methylbenzene amphetamine was still an important military material, both the Allies and the Axis powers used this drug to boost soldiers' courage, it's not an exaggeration to call it a "brave medicine". If one could produce this "brave medicine", they would definitely get large orders from European armies.

  ……

  Jason strode quickly into the office building of his factory on Vincent Street, which was also the headquarters of Jason Holdings. He also planned to set up "Jason Central Laboratory" here with his own English name and prepare to buy a house in Manchester and live with Mrs. Dulan.

  Kosperl Wilhelm, Karl Blonshtein, Meyer Blonshtein, and Frank Hahn, the former director of the European Hospital who is now an assistant to Zhuzi in medical research and development, as well as Hans Schmidt, the factory manager of Hero Pharmaceutical Factory who was once an engineer at the Gunpowder Factory, are all gathered here for a meeting. Ricardo Rodriguez also appears in the conference room, chatting with Kosperl Wilhelm while smoking a cigar.

  As soon as Zuo Zongtang walked in, everyone stood up to greet him and looked at him. After returning from Windsor Castle, Zuo's status had been elevated again. He was now a member of the Royal Society and a baronet of Great Britain, and he had also become friends with Prince Albert, which meant that he had formally squeezed into European high society.

  "Jazz, this is Ricardo D. Rodriguez from Spain, the boss of Rodriguez Commercial House." Kesper Wilhelm slightly bowed to Zhu Ziyu and introduced the tall and burly Spanish merchant Rodriguez to him.

  "Jazz, it's an honor to meet you." Rodriguez grinned and gave Zhou a bear hug, indeed very enthusiastic.

  "I'm the same, Mr. Rodriguez." Zhu Jishi smiled politely and pointed to a chair, inviting Rodriguez to sit down. Then he walked to the head of the conference table, slowly scanning his subordinates with a glance, "Gentlemen, since returning from Windsor Castle, I am delighted to see that our business is thriving, which is all thanks to your efforts. I have decided to make every senior manager of Jishi Holdings, Hero Pharmaceutical and Jason-Kosper Rubber Company a shareholder of Jishi Holdings, so that our interests are completely aligned."

  Applause erupted, and everyone's face was filled with satisfied smiles. In this era, there were no concepts of stock options or management holding shares, Zhu Jishi's approach could be said to have pioneered a new way of doing business. Moreover, according to his idea, in the future, all R&D personnel at "Jensen Central Laboratory" would also own a small portion of Ji Shi Controlling Share.

  Zhu Jishi smiled and said to Rodriguez: "Mr. Rodriguez, I heard that you brought some coca leaves from South America?"

  Rodriguez smiled and said, "That's right, it's a magical leaf that will be a big business. Gentlemen, our Rodriguez company wants to partner with you on this big deal. Are you interested?"

  Zhu Jishi nodded and smiled, thinking to himself that this guy was quite enthusiastic on the surface but had a cunning streak, wanting to cooperate with him just because he had a few pieces of broken tree leaves. The ancient coca leaves weren't even monopolized by the Rodríguez trading company. On the surface, however, he still nodded and smiled, "I wonder what plans the Rodríguez trading company has for doing business with the coca tree leaves?"

  Rodriguez smiled quietly at Zhu's question, "We provide the coca leaves and the Inca people's data on using these leaves to cure diseases, plus ￡1,000 in funding, in exchange for half of the future patent rights for cocaine."

  Zhu Jishi smiled and looked at Kosperl Wilhelm, who shook his head slightly. Zhu Jishi laughed: "Mr. Rodriguez, I know how the Incas used coca leaves. In fact, it's not too difficult to extract alkaloids from coca leaves. You can hire a decent chemist for ￡1000 to do it. But what's the point of cocaine? Is it for making anesthetics? Can its efficacy surpass that of morphine?"

  Rodriguez's face fell, but he quickly recovered with a smile. "Alright then, let the coca leaves go to hell, sir. Can we talk about the morphine and diacetylmorphine business now?"

  Zhu Jisheng nodded and said, "Morphine hydrochloride and diethyl morphine are just raw materials. We also have a very effective antibacterial drug, berberine hydrochloride. Based on these three raw materials, we have developed dozens of patented drugs... The production authorization for these patented drugs can be transferred, I wonder if Rodriguez Trading Company is interested in purchasing?"