90: Chapter 90: Sulfonamides Monopolize Global Orders!

Putting his thoughts aside, Lin Tian took Elizabeth, who had come to see him off, into the car and drove away from New York Harbor.

For the next entire month, Lin Tian was so busy in his own estate that his feet barely touched the ground.

Negotiators from countries like Germany, Belgium, and Austria lined up to visit him.

This group of people all had one goal: they wanted to pay for the patent authorization of Sulfonamide and obtain the complete production technology.

Facing these covetous powers, Lin Tian maintained a unified stance: he had already reached an agreement with the Churchill Family in the UK, and the joint-venture pharmaceutical factory would be built in London.

In the short term, he would absolutely not consider building factories anywhere else.

If any country urgently needed this life-saving medicine, they would have to honestly place orders from the New York pharmaceutical factory.

Lin Tian patted his chest and guaranteed that as long as the Federal Government did not interfere, he would absolutely ensure open supply, providing as much as they needed!

Hearing this response, the representatives from various countries were filled with disappointment.

But no one could do anything about it.

Right now, Lin Tian had reached a cooperation agreement with The British, and no one could figure out what kind of shady insider deals existed between Lin Tian and this world hegemon.

Facing the deterrence of the world's number one power, these representatives could only obediently back down.

Even the Germans, who currently had the strongest army in Europe, with their newly ascended Emperor Wilhelm II, did not dare to provoke The British Empire at this critical juncture.

There was no other way; since they couldn't buy the technology, the representatives had to hold their noses and spend money to place orders in New York.

Before Sulfonamide could be produced in Europe, they had to hold their noses and pay high prices to buy it from the USA.

On the other side.

Lin Tian and Rockefeller joined forces to secretly and frantically sweep up goods, continuing to gobble up shares of the Mesabi Iron Range.

After all the trouble, Lin Tian obtained thirty-four percent of the equity, while Rockefeller held forty-one percent.

The scattered shares on the market had been almost completely absorbed by the two of them.

The combined shares of the two exceeded seventy percent, making them the absolute masters of the iron mine.

With the mine in hand, Lin Tian turned his attention to a medium-sized steel plant in Pittsburgh—Hockley Steel Company.

The total assets of this plant were approximately 1.5 million US dollars.

It used the outdated open-hearth steelmaking process, producing at most 15,000 tons of steel a year.

The factory employed over three hundred skilled veteran steelworkers.

In the area of Pittsburgh, Hockley Steel Company could only be considered an insignificant small workshop.

Before coming here, Lin Tian had already sent people to thoroughly investigate the details.

In 1889, the total annual steel production of the USA had already surged to over 3.6 million tons.

You have to know, back in 1870, this number was less than 70,000 tons!

Based on an annual growth rate of over fifteen percent, it would definitely break the 4 million-ton mark next year.

It is no exaggeration to say that this year, the steel production of the USA already accounted for one-third of the world's total production, directly stepping on The British and sitting firmly on the throne of number one in the world!

Currently, raw steel on the market could sell for thirty-two dollars a ton.

But this Hockley Steel plant held onto old technology, had no money to buy new equipment, and after working hard for a year, only made a meager profit of over 30,000 dollars.

Lin Tian was not polite at all; he directly sent negotiators and splashed out a premium of 2 million dollars to forcefully take the factory from the founder, Herbert Hockley.

In the office, the negotiator signed the acquisition contract with Herbert, and the two shook hands and parted ways.

After buying the steel plant, Lin Tian immediately ordered a shutdown, spent a large sum of money to purchase the latest smelting equipment, and performed a major overhaul of the entire factory area.

According to Lin Tian's plan, after the renovation, Lin Steel Company would see its annual production capacity soar directly to 300,000 tons of raw steel!

Not only would production skyrocket, but production costs could also be cut by seventy percent in one go!

In a year, the net profit would be a stable 2 million dollars.

And this was just the beginning.

As long as they continued to recruit talent and expand production capacity, these profits would definitely flip and rise within a few years!

...

That evening, Lin Tian took Anna and Elizabeth to attend a high-end dinner party hosted by Theodore.

After eight years of struggling and grinding, Theodore was no longer the naive young man who had first entered the New York State Assembly.

With the massive financial support of Lin Tian and Rockefeller, Theodore successfully won the seat of Mayor of New York in 1886, representing the Republican Party.

Not only that, last year he also connected with a wealthy tycoon on Wall Street and married his daughter.

All of this was completely different from the original historical trajectory.

According to historical records, although Theodore ran for mayor in 1886, he only ranked third in votes and ended in a crushing defeat.

After losing the election, he ran to London, married his childhood sweetheart, and had four sons and one daughter.

During his honeymoon, he even led a team to climb Mont Blanc, becoming the third team in history to reach the summit, and used this title to get into the Royal Society.

But now, the butterfly effect had completely changed his destiny.

Theodore, who became mayor at thirty-two, was currently in the prime of his life.

With Wall Street tycoons behind him, and the Lin Group and Rockefeller as his backers, all walks of life had high hopes for this rising political star, looking forward to him entering The White House soon.

As for whether he would eventually become an anti-trust fighter who specialized in cutting down large conglomerates, no one could say for sure right now.

"Bruce, this is Captain Mahan. Many generals in the military were students he trained!"

At the dinner party, Theodore enthusiastically introduced a military bigwig to Lin Tian.

Lin Tian looked at the thin, bald old man in a black suit before him and spoke with a smile:

"So it is Captain Mahan. I have read many of your works on sea power, especially the one released this year, 'The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783', which is thought-provoking!"

Mahan was a graduate of West Point and was currently serving as the president of the Naval War College.

Deep down, he actually quite disliked those conglomerate tycoons who relied on throwing large amounts of money around to interfere with the national economy.

But he had great admiration for Lin Tian.

Not to mention that the Lin rifle allowed the USA's firearm research and development to surpass the European powers for the first time.

Just speaking of the Sulfonamide that Lin Tian produced, although it was expensive, it had genuinely saved thousands of lives.

Based on these two points alone, it was enough for Mahan to lower his posture and give Bruce enough respect.

Mahan replied politely: "Mr. Bruce, you are too kind; those are just some shallow insights."

Facing this formidable figure who laid the theoretical foundation for the USA's future sea power, Lin Tian dared not be slight, so he followed the conversation and said: "I have recently flipped through quite a few books on the navy and know a thing or two about the naval development of various countries."

"Oh? Mr. Bruce, can you elaborate?" Mahan picked up his wine glass, becoming interested.

"I certainly don't understand tactical command. But in terms of shipbuilding, in 1873, the French built the Devastation-class battleship, pioneering pure steam warships."

"In contrast, in our USA, the main battleship Maine, which was just launched last year, only has a displacement of over 7,000 tons, is equipped with a few 254mm and 152mm guns, is covered with iron plating on the outside, but is fundamentally outdated mixed-propulsion!"

Bruce hit the nail on the head.

"Mr. Bruce, you certainly have a thorough understanding."

Mahan sighed, his face full of worry, "Our warships are a big step behind Europe; I hear that London has already started planning to build all-steel warships."

"The USA must catch up quickly!"

Lin Tian replied decisively, "To be honest, my Umbrella Laboratory has put a lot of effort into engines, and our technology is definitely not worse than Europe's. As long as the military is willing, we can equip new warships with a sufficiently powerful heart!"