“That sounds very attractive . . .” Moses paused. The girl herself was . . . very attractive. It was invigorating to be discussing matters of business and finance with such a young and attractive woman. So very, very . . . attractive. He pulled his mind back to the conversation with an effort. “But, how do you plan to do it?”
“First, we license a bunch of patents. Not preventing the patent holders from using them, but allowing us to use them as well. Then we do a major project that will employ a lot of people. We can spend some money on this. Money for salaries, for instance. But most of the expense of the project is going to have to be paid for in stock. In BarbieCo preferred. That will get money and BarbieCo preferred out into the economy where it can circulate, funding other businesses. We’re going to do it basically the way Sarah says FDR did it, with what amounts to a big public works project that will eventually pay for itself.”
“FDR? What is FDR?”
“Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Susan said. “The President of the United States, back . . . ah, up . . . in the twentieth century, in our Great Depression.”
“Ah. I have indeed heard of the Great Depression. Still, when my family endorsed the American dollar back in 1631, we put the floor considerably below what we expected the American dollar to be worth. We had every expectation that even if we were forced to buy up a great many of them, we could then spend them on Grantville goods and either make a profit or at worst only take a fractional loss. I guess we could see our way clear to offering to buy your stock at half the face value.”
Susan shook her head. “I don’t disagree, but we can’t afford to do it that way this time. We need a base of the face value.”
“Then I don’t see how I can help you. The two percent interest you’re offering on your BarbieCo stock is not enough to justify the risk. Not nearly enough.”
“I can make you one of two offers and let you take your pick. One hundred thousand thalers in BarbieCo as an up-front fee for the endorsement, or at the end of 1637 we will promise to give you half again the BarbieCo stock you already possess. Or buy it back for reich money at face value at that time, our choice. We don’t want you trying to buy up all the BarbieCo in the world in the last half of 1637. This way, if you drive it up against the reichsthaler, you will lose money.”
“Which would you recommend?” Moses asked, curious to see what she would say. If BarbieCo was good, then the best deal was the up-front thalers, because all the Barbies would have to do to pay them off would be buy up the necessary reichsthaler using BarbieCo and pay the Abrabanel family in reichsthaler.
She looked Moses straight in the eye and said, “If you’re smart, you’ll take the thalers up front.”
The discussion continued for over an hour as they talked out the details of the Barbies’ proposal. It was a risky venture and Moses might not have gone for it, in spite of being quite impressed, but for the fact that Prince Karl had invested considerable silver in it.
Office in Vienna
“I most certainly will not!”
“Very well, sir. Thank you for your time,” Vicky Emerson said. Then she got smoothly to her feet, turned on her heel and walked out the door.
“Well, that was a disaster,” she told Millicent. “He’s not going to accept BarbieCo preferred. Not ever, apparently.”
“Yeah, I heard,” Millicent said. “And I really liked that location, too. Oh, well. The next on the list is in the old Jewish Quarter.”
“We’ll send Susan to talk to Moses on that one,” Vicky said. “I think he likes her, anyway. Did you see his eyes glitter the last time we had a meeting?”
“I think she likes him, too.” Millicent giggled. “I just don’t think she’s noticed it yet.”
The old Jewish Quarter, Vienna
“Ick,” Susan said.
“The aftermath of a fire in this city is never pretty,” Moses pointed out. “And do be careful. You don’t want to fall into an open basement.”
“I’ll be careful. The burnt part doesn’t really matter,” Susan said. “We were going to have to bulldoze the place anyway.”
“Bulldoze?”
“Like the Fresno scrapers. Only bigger. I meant that we’d have to tear the building down to the basement level anyway. So we can get the whole block?”
“Oh, yes. But it’s going to cost a great deal.”
“They’ll take Barbie preferred?”
“Yes,” Moses said. “They’ve agreed to that, though quite a bit of it will be coming to my family, I suspect. So . . .”