Raymond was an expert in botany. These days, botany was a very popular profession because it had a deep connection with agriculture.
Farming and animal husbandry might not be an industry that attracted people's attention. In fact, many people in the Federation still believed that farmers should wear suspenders and long rubber shoes while dealing with wheat in all kinds of feces.
This was the stereotypical prejudice people had towards farming. They always thought that farming was just like that.
But in reality, it wasn't. Farming was rapidly developing and was becoming more and more important.
Ever since the Federation released the immigration policy a few years ago, the Federation's population had experienced the fastest growth in history. Although this growth wasn't due to natural birth growth.
The Federation's population rapidly increased, and correspondingly, the Federation's food supply began to become scarce.
In the past, people only wanted to satisfy their desire for higher quality food, so they imported all kinds of good farming products from abroad.
Now, people had to import a large amount of cheap food to satisfy the needs of the lower class. Otherwise, the lower class would face the predicament of food shortage.
This also led to the rapid development of farming, and the value of farming began to increase.
This also led to all kinds of botany becoming successful. The Federation government and various private organizations crazily allocated funds, hoping that these botany researchers could research more advantageous crops to satisfy the growing food shortage in the Federation.
Every botany expert had at least 3 to 5 projects in their hands, and there was still a long line of projects.
However, even though food research was becoming more and more popular, compared to real cash crops, especially those high-end cash crops, the profits were still a bit lacking.
Every time a phone call came to the laboratory, Professor Raymond would immediately put down his research and come to the laboratory, waiting for Mr. Lynch to summon him.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, he didn't have the slightest bit of dissatisfaction. After all, everyone in the Federation knew that rich people's time was precious. They were always busy.
After nearly half an hour, the secretary finally opened the door. Then, Mr. Lynch walked in and stood near the door.
Professor Raymond quickly walked over with a smile on his face. He reached out his hands from afar to stop Lynch from approaching. Only then did Lynch reach out his hand, which was grabbed by Professor Raymond's hands.
"Mr. Lynch, as soon as I heard that you had a problem to solve, I immediately put down my research project and rushed over. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Professor Raymond was already in his sixties. His hair was already white, but he didn't look like an old man in his sixties.
At the very least, he shouldn't be so humble.
But who could guarantee that their dignity would not waver in the face of money?
Even Mr. President is a slave to money, let alone a professor. We shouldn't be so mean to him!
"Thank you very much for taking the time to come. There are indeed some problems that are bothering me. I need someone to explain them to me. I heard that you are an expert in this field …"
Lynch let go of his hand and went into the room with Professor Redmond. After they sat down, Lynch asked, "Professor Redmond, do you know enough about tobacco, especially the tobacco used to make Kelefu?"
Professor Redmond nodded. "I've been researching all kinds of tobacco for a long time. I don't dare to say that I'm an expert in this field, but basically, there's nothing in this field that I don't know."
The Federation's unique self-confidence and doting qualities shone from this professor.
Lynch nodded slightly to show his approval of the professor's description. "Professor Redmond …"
"You can call me Redmond. That's what my friends call me!"
"Okay, Redmond. Currently, the main tobacco we use comes from Marillo. Is there a substitute for it?"
"What I mean is, if we don't continue to use Marillo's tobacco, is there a comparable tobacco in other parts of the world?"
The monopoly of raw materials was always the most difficult obstacle to overcome. The general of Marillo certainly wouldn't let this profitable business slip away from his hands so easily. He would definitely find other ways to get it back.
After he tried some methods but failed to achieve effective results, he would control the price of the raw materials. This was exactly what Lynch didn't want to see the most.
The most important part of the huge profits every moment was that the price of raw materials was shockingly low.
In addition, they had opened up a relationship with the border and the anti-smuggling team. A large number of illegal tobacco was transported in at a price that was tantamount to free, processed into Kelefu, and then sold at a sky-high price.
Once the price of raw materials rose, Kelefu and the profits every moment would not be as high.
Professor Redmond pondered for a while. He didn't speak blindly. He was used to dealing with these rich people and knew how to deal with them.
After pondering for a moment, he slowly said, "I'm not sure what the quality you're talking about is. We can separate it into fragrance, nicotine content, strength, rich elements, and so on."
"Blending is not my specialty, so I'm not sure. But if we only use the element content in each leaf as a reference, then I don't think Marillo's tobacco is necessary."
Professor Redmond's affirmative answer made Lynch very happy. He had a smile on his face. "It's really nice to chat with you. Maybe we will give you some research projects soon. I hope you can spare some time to do some research for us."
Professor Redmond's well-maintained face suddenly had a lot of wrinkles. Research projects were money. At least a quarter of the large amount of research funds would flow into his wallet, maybe even more.
"This is what I should do, Mr. Lynch."
Lynch nodded, and his attitude became gentler. "I have a question."
"Please go ahead."
"Najalil is close to the equator. Why haven't I heard of any praiseworthy tobacco leaves in Najalil?"
Professor Redmond laughed again. He also knew how to answer this question.
"Mr. Lynch, just because there isn't any in Najalil doesn't mean there isn't any in other places. In fact, there are at least five types of high-quality tobacco around the equator."
"I think the reason we don't use these tobacco leaves is not because they are not good enough, but because they are too far away."
This was a very interesting answer. Lynch looked into Professor Redmond's eyes. The latter only looked at him for a second before he lowered his head slightly and looked away to show respect.
Too far away, too high of a transportation fee, this was indeed a problem.
Marillo's high-quality tobacco leaves were right next to the Federation. First of all, the transportation fee was reduced a lot. Coupled with the corruption of the border and the anti-smuggling team, there was more room for tax issues.
Whether it was buying tobacco leaves from other places or growing it themselves, it was obviously not cost-effective.
Labor costs, transportation costs, losses, all of these were enough to shrink the profits.
However, there was no choice now.
"Professor Redmond, I want to entrust you to pick some suitable tobacco leaves for us in Najalil. If you read the news recently, you should know what happened …"
Professor Raymond nodded. Every minute, the shares would change drastically. This was equivalent to cutting off the connection between Marillo and himself.
It could even be said that this multinational company became a local company under Lynch's intervention. This was definitely not a small matter.
At the same time, this also meant that Lynch might not be able to buy enough tobacco.
Seeing Professor Redmond nod, Lynch continued, "I plan to open a huge tobacco plantation in Najalil."
"It's suitable for planting all year round. We can ignore winter and harvest tobacco leaves continuously."
Professor Redmond also nodded in agreement. "It's true. At least three seasons a year. If we choose to select some mutated or optimized seeds, maybe every season will be a harvest."
Lynch stood up, and Professor Redmond followed closely behind. He reached out his hand. "Then I'll leave it to you, Redmond. When will you be free?"
Professor Redmond once again held Lynch's hand tightly. "Anytime, anywhere!"
Ever since he exposed flaws at every moment, Lynch had been thinking about another thing — how to find more things for the people of Najalil to do.
In the past two years, after the indoctrination of the Federation's capitalists, the locals had gradually begun to get used to some new things. Coupled with Akumali's way of not fighting, the future direction of Najalil had been determined.
If you want these people to be satisfied with the status quo and not want to change, you have to find something for them to do. Let them take the initiative, spontaneously, and not want to change from the bottom of society. Only then could you achieve the real solidification of social form and structure.
The simplest thing was to "give them money".
It sounded a bit unbelievable, but for the people of Najalil, this was giving them money.
Letting them grow cash crops and food, in addition to satisfying some political needs, could also give some Najalil who wanted to change but were unwilling to work for the Federation a way out.
Not everyone would choose to obey the requirements and management of the Federation. Everyone would spontaneously want to work for the Federation.
There were always some people, like the people of the Najalil Youth Party, some of them were still unwilling to work for foreigners.
Therefore, growing cash crops and food was obviously in line with their goal of changing their lives without changing their original intention.
They only needed to farm and then sell their crops to other Najalil (small grain traders, small tobacco traders). No one would taint their beliefs and pursuits. They were still free.
Secondly, the cheap labor in Najalil could save a lot of money. Coupled with the fact that the new Federation of Najalil was actively moving closer to the Federation, the preferential tax policies would only get bigger and bigger. In the end, the only cost might be shipping.
And this was the least of the problems. The developed shipping of the Federation could solve any problem for Lynch. He could even buy some cargo ships for these things.