Chapter 229: Fouche of France? No, it’s Britain’s.
Chapter 228 – Fouche of France? No, it’s Hastings of Britain (4K)
Hastings House, 36 Lancaster Gate, Bayswater, London.
Disraeli sat at the dining table, excitedly tapping the tabletop with two fingers, the gentleman who claimed that excellence was his own nature finally tasting victory for the first time after so many years of flux.
His joy was completely written on his face, this gentleman who had always tried to perfect his image as a gentleman with a decent appearance, fashionable clothes, and a cold and reticent attitude transformed himself into a chatterbox today.
From the moment he walked through Arthur’s door he had been chattering incessantly.
“Damn! The first printing of fifteen hundred copies of The Englishman sold out, and even had to improvise another thousand copies, which included eight hundred free promotional copies given away at the Coburg Theater, but it’s still a great triumph for a magazine that’s just been launched! I knew it, the only reason that my previous copy of Representation had failed was because that son of a bitch Murray had eaten his words. Where’s the hard part about running a newspaper and magazine!”
Dickens, who had temporarily acted as the accounts clerk for The Cockney, was chewing on his pen as he looked at the accounts in front of him and spoke, “We’ve not only sold 2,500 copies, but we’ve also received more than a hundred applications for one-year long-term subscriptions. Perhaps we can already start thinking about hiring a few newspaper letter carriers.”
Hearing this, Arthur spoke while looking at the newspaper, “Maybe there’s no need to be in such a hurry yet, I have a certain weight of free mailing benefits at the Post Office every year, and I haven’t used any of this year’s share yet, and now that it’s November, it shouldn’t be much of a problem to deal with the amount of magazines mailed out this year with my share.
Next year, if the circulation grows, maybe we can also consider using Rothschild’s messenger delivery business, everyone says that the Rothschild family, in addition to the banking industry, is the best postal delivery. And we have equity ties with them, so I’m sure they’ll be happy to take the order as well.”
When Elder heard this, he couldn’t help but whistle, “Arthur, can you not be so petty, the first issue will sell 2,500 copies, the next issue will be 5,000 copies, and the next issue will be 10,000 copies, we’ll be a big magazine soon, hiring two letter carriers is just a matter of hiring two letter carriers, what’s the big deal?”
Hearing this, Darwin on the side couldn’t help but question, “What makes you so confident?”
Elder patted his chest and proudly said, “Of course it’s based on my strong sales power! Don’t you know that? Out of the two thousand five hundred copies of the first issue, two hundred of them were sold by me!”
“Huh?”
When the group heard this, one by one, they dropped what they were doing and looked at Elder.
Dickens also hurriedly flipped through the accounts at hand, and when he took a look, he immediately exclaimed, “It’s really true, Mr. Carter has sold a total of two hundred and sixty-two copies in the past few days, and this sales figure is almost double that of the best-selling bookstore.”
Arthur looked at Elder’s look that was so godlike that his ass was flying to the sky, cupped his chin and pondered for a while, then spoke.
“Elder, I thought I already thought highly of you once upon a time, but in retrospect, I may have still underestimated you. From the level of your selling literary magazines, the education of the Classics Department of our University of London, to say the least, is indeed over the top. Can you tell me, how exactly did you do it?”
Darwin also couldn’t help but think highly of him, “I have to admit, Elder, you are now higher than a monkey in my mind.”
Elder grinned at his words and got up with one hand on his chest in a slight salute, “There is no need to thank me, my humble servant has only made a small contribution.”
Dumas fished a dime out of his pocket and threw it at his head, “Don’t be an ass, tell us how you did it!”
Elder grabbed the dime and glared at Dumas, “Fatty, I’m in a good mood today, so I won’t bother with you, next time you’re this rude, I’ll ……”
Dumas leaned back in his chair with both hands clasped behind his head and shook his legs, “Just give everyone a good talk about the night you were in the Coburg Theater with Miss Coconut Tree ……”
Hearing this, Elder hurriedly cut him off as he turned his head toward Arthur, “Do you remember the old man I mentioned to you once upon a time who sold penny newspapers in Christmas Road, Greenwich?”
When Arthur heard this, he simply repeated what Elder had told him before, “Go into Christmas Road from Central Street, go about two hundred feet and then turn left, there’s a little alley with two chimneys standing in it, and every Wednesday from three to five in the afternoon, as long as there’s no rainstorm, there’s a man in his fifties in a gray hat and black coat ……”
Elder smiled badly at that and said, “You did go there.”
Arthur just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Elder, I used to be a police inspector in Greenwich, and vendors like this who sell newspapers without stamp duty are surely an offense in the eyes of the police.”
Elder froze, “You arrested him? That’s not right, when I went there two days ago, he was still there!”
Arthur said, “I saw that he had a good attitude towards confessing, so I didn’t make a big deal with him. However, in order to prevent him from reverting to his old ways, so I asked him to make routine reports to me every Wednesday in order to confirm his recent crimes.”
Hearing this, Elder couldn’t help but exclaim, “Fuck, you’re being treated better than me!”
Arthur banged the table for emphasis, “That’s different, Elder, I’m conducting a routine review.”
Dumas nodded back, “I’m in charge of conducting a routine review.”
“Fuck, you two.” Elder glared, “You don’t even think of me for this kind of thing, I’m not lending you guys any good stuff next time!”
Arthur saw that the topic was getting off-topic, he hurriedly urged, “Enough of that, how on earth did you sell so many magazines?”
Elder tugged at his collar in dissatisfaction, “The so-called sales is like the art of debate in parliament. As a senior student in the Department of Classics, I hold a unique advantage in rhetoric.
Plus I have a small network in the industry, I know a lot of senior people who have been engaged in the newspaper sales business for many years, and I know some hidden sales locations that only various professional enthusiasts understand.
And after I tasted and commented on the article has always been widely favored by my fellow enthusiasts, so naturally, it is not out of the gate, and once out of the gate is a big seller.
I’ve told you before, articles titled “The Count of Monte Cristo,” “Pickwick,” “The Young Duke,” or “The Monkey’s Tale” just don’t cut it in this business. So, in order to boost sales, I’ve made some sensible embellishments and modifications to the title of the article.”
When Dumas heard this, he seemed to gradually come around, “So, what did you change the title of our article to?”
Elder hummed, “I think that in order to sell big, we still have to start with the reader’s curiosity and desire to know. Themes like counts and dukes, since similar topics have been written about a lot in recent years, there are many cases that can be referenced. It’s just a matter of adding a bit of love history, secret talk or whatever after the status, and that’s enough to get the big boys to shell out the cash.
And “Pickwick Gaiden”, this kind of civilian travelogue nature of the story, will need me to work a little more. My first thought was Lord Byron’s unfinished book “Don Juan”, as we all know, Don Juan is a famous Spanish history of the man, a life of numerous noblewomen around, and even the Spaniards like to use Don Juan to call a man of color.
It was only natural that Lord Byron’s adaptation of Don Juan would be a commercial success. So, in order to emulate Lord Byron’s path to success, I marketed Pickwick’s Gaiden as the travels of Don Juan in Britain. As expected, many customers were already eager to pay for the book without even listening to my description of its contents. Of course, I am most proud of the description of the sales pitch for “Monkey Tales”, I did not add fuel to the fire in this regard, I clearly told them that this is a popular science story describing the relationship between humans and monkeys, coupled with a look of ‘know what you know, it’s useless to say what you don’t know’.
One by one, the customers, though saying that they were not interested in this aspect, after purchasing other newspapers, always came to the end of the day and said, “Get me another copy of The Englishman, I see that the cover and packaging are quite exquisite.”
Hearing this, Darwin looked at Elder with a complicated face, “Elder, my purpose in writing this was to give popular science, so that people can embrace civilization away from ignorance, but look at what you’ve done.”
Elder shrugged his shoulders with an innocent look on his face, “That’s right! I told them it was a science article, but what good was it if they didn’t believe me?”
Arthur blandly said, “Elder.”
“What?”
“Come on, you’re an Oxford graduate.”
Elder sternly refused, “No, I can’t, it’s Cambridge’s turn this month.”
“What about King’s College?”
“King’s College?” Elder said dismissively, “Those little yokels, a little bit further back first.”
In the face of such a love-hate gold medal salesman Elder Carter, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Disraeli, out of his initial love for his capable staff, hurriedly came up and rounded off the scene.
He put at the foot of the heavy suitcase to the desktop, only to hear a click, the box lid opened, a stack of bills finally put the mouth of the group blocked.
Disraeli with a smile on his face and sweat running down his forehead said, “Ladies and gentlemen, for the sake of the Bank of England, the Bank of Bahrain and the Bank of Rothschild, let’s settle the first installment of the manuscript.”
When a light check was placed in front of Dumas, after struggling for a while, the weight of the light as a feather finally bent the heavy spine of the French great writer.
He collected the check and slipped it into his jacket pocket, confessing to God with a soft sigh, “Originally, I was going to refuse, but this is too much money to give.”
Hearing this, Arthur couldn’t help but speak up and ask, “Alexander, are you free tomorrow night?”
“Tomorrow night? Any projects tomorrow night?” Dumas grinned and waved the check around with both hands, “As long as it doesn’t cost more than that.”
“No, tomorrow night is free.” Arthur had both arms pinned to the tabletop, “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to hide XZ so much, as long as the French government doesn’t revoke their warrant for you, there will always be a few that want to make a fortune. So, would you be interested in meeting Talleyrand with me?”
“Talleyrand?” When Dumas heard this name, his smile suddenly froze on his face, “What am I going to see him for? A person who doesn’t even possess the most basic moral qualities, I have nothing to talk to him about.”
Arthur just smiled at his words and shook his head, “I don’t know if he has moral character or not, nor do I understand it. But I do know that he can help to get the warrant against you revoked, Alexander, I know you’re a romantic writer, but life has to be realistic, there’s no harm in going to meet him with me.”
As soon as Arthur’s words were out of his mouth, suddenly there was a knock on the door at the house.
Dumas, who seemed to be reluctant to answer Arthur’s question, took advantage of the occasion to rise and leave the room, and on pulling open the door, appeared a Sergeant Charles Field in full dovetailed uniform.
Perhaps too excited, Sergeant Field spoke in a trill, “Is Superintendent Hastings at home?”
Arthur’s head popped up from behind Dumas, yet before he could ask a question, Sergeant Field had smiled and said, “You might as well not ask, just unwrap it and see.”
Arthur unwrapped the pouch of papers, although from the expression on Sheriff Field’s face he had read the general contents of the papers.
But when the documents were placed in front of him, the stone hanging in his heart finally settled down.
There were two copies of the document, and the title was very concise and clear, one was approved by the Privy Council of the Kingdom, and one was stamped by the Ministry of the Interior.
A Document Relating to the Reorganization of the Provisional Survey and Statistics Authority for the London Region into the London Police Intelligence Service (LPIS)
A Document Relating to the Recommendation for the Nomination of Superintendent Arthur Hastings, Superintendent of the Greater London Constabulary, as the Proposed Director of the London Police Intelligence Service
When Dumas saw these two documents, he just patted Arthur on the shoulder, “In that paragraph of yours just now, I thought you wanted to become Talleyrand, but now it seems that perhaps it is a little more likely for you to become Fouche. Personally though, I think that Fouche might be worse than Talleyrand.”
Sheriff Feld froze at his words, “Fouchet? Mr. Dumas, are you talking about that police minister of yours in France?”
“That’s right.” Dumas said, “Napoleon holds the secrets of France, and Fouche holds the secrets of Napoleon, he and Talleyrand are Napoleon’s right hand men, even when they plotted against Napoleon they were together.”
Arthur just shook his head at that, “Alexander, I’m not going to lock up all my opponents in a room and take them to the cannons.”
“Oh?” Alexander joked, “Is it because you don’t have a cannon?”
“You can interpret it that way if you insist.” Arthur just laughed and shook his head, “So I won’t be the Fouche of France, I’ll just be the Hastings of Britain.”
When Dumas heard this, he just laughed, then put his arm around his shoulder and spoke, “I hope so, in that case, I will accompany you to meet Talleyrand tomorrow.”
And tonight.
(End of Chapter)