Fox of France

After hearing this, Joseph didn't panic. He just frowned and thought about it, and then said, "Lazar, it's not convenient to talk here. Go talk in my office."

Joseph entered the office with Kano.

Kano sat down at the table next to Joseph's desk, and Joseph went to close the door first, and then sat down in front of Kano.

"Lazar, has someone bought the deposit certificate of Clavier Bank at a discount?" Joseph asked.

"Do you know about this? Yes, someone is already buying the certificate of deposit of Clavier Bank at a 30% discount. Joseph, do you think I should sell a little? To be honest, I lost 3% for nothing Ten, I am very unwilling. But I am worried that if it continues, the loss may be even greater." Kano said with a frown.

Joseph did not answer, but instead asked, "Lazar, do you have any spare money?"

Kano didn't follow Joseph's train of thought at all. He thought that Joseph wanted to help him, so he said, "There is not much money, but it is enough to support life temporarily. Joseph, I remember that there are several brothers in your family who want you to bear—" Of course, Napoleon can help you a little now..."

"Lazar," Joseph smiled, "thank you for your concern, but, I think, maybe you misunderstood me."

Having said that, Joseph looked around—the door was closed, and there was no one else in the office except them. So he lowered his voice and continued:

"Lazar, what I mean is, if you have money that you can move in addition to supporting your basic life, including the money that can be obtained in other banks, take it out, and then buy carat as much as possible. A certificate of deposit from Viel's Bank."

"What?" Kano stared at Joseph with his eyes wide open, and finally he stretched out his hand, wanting to touch Joseph's forehead, "Joseph, are you not sick?"

"Don't worry, I'm not sick." Joseph said, "Lazar, if the bank will be affected by the rebellions in some places, is there anyone who knows better than us? The extent of the rebellions, big and small, everywhere, Don't we know? Lazar, have there been many more rebellions in various places during this period than in the previous few months?"

Having said that, Kano seemed to understand a bit: "There have been a little more rebellions in the past few months, but not too much."

"That's right, this situation of rebellion everywhere has lasted for almost a year, right? During this year, Mr. Clavier should have been quite familiar with this market situation. Although Mr. Clavier can't be said to be Alexander the Great in the financial world, but at least he is also a Viscount Turenne (in the Thirty Years War, the French general. Known as the sharpest sword in France during the Louis XIV period.). To say that he suddenly because of the already very common Sudden risk, causing the bank to face bankruptcy and unable to cash in deposits, Lazar, do you think it is possible?"

"Joseph, are you saying that these legends are all false? Clavier Bank didn't encounter any crisis at all? Then why did Mr. Clavier do this?" Kano still didn't understand.

"Because a large part of the people who are buying those certificates of deposit are Mr. Clavier's people! Just wait, before long, the purchase price of the certificate of deposit will become 40% off or even 10% off. Clavier Mr. Er bought the certificate of deposit back at such a price, and then the certificate of deposit can be accessed normally, and then... Needless to say?" Joseph said.

"This...is it okay?!" Kano trembled all over, he clenched his fists tightly, stood up and said, "This...isn't this robbing the people? Is there still a king's law? Is there a law?"

"Lazar... Lazar, don't be so excited, we... don't tell me, this really doesn't violate the law." Joseph also stood up, trying to comfort Kano.

"No! I can't just watch such black-hearted things!" Kano said, "Joseph, let's find the general together, he should have a way to stop such things."

Joseph looked at Kano's righteous indignation and knew he couldn't hold him back, but he was unwilling to go to Lafayette with Kano. This kind of thing that blocks people from making money is quite close to blocking trains in terms of risk index.

"Lazar, calm down." Joseph said, "do you think the general doesn't know that things like this are happening everywhere in Paris? Do you think the general will take care of these things? M. Clavier is a respectable man of influence. , Your Excellency the General needs the support of Mr. Clavier and a large number of people like him to control the current situation. If the General stands up to stop this matter, he is standing on the opposite side of such a large number of people If the general really wants to do this, he will offend a lot of people, and he will have to pay a great price politically. Your Excellency, it is impossible for him to stand up and stop this matter."

Kano froze for a moment, and he could see that he was very hesitant. In the end, he still said: "Joseph, what you said may make sense. But if I don't try it, I will never be reconciled."

"Then I'll go with you," Joseph said.

Of course Joseph knew that Lafayette already had an opinion about him. If he went with Kano at this time, Lafayette would probably think that he was instigating Kano to general his army. But anyway, Lafayette has already been offended, and Lafayette doesn't look like a person who will hang people on street lights casually, and he doesn't care about offending him again. But by doing this by himself, Kano must be able to see the pressure he is under - Kano is not a fool who doesn't understand the world, he just didn't think in that direction before, now that he realizes the problem, he naturally understands I cherished friendship and supported him when I went with him. In Joseph's view, it would be a good deal to further gain Kano's friendship at the cost of further offending Lafayette.

But at this time, Kano had calmed down. He thought for a while and said, "Joseph, you don't want to go. There is already some misunderstanding between you and the general. If you go now, the general may treat you more misunderstanding. Let me go alone."

"Lazar..." Joseph said.

"I'll be back in a while, let's discuss it." Kano patted Joseph on the shoulder, then turned around and walked out.

Joseph sighed, and sat down behind his desk to get to work.

About half an hour later, there was a knock on the door outside.

"The door is unlocked, please come in." Joseph looked up from the text, and saw Kano push the door open and walk in.

Joseph stood up and greeted him, and when Kano entered, he closed the door.

"How? What did the general say?" Joseph asked.

"It's the same as you estimated. Of course, his reason is that I have no evidence." Kano shook his head.

Both of them were silent for a while. Then Kano said: "Joseph, you just said that we can buy those certificates of deposit? Well, how much money can you get here?"

"Lazar, you?"

"Instead of letting those people with a black conscience take away all the money, we might as well keep some of it. The money is in our hands, and we can do some good things anyway. In the hands of people like Clavier, it will only harm more people." People." Kano said, "I used to watch "Friends of the People", and the guy named Marat yelled that he wanted to hang all the bankers on the street lamps one by one. I thought he was too extreme. Now It seems that what this guy said is not completely unreasonable. Our current government is too tolerant of these people!"

As for how to make money, to be honest, Kano is not proficient. However, Kano's mathematics level is very high, and some problems, as long as he understands them thoroughly, he can understand them quickly. Finally, Kano said to Joseph: "Joseph, I can probably take out four thousand livres. But I am too busy now, so I will hand over the money to you, and you can help me operate it."

"Lazar, you are busy, so I am not busy?" Joseph said.

"Come on, Joseph." Kano said, "Your workload now is almost half that of when you were in charge of the Red Army. You had time to write papers at that time, and now you tell me no time?"

"Maybe I'm chasing some little girl?" said Joseph.

"Really? Well, what kind of girl is she?" Kano believed it was true.

"No, no. I'm just talking casually." Joseph quickly denied.

"Ah. Then why don't you have time? Well, speaking of it, you really should find a little girl. Why, for a young man like you, hasn't a girl fallen in love with you?" Kano said, " Would you like me to introduce you to one?"

"Forget it." Joseph said, "At least until the crisis in France is really stabilized, I don't think it's time to talk about love."

From Carnot, Joseph got four thousand livres, and from Lavoisier—well, the chemist Lavoisier, not his nephew—he borrowed six thousand livres, In addition to the original 5,000 livres in my hand, I made up 15,000 livres, and then started to devote myself to this speculation.

The subsequent development was as expected by Joseph. In the next half month, the deposit certificates of Clavier Bank were quickly discounted in the market, first 20% off, then 30% off, 40% off, and finally a panic, even falling below 20% off, the least valuable At that time, the price of the certificate of deposit was only about 14% of the book value.

Not too greedy, Joseph jumped in when the certificate of deposit was discounted by half, and exchanged the 15,000 livres in his hand for a deposit certificate of 75,000 livres. A few days later, Mr. Clavier announced that he had weathered the crisis and was now fully cashable on all certificates of deposit. The certificate of deposit in Joseph's hand, which was expected to be five thousand livres, has now really become seventy-five thousand livres. After subtracting the 20,000 livres given to Carnot and the 6,000 livres (including interest) returned to Lavoisier, Joseph earned 44,000 livres for himself in silence.

"In the era of chaos, it is really too easy to grab money." Joseph sighed, "No wonder someone risked the guillotine to grab it."