Volume 4 Chapter 48 Exchanging land for technology
The main topic of their talk was actually a deal.
After the news that his highness Eric took the throne, Xu Yi asked Count Wein to rent more land from him. He wanted to use this land to expand the Frestech Farm, as building factories and research facilities.
Count Wein was very quick at first, agreeing to rent the same amount of land to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce as before, which was a total of a hundred thousand hectares.
Moreover, Count Wein said that Xu Yi could choose from the land under his name. That way, according to Xu Yi’s plan, he could link the two land together and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would have a very large base in the Stantine Duchy, allowing them to develop however they wanted without problems.
But as the situation in the Lampuri Kingdom changed and the situation for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce seemed a bit bad, Count Wein’s generous attitude had begun to change.
As for Xu Yi’s request for renting more land, Count Wein started delaying and wasn’t as fast as before.
When the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was banned by the magic machine industry management department from making magic machines in the Lampuri Kingdom, there was a large change in Count Wein’s attitude. He became much harder towards Xu Yi compared to before.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to rent the Frestech Chamber of Commerce land, rather he was charging a sky high price.
For the same hundred thousand hectares of land, it would have cost them three hundred thousand gold coins before. But now that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was requesting another hundred thousand acres of land, Count Wein had suddenly charged them a shocking million gold coins!
This was more than three times greater!
Of course Xu Yi wasn’t willing to agree to Count Wein’s request, so the two sides had been at a deadlock.
During these months, Xu Yi had negotiated with Count Wein many times, but they never reached a satisfying conclusion.
Without knowing the reason why, after learning that Xu Yi was coming to Archie and Leia’s wedding, Count Wein also attended. He took the initiative to find Xu Yi and raised this topic again.
But it was the same as before, Count Wein still insisted on the sky high price of a million gold coins.
This made Xu Yi a bit annoyed.
Since you weren’t planning on yielding, why did you come to negotiate?
To be honest, although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed to open new ground in the Stantine Duchy, so they needed land and Xu Yi thought that this was the most suitable place in the Stantine Duchy, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had already begun developing on the Black Rice Wasteland. If the talks with Count Wein didn’t go anywhere, Xu Yi could move the factories with heavier workloads to the Black Rice Wasteland, he didn’t need to expand here.
Count Wein’s attitude had been firm this entire time, so Xu Yi wasn’t as anxious as before since he made his preparations.
Count Wein was still acting like this in this situation, naturally Xu Yi wasn’t happy.
“Count Wein, I’ve already said it many times, our company can’t accept this price.” Since he was on the domain of the other side, Xu Yi suppressed the anger in his heart and said in a deep voice, “Moreover, our company has invested quite a bit this year, so suddenly taking out a million gold coins to rent land that we can’t use yet, it isn’t a smart choice.”
Count Wein looked at Xu Yi and revealed a fake smile, “Of course I know that your company has invested a lot this year, since you are building factories everywhere. I understand this, but chairman Xu, I came looking for you today because I found another solution.”
“Of? What is it?” Xu Yi asked in a surprised voice.
“Chairman Xu, you said that your company can’t take out a million gold coins because you’ve invested too much, I understand this. But our deal doesn’t have to be completed with gold coins.” Count Wein narrowed his small eyes as he spoke with a smile.
“Not using gold coins?” Xu Yi slightly knit his brows. He looked at Count Wein for a bit and seeing the clear greed on his fat face, he understood a bit, “What do you want?”
“Hei, hei, chairman Xu is a smart person.” Count Wein’s face fat trembled from laughing, “Compare to gold coins, there is something else I’m interested in. For example, the technology that your company has……”
Xu Yi really was shocked this time.
He never would have thought that the things Count Wein wanted was the technology the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had.
When he made deals with Xu Yi, his mind was only filled with gold coins and he never wanted anything else.
Why did he suddenly care about this technology?
Was he stimulated by something?
“This…..I want to ask first, Count Wein, which kind of technology are you referring to?” Xu Yi asked.
“Of course it’s the technology for making magic machines.” Count Wein said in a natural voice, “There are many companies in your Lampuri Kingdom who have become rich thanks to the technology from your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so I’ve become very interested in them.”
“This means……you want to invest in a magic machine company?” Xu Yi asked.
“Pretty much.” Count Wein nodded.
Xu Yi couldn’t help smiling.
It can’t be considered strange for Count Wein to have this idea since if he did it well, being able to produce magic machines was much more lucrative than just charging rent.
But Xu Yi could never connect Count Wein with magic machines, he couldn’t even connect the entire Stantine Duchy to magic machines.
The reason was very simple, the people here were too lazy.
There were many natives at the Frestech Farm, but compared to the Lampuri Kingdom’s people who moved here, the people here were just too lazy. Their efficiency wasn’t even a fifth of the Lampuri Kingdom’s people.
If it wasn’t for Count Wein and the friendly attitude that these people had, Xu Yi would have already chased out all these native workers.
Now that Count Wein wants to create a company that produced magic machines, even if Xu Yi gave him the technology and equipment, he could only hire the local workers.
With the low efficiency of the local workers, what kind of future would this factory have?
Of course, Xu Yi definitely wouldn’t have said this. He just smiled and asked, “Alright, Count Wein, what kind of technology are you interested in?”
“This……first the canned fruit factory, I want to make one myself. There’s no need to worry chairman Xu, I won’t be stealing business from your Frestech Chamber of Commerce. Your company’s canned fruits don’t use all the fruits that our Stantine Duchy has, so there won’t be any conflict between us.” Count Wein said.
“Un…..Also?” Xu Yi neither denied or accepted this.
“Other than that, I’m interested in several household magic machines. The ones I’m most interested in are the Magic Refrigerator, the Magic Freezer, and the Magic Air Conditioner. You also know that our Stantine Duchy is very hot all year round, so these things are very popular here.”
Xu Yi found this funny in his heart.
If one looked at the climate here, the Stantine Duchy was suited for these magic machines.
But if one looked at the level of corruption, the Stantine Duchy was far from being qualified.
The Stantine Duchy had a greater gap between rich and poor compared to other countries. Other than the lord Count Wein, most of the people were commoners who had trouble keeping the clothes on their back and there were even more slaves here than the Lampuri Kingdom.
This market was bad, so how could you sell that many household magic machines?
It had to be known, the cheapest Magic Refrigerator cost at least twenty gold coins.
Although Xu Yi didn’t have the specific data, he was certain that within the Stantine Duchy, over 98% of the people couldn’t afford the cheapest Magic Refrigerator.
Of course, Xu Yi wouldn’t tell Count Wein this as he just nodded with a smile, “This idea isn’t bad. Then Count Wein, it isn’t impossible for us to transfer our technology, but this technology isn’t cheap…..”
Count Wein raised a fat finger towards Xu Yi.
“Ten thousand hectares of land for a year for one piece of technology, how about it?”
Xu Yi was stunned, almost breaking out in laughter from joy.
Count Wein’s initial price was a million gold coins for a hundred thousand hectares of land. So with the conversion scale of technology to land, this meant that he was hoping to buy each piece of technology for around a hundred thousand gold coins.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s transfer fees were currently over a hundred thousand, even going over two hundred thousand gold coins.
Count Wein naturally knew this, so he thought that this price was very appropriate.
If Xu Yi agreed, based on the way the fees were calculated, he might even gain quite a bit.
But to Xu Yi, he had even given many of this technology to the ten companies for free and had given them to many companies of the Lampuri Kingdom, so this technology wasn’t kept that secret. Xu Yi didn’t care that much about it.
With Xu Yi’s mechanical engineering theory from earth and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s powerful research resources, they would definitely be able to create magic machines that surpassed the current magic machines.
These technologies weren’t worth a thing to Xu Yi.
If he could use them to exchange for land the Frestech Chamber of Commerce needed, it was clearly them who gained quite a bit.
Xu Yi deliberately knit his brows and acted like he had to consider it. Then with a difficult expression, he discussed with Count Wein for a while before acting like he was helplessly accepting this.
After the deal was finished, Count Wein was very happy since it took several months. He took Xu Yi’s hand to shake and said while laughing, “Very good, chairman Xu, let’s have even further cooperation in the future. I hope that we can maintain this good relationship.”
Xu Yi nodded with a faint smile, “Definitely.”
Count Wein’s mind turned before he suddenly approached Xu Yi and asked in a low voice, “Chairman Xu, your company’s military magic machines…..”
“Impossible.” Xu Yi directly cut him off and firmly said, “The importance of this technology is too much, our company won’t transfer this to anyone.”
“Un, un…..It should be like this, it should be like this…..” Count Wein kept nodding before asking, “Then…..Chairman Xu…..not talking about the technology, how about buying some military magic machines from your company…..There wouldn’t be any problems, right?”
Xu Yi narrowed his eyes to look at Count Wein as he felt a bit surprised.
Was Count Wein trying to push him on the path of no return of an arms dealer…..