Chapter 209: I Have My Dignity and Principles

"You have so many patents but only care about a mere tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses. Search on Google to read." Liang Yao smiled and said, "The landscape needs to be opened up. Geniuses like you should not be burdened by the world."

"Open up the situation? I want to open up the situation, but I am different from you. You are one of the richest people in the United States. You don't have to worry about your livelihood. And I still have a family of more than 20 people to support, including my children. It’s so frustrating to be compared to someone else.”

Walter held his forehead and said.

"Although I have a lot of inventions, many of them are just sudden inspirations. I don't know what uses these inventions can have or how much commercial value they have."

"I'm not good at inventions and creations, but I am good at monetizing inventions and creations so that they can realize their due value. We are an excellent partner," Liang Yao said.

"If you are willing to go to California with me, you don't have to worry about other things and just focus on your inventions. I will give you a large manor and hire the top painters in the United States to serve you 24 hours a day and help you draw. Drawings, all the expenses required for your inventions and creations will be borne by me.”

Before Liang Yao finished speaking, Mrs. Walter, who was listening on the sidelines, her eyes lit up and she hurriedly asked Liang Yaodao.

"A manor, oh my God, a manor like that by the Hudson River?"

"Yes, Mrs. Walter." Liang Yao gave Mrs. Walter a positive reply.

"Oh, Mr. Liang, you are simply an angel sent by God.

My dear, what are you waiting for? Let's help go to California. I've long had enough of this pigsty in New York. Twenty or so people live in a small, four-story tiled house with a pitched roof. I've had enough of this kind of life. Mrs. Walter said excitedly.

"When I get to California, I will hire a few servants to do housework, take care of my children, and take care of the manor."

Mrs. Walter has planned her future life blueprint. After working hard and suffering all her life, she finally looks forward to the day of happiness.

"I heard that prices in California are more expensive than in New York, and gold is used directly in transactions there."

Walter often heard rumors about California. After all, going to California to get rich by gold mining has been the hottest topic in New York since 1848.

The conditions offered by Liang Yao are very attractive. It has always been Walter's ideal to not worry about making a living and devote all his energy to invention and creation.

It's just that the prices in California put Walter off.

"It's true, prices in San Francisco and Sacramento are much higher than in New York."

Through my experience of living in New York these days, although the prices in New York are very high, they pale into insignificance compared with San Francisco and Sacramento, two cities that relied on gold mines to rise.

Although prices in San Francisco and Sacramento have dropped significantly after gold production increased, the price levels in these two cities are still the highest in the United States.

In order to eliminate Walter's worries, Liang Yao offered a price.

"You don't have to worry about life issues. I have bought out all your unsold patents in the past and will also buy out all your future patents. 20% of the money you earn through these patents will belong to you."

Seeing that Liang Yao was so sincere, Walter said after thinking for a long time.

"I don't know how much commercial value my inventions have. If possible, I would prefer to receive a fixed monthly salary of US$1,000 from you to support myself and my family."

Compared with unstable patent dividends, Walter hopes to obtain a stable income to dispel his concerns.

After wandering in New York for half his life and getting used to a life of hunger and hunger, Walter hoped that he and his family could live a more stable life for the rest of their lives.

No matter how high prices are in California, one thousand dollars a month is enough to protect his family's livelihood.

This is what Walter is thinking now.

Liang Yao was stunned by Walter's request to throw watermelons and pick up sesame seeds. He wondered if he had heard something wrong because of something wrong with his ears.

Seeing Liang Yao's reaction, Walter thought that his asking price was too high.

Liang Yao is the most financially powerful and reliable partner he has ever encountered, bar none.

There have been people who have taken a fancy to Walter's potential to create inventions and have cooperated with Walter before, but these collaborators are either short-sighted or shameless villains who use his patents in vain.

Walter had suffered a lot in this regard, and Liang Yao had a lofty vision and was willing to spend money on his patents. Such collaborators and investors are rare to find.

Walter didn't want to miss this opportunity.

"If $1,000 a month is too much, we can still negotiate."

"Am I someone who lacks this $1,000?" Liang Yao was as happy as a child weighing more than 100 pounds.

"If you are willing to settle down in California, in addition to the manor and the fixed monthly salary of US$1,000, I will also pay you a one-time settlement fee of US$50,000. Of course, this settlement fee will not be paid until you arrive in California. you."

"There's nothing to say. You are the happiest and most reliable collaborator I have ever seen. I think our future cooperation will be as pleasant as today." Walter happily rubbed his big hands that had nowhere to go.

"In that case, let's sign the contract now." Liang Yao struck while the iron was hot.

He didn't want anything to go wrong with such a precious talent.

Liang Yao drafted a contract on the spot. Faced with this generous contract, Walter signed his name on the contract very happily after checking it with great effort.

"Mr. Liang, which invention did I win the first Liang Yao Invention Award for?" Walter asked curiously.

He has so many inventions that he can't even remember how many patents he has applied for at the Patent Office. He was very curious about which patent technology Liang Yao valued the most.

"It's the sewing machine, sir." Liang Yao told Walter the answer.

The significance of the sewing machine is extraordinary.

Although America is undergoing industrialization at this time, in the international trade market, America's main export commodities are still raw materials such as cotton, tobacco, sugar, fur, and wood at the beginning of the founding of the country.

There are very few industrial products that can go abroad and enter the European market.

This is a scar in the hearts of Americans.

California already has a cotton textile industry that can make cotton into cotton cloth.

But California's remote geographical location is far away from the European continent. If America is the marginal world, then California is the marginal area of ​​the marginal world.

The remote geographical location means that while California enjoys a relatively safe external environment, it has to bear the inconvenience of external transportation, and the high freight costs for exporting goods to the European continent.

The cotton textile industry is only a rough processing of raw materials, and the profit is not high. Under the three high conditions of high tariffs, high transportation costs, and high labor costs, it is unrealistic to earn foreign exchange through cotton textile exports to earn British pounds and French francs.

The cotton cloth spun by Liang Yao's cotton textile mill in California is basically sold to Central American countries and eastern states of the United States, barely maintaining the operation of the textile mill and not losing too much.

Even Liang Yao's textile mill is losing money, not to mention other small textile mills and workshops in California.

His original intention of opening a textile mill in California was to absorb female employment and alleviate California's population structure problems, so he gritted his teeth and ran the textile mill even if he lost money.

He could accept that the biggest job for California women in the first five years after the establishment of the state was prostitution. At least the scale of this industry in California was relatively large. It was easier to find prostitutes in California than in Iowa and Wisconsin, which were all in the same state. There was nothing to be ashamed of.

But if five years later, people still think of California prostitutes when they mention California women, this would be a shame for all the rulers and men in California, and Liang Yao could never tolerate it.

Operating at a loss is not a long-term solution. If you want to expand California's textile industry, the profit of the textile industry must be high enough, so that more people will be willing to open textile factories and provide more self-reliant jobs for California women.

And if you want high profits, you must do deep processing.

This is why Liang Yao attaches so much importance to sewing machines. Not only is there a lot of profit in making sewing machines, but this thing is a real high-tech product of this era.

Once sewing machines are mass-produced, you can set up a garment factory in California to directly manufacture ready-made clothes.

The cost of machine-made clothes is much lower than that of hand-made clothes by tailors.

Once the sewing machine garment factory is established, Liang Yao is confident that he can take over the clothing market in the United States, not to mention the European market.

High tariffs and high transportation costs cannot withstand the high profits of machine-made clothes.

"I did not invent the sewing machine. If you plan to give me this award as the inventor of the sewing machine, I will not accept it."

After learning that he won the award for inventing the sewing machine, Walter was not happy and refused the award.

"I just made some improvements on the original basis. Although I am a craftsman who makes a living by patents and lives in poverty, I have my dignity and principles. I will never accept honors that do not belong to me.

Although I also like the US dollar, I am not a profit-seeking person like Alex and Yinsak."

"Dear, are you kidding! This is a prize of tens of thousands of dollars! I am counting on these prizes to buy new clothes and delicious food for my children."

Hearing that Walter refused the Liang Yao Invention Award, Walter almost jumped up.

Unlike Walter, Walter cares about the honor and social recognition brought to him by the invention award, while Mrs. Walter cares about the huge bonus attached to the invention award.

Fame is false and cannot be eaten, but profit is real, and real dollars can directly improve their family's life.

"Shut up! You stinky woman! You know shit!" Walter interrupted Mrs. Walter unceremoniously.

"To be precise, you are awarded this award in the name of the inventor of the lock-type single-needle sewing machine and the main improver of the sewing machine." Liang Yao said very solemnly.

"Your contribution to the improvement of the sewing machine is like Watt's contribution to the improvement of the steam engine. Although you are not the inventor of the sewing machine, you are the improver who has made the greatest contribution to the improvement of the sewing machine. Only you deserve this award."

There are many different opinions about who is the inventor of the sewing machine. Some say that Thomas Santer, a British carpenter, invented the sewing machine for sewing leather shoes, and some say that the sewing machine invented by the French tailor Timonnier is the sewing machine that is truly used for sewing clothes.

Of course, there are also later claims that it was Walter's, or even Alex's.

In Liang Yao's view, these skilled craftsmen are the inventors of sewing machines. Sewing machine technology has been increasingly improved over the past half century, and it is now barely able to be put into mass production. All of these outstanding inventors have contributed their wisdom to sewing machines.