The Shadow of Great Britain

Capítulo 1618: Chapter 30: Transatlantic Standard Publishing Business (2)

Due to this matter, “Nature” has caused a polarized reputation within the British natural philosophy circle.

On one hand, “Nature” has never lacked high-level articles, especially in the field of electromagnetism, due to endorsements from academic authorities like Faraday, Ampere, Berzelius, and Arago, making it hard to find a journal more prestigious than “Nature” in Europe at present.

However, on the other hand, you can also find quite a number of peculiar and undeserving articles in “Nature”.

Nonetheless, despite the uneven quality of “Nature”, this controversy only exists within the scientific community.

To outsiders, they can only see one thing.

That is, in the past two years, almost all of the newly developed members of the Royal Society were elected only after first publishing papers in “Nature”.

Therefore, it easily leads to the association that publishing a paper in “Nature” is equivalent to obtaining a ticket to the Royal Society.

But in reality, those who know the inside story understand that the aforementioned theorem is actually the other way around.

However, regardless, the stereotype of “Nature” equating to the Royal Society, once formed, is hard to erase.

Arthur’s original intention was merely to help the Duke of Sussex solve an urgent problem, but his academic corruption inadvertently turned out to be a good deed, further elevating “Nature’s” status among scientific journals.

For someone like Conroy in the upper class, the title of Royal Society member holds an attraction equal to that of a Knight Medal.

Take Arthur’s Junior Knight title as an example, ever since he acquired this title, he can not only prefix his name with Sir, indicating his status as a knight, but also add K.t. after his name to show he is a Junior Knight.

And once elected as a Royal Society member, FRS can be added after his name.

Although this seems useless, for the upper class, who are no longer satisfied with material pursuits, multilayered business cards are more important.

For the title of Baronet, to add a Bt suffix after their name, many are willing to spend two or three thousand pounds.

In the eyes of outsiders, “Nature” is such a scientific journal that can mass-produce two or three thousand-pound titles.

This made Conroy silently rank Arthur’s social status up by one level in his heart.

For a moment, the role of Lily was temporarily set aside by him. Conroy thought, in case Lily ruined Arthur’s act, affecting his listing plan…

Offending an electromagnetism Tsar who holds the keys to the Royal Society for a ballerina’s career is really not worth it.

But Arthur’s thoughts were completely opposite to Conroy’s.

In his view, if the girl named Lily botched her performance, that would be a great thing.

The worse Lily performed, the more Conroy would owe him favors, making it easier to carry out his plan of penetrating Kensington Palace.

As for affecting the Imperial Publishing Company’s listing plan?

Arthur has never worried about this.

Because two days ago, he just visited Sir Francis Sandhill Baring of the Baring Family in the Financial City.

A few years ago, during the cholera incident in Liverpool, Arthur and the Baring Family collaborated on the Liverpool slum renovation plan, successfully passing a ten thousand-pound Liverpool urban construction bond through the Lower House public construction committee’s review.

Although Arthur did not gain any material rewards from this cooperative experience, he left a lasting impression on Sir Francis Baring, leading the Baring Family to regard this former Scotland Yard officer as a professional, reliable, flexible, and experienced partner.

Therefore, when Arthur informed Sir Francis Baring of his plans to make a big breakthrough in the publishing industry, the Baring Family quickly showed a keen interest in investing in the Imperial Publishing Company.

After learning about Arthur’s plan, Sir Francis Baring proposed a shareholding plan at the family meeting the next day, and yesterday, he enclosed an astonishing good news in a handwritten letter to Arthur.

It is well known that, in the London banking circle, the Rothschilds and the Barings are evenly matched.

And their businesses are not limited to Britain. Besides London, Rothschild has four major branches in Vienna, Naples, Paris, and Frankfurt, while the Baring Family’s advantages outside the European Continent are very obvious.

Firstly, old Sir Baring once served as a director of the East India Company, laying out quite a few industries on the Indian Subcontinent.

Furthermore, in 1803, when the United States acquired the Louisiana territory from France, it was the Baring Bank that brokered the deal and provided the financing.

Besides this, they have been long-time agents for the issuance of American bonds in Europe.

Since the death of old Sir Baring, as the eldest son, Sir Francis Baring joined the Whig Party and decided to enter politics, so the family leadership was handed over to the second son, Sir Alexander Baring.

And the relationship between the Baring Family and the United States has not diminished but instead deepened progressively.

This is because the current head, Sir Alexander Baring’s wife, Lady Anne Baring, comes from the richest family in Pennsylvania, the Bingham Family.

For this reason, Sir Francis Baring confidently assured Arthur in his handwritten letter that if the Baring Family were to invest in the Imperial Publishing Company, they would strive to coordinate with the American Government to further amend the 1790 Copyright Act, especially to strengthen the copyright protection of the works under the Imperial Publishing Company.