Eric Flint Grantville Gazette Volume 1

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ten thousand except for money bags here."
She pointed to David, who buffed his fingernails on his coat and tried to look important. He managed to
look silly, which was probably better for all concerned. "Who would have twelve thousand, and Mrs.
Higgins would have thirty thousand and so on."
"The other hundred thousand would be owned by the corporation. Which could sell it to raise extra
money. Even at a dollar a share, even if we only sell a third of the shares, that's a lot of money."
"What about control?" asked Trent.
"We would probably keep it," said Sarah. "Probably. Let me ask you something though. Why is control
important?"
"So the grownups won't take it away from us," said Trent automatically.
"No. What are the grownups going to do? Buy up control so they can stop making sewing machines?"
"Tell us 'Thanks, but we're running things now. Go play with your toys.'"
"Right, and pay us each five percent of the profit," Sarah answered. "David six percent and Mrs. Higgins
fifteen percent. Altogether, with everybody, it's fifty percent. It might be worth it to someone, but it's not
real likely. I figure we'll probably sell half the hundred thousand shares. Which would still leave us and
Mrs. Higgins with more of the stock than any other group, but even if we do lose control, we'll probably
get rich from it. So, if they want to tell us to go play with our toys, they are gonna have to buy us some
really nice toys.
"There's another reason we should incorporate, or at least, change it to a limited liability company." She
continued. "The way we set it up at first we are liable for any debts or damages. What if we get sued? It
wouldn't be so bad for us, we don't have much many assets, but what about Mrs. Higgins? One of the
things a corporation does, is limit the debt to corporate assets. That would mean they couldn't take the
storage lot, or Mrs. Higgins' dolls as payment for the company's debts."
They spent the rest of the lunch hour talking about corporate structure.
October 9, 1631: Delia's Garage
They had removed some of the production machines to the storage lot as a stopgap measure. Mr.
Marcantonio had finished the last production machine they absolutely had to have, and they now had
parts for several sewing machines. They had spent the entire time from when school let out trying to
assemble one. Now it was dinner time, and they still didn't have a working sewing machine.
It was the same trouble they had been having from the beginning. Tolerances. The machined parts were
acting as a centerline and the handmade parts could only vary from it so far. Mostly they fell within the
limits, but if one part was off a little one way and another part was off in another way the combination
meant that the sewing machine didn't work. So they had to go through the parts, find ones that were off in
complementary ways and fit them together. It was a painstaking and occasionally painful process.
Replete with skinned knuckles, banged fingers and frustration.
October 11, 1631: Delia's Garage
It worked. Five months of hard work, two afternoons, and about fifteen minutes of final assembly, and
they had a sewing machine. The important thing was, in another couple of days they would have another;
sewing machine production had finally started.
It was time to celebrate. There was a six pack of Coca-Cola that had been sitting in the Higgins pantry
since the Ring of Fire and their icebox for the last week. It was about to get drunk.
Trent took over from Brent, and sewed another line of stitches down the folded rag. He then carefully
removed it from the machine. From the garage they danced through the kitchen, startling Liesel, and into
the living room. They danced around Delia, waving the sewn rag like the flag of a defeated foe, and in a
way it was.
* * *
David and Johan were in Rudolstadt talking with a supplier, and Sarah was watching Judy the Younger
again. Sarah's work could be done at home, and Judy the Younger was proving to be more of a help
than the expected hindrance. Which surprised Sarah no end.
A phone call informed Sarah of the good news. She would call her parents. Other phone calls followed,
to Mr. Marcantonio and Mr. Partow, to Mrs. Partow, to anyone in any way involved that could be [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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