Greece to roman road

Seeing that Trikupis agreed, Constantine turned to the two new employees and arranged;

"Nina, Dr. Philip, one of you is responsible for the technical aspects and the other is responsible for the administrative management. I will leave the factory to you."

"At work, we must pay special attention to the establishment of a confidentiality system, try to reduce the number of people who know the overall production process, and try to have employees only engage in a specific operation."

Constantine asked worriedly.

"The two steps of production and sales can be separated. The production personnel are only responsible for production, and the sales personnel are only responsible for sales. This can reduce the risk of leaks and make management easier," Nina put forward her own suggestion.

Constantine also felt that this made sense and nodded in agreement.

"Due to the need for confidentiality, we can actually make a fuss about the raw materials." As a technician, Dr. Philip also proposed methods to strengthen confidentiality from a technical perspective.

"For example, you can add some plants that have no effect at all without affecting the active ingredients, and add them before extraction," Philip said.

"This is also to make it more difficult for others to decipher the secrets of artemisinin. After all, if it is just a simple artemisinin extract, the risk of being cracked is too great. Adding some ineffective substances can disrupt the attention of researchers with malicious intentions. It is difficult The degree has increased almost geometrically.”

"In short, Nina and Dr. Philip, please work together on this work. This is our common cause."

Constantine encouraged the two of them.

"Concerning the choice of sales location, Constantine, I still suggest that you be more conservative and sell mainly in Greece and the Congo. The Germans and Dutch who have a monopoly on quinine are powerful. It is better not to provoke them head-on for the time being." , Nina said.

After several months of training in the Greek Congo Head Office, Nina had frequent contact with those business elites every day, and her experience was enriched a lot.

Hearing this, Constantine lowered his head and pondered. No matter when, the oligopoly was not easy to mess with.

As for carrying out legitimate business competition under the constraints of the rules and abiding by the spirit of the contract, just listen to these high-sounding words and don't take it too seriously.

Look at how many shady and dark tricks Rockefeller's oil trust used in order to monopolize the U.S. oil market.

The shopping mall is like a battlefield. Under the stimulation of huge profits, no matter how dirty the tricks are, they will appear in the shopping mall.

For example, senior managers who bribe competitors are always aware of their opponents' decisions, and send gangsters and gangsters to assassinate and intimidate competitors, forcing them to hand over control of the company.

Such means are also indispensable for Mr. Rockefeller to make a fortune.

The Dutch and Germans monopolized the quinine market and formed a solid alliance of interests, enjoying huge profits every year.

The Dutch controlled the origin of cinchona bark (the East Indies), the raw material for quinine, while the Germans controlled the chemical technology for extracting quinine.

The two families work together and make a lot of money.

Now, new malaria treatment drugs suddenly appear on the market, competing with them for the market, and the price is low.

It is impossible for them to calmly divide the market that originally belonged to them with their competitors.

There is no reason to argue over interests.

"Well. You have to figure it out. It's best not to directly conflict with them first," Constantine said.

"In addition, you have to take out a part of the shares and circulate them on the Athens Stock Exchange. If the big families in the country are interested, you can also let them buy shares, so that the domestic people can share the profits of artemisinin as much as possible. ”, said Constantine.

The reason for doing this is to find more interest allies for myself.

Constantine intended to use this method to unite everyone, so that Greece can be twisted into a rope, and the protection of the production process of artemisinin will eventually become the will of the entire Greek people.

Everyone has interests, so we all have the obligation to protect the artemisinin production process.

If the secret is leaked, everyone's interests will also be damaged.

Otherwise, Constantine would not only have to be wary of malicious foreign forces, but also be wary of the prying eyes of people with motivating interests at home.

Even Constantine, the Thousand-Armed Avalokitesvara, would probably be too busy.

"Go and guard the secret of Greece as the Greeks once guarded the secret of Greek fire," ordered Constantine.

The so-called Greek fire was a secret weapon invented by the Eastern Romans. It once played an important role on the battlefield, especially in naval battles.

For example, in the war against Arabia in 717, an Arab fleet attempted to blockade the Golden Horn. The Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III immediately ordered the fleet to go into battle and used Greek fire to burn twenty Arab warships, and the remaining warships were destroyed. captured.

The great power of Greek fire caused panic in the Arab navy.

In this siege, the Arab army used a total of 2,560 ships, but only 5 ships returned to Syria and Alexandria.

A soldier who was attacked by Greek fire once wrote this record: "Whenever the enemy attacks us with Greek fire, all we can do is kneel down and pray to God for salvation."

The power of Greek fire can be seen in general.

What exactly Greek fire is is still a mystery, and the method of making it has been lost.

From beginning to end, the secret of Greek fire remained firmly in the hands of the Greeks.

Constantine said this because he wanted the two of them to protect the secret of artemisinin just like the Greeks kept the secret of Greek fire.

After that, the two left the Prime Minister's Office, and the conference room became quiet.

"Concerning the Greek industry, especially the steel industry, Mr. Prime Minister, do you have any good ideas?" Constantine asked.

In the industrialization of modern countries, steel is a threshold that cannot be bypassed no matter what.

The embarrassing thing is that Greece has neither hard coal nor iron ore in the country. If it wants to build a steel plant, it can only import coal and iron from abroad.

This brings another problem. Even if such steel is produced, it will not be competitive because the price is too high.

This is not the 21st century. Whether it is the transportation of coal or iron ore, transport ships with a displacement of hundreds of thousands of tons can transport it to you economically.

In this mode of transportation, the larger the tonnage of the ship, the lower the transportation cost per unit weight.

This is also the reason why ocean-going oil tankers of 30,000 to 400,000 tons appeared.

Compared with these behemoths, the 100,000-ton aircraft carrier is still a younger brother.

However, cargo ships at the end of the 19th century had relatively large displacements, that is, several thousand tons in size. Ships of this size were used to transport coal and iron, basic industrial raw materials in huge demand, and the transportation costs per unit of scale made it difficult for anyone to Stunned.

Frankly speaking, smelting steel by importing coal and iron ore is not as economical as directly importing steel. Making it is worse than buying it.

Constantine felt a headache every time he thought of this.

Therefore, I would like to hear Trikupis's opinions on steel construction. Is Lao Cheng seeking the country?

As an evergreen figure in Greek politics, Trikoupis, who has always advocated the development of industry and commerce in the country, must have considered this issue.