Harry Potter’s Morning Light

   Chapter 2326 peternnnchen (eight)

At the reception in Antwerp, Georgiana met the second son of the Count, Joseph de Villemont, whose grandfather Athenatha had fought in the American War and had inherited a fortune from relatives in the Marne A nearby vineyard that is said to be the chief French champagne producer.

Although the Germans love to drink beer, the nobles still love to drink champagne. Before the outbreak of the Great Revolution, Joseph's father met a German winemaker. He left the motherland and came to France to learn the champagne wine trade, but the winemaker married The count's daughter, Charlotte de Vallemont, the mother of Joseph and his brother.

   Logically they should take their father's surname, but the German winemaker was just a commoner, and the count had only one daughter. According to the traditions of old times, nobles were not allowed to do business. With the hard work of the young winemakers, the size of the winery and the planting area continued to expand. When the two sons became adults, Joseph was in charge of sales, and George and his father were responsible for the management of the wine cellar until the outbreak of the Revolution.

Joseph can speak fluent English, German, and French. Through the contacts he accumulated before, he sent his parents to England, and he and George stayed in Antwerp to continue business, because Napoleon stipulated that exiles must return before the Portuguese month, and George went back. , while Joseph remained in Belgium.

When traveling to and from England, he heard about the situation of the French prisoners there. He also visited the prison. There are two types of prisoners, the good ones and the bad ones. Dieppe is good at ivory carving. Some prisoners used leftover beef bones to carve into exquisite works of art, and were exchanged for money by prison guards. These people could have clean single rooms, hot water, and clean clothes in the prison, almost like a small hotel. Not only do those who do not live well have none of these, but sometimes they are driven into abandoned boats to make room for other prisoners.

   They were all fishermen, but they were taken as prisoners of war. Georgiana remembered that the French envoy had made a stern protest for this.

   A considerable number of these prisoners of war were prisoners of Egypt and other battlefields. Medieval nobles could also be released after paying ransoms. Any problem that can be solved with money is not a problem. But the trouble is that what France lacks now is money, especially after losing Santo Domingo, a colony that accounts for one-third of its total foreign trade, which is almost equivalent to England losing India.

For some people, waging war is just a means of making a profit. The most direct expression of government credit is public debt. During the Hundred Years War between England and France, the credibility of the British king and the French king was not very good. In 1672, the "Happy King" returned to the country "Charles II also issued a moratorium on repayment, not only temporarily not repaying the interest, but also not changing the principal lent by the banker, and a lawsuit was also filed for this.

   This kind of debt was often a short-term loan borrowed by the king personally, secured by various privileges, such as the Bank of Peruzzi's monopoly on the sale of wool in England. After arriving in England, William III of the Netherlands drew on the experience of the Netherlands and raised funds by issuing public bonds.

   Public debt is different from private borrowing. Public debt is issued to the public in the name of the government. Once the debt is defaulted, it will not only damage the dignity of the country.

During the reign of Louis XIV, France was the most powerful country in Europe, and even the Anglo-Dutch alliance was at a disadvantage. After the United Kingdom was involved in the war against France in 1689, it had to pay a large amount of money. In 1694, bankers headed by William Patterson suggested to the king to learn from the experience of the Netherlands to establish a central bank. That is, in 1689, because James II sneaked out of London by accident, threw the king's seal into the Thames, and tried to escape to France, but was caught by fishermen in Kent. William did not want James to be a "martyr", so on December 23, 1688, he deliberately let him escape.

   James left the kingdom without a council, and William II called a "conventional council" to make Queen Mary, James' daughter, who co-ruled with William III, and it didn't take long for the Salem events to take place.

At that time, Izak Newton had already become famous because of Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, but the fame did not bring him economic income. At this time, Charles Montagu, Newton's friend who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote a letter, telling him that the royal family The post of Superintendent of the Mint was vacant, and King William III had agreed to appoint Newton to that post.

Newton also has the nickname "The Last Alchemist". In fact, in addition to gravitation and Newton's laws of motion, Newton also discovered the law of cooling. When an object with a temperature higher than the surrounding environment transfers heat to the surrounding medium and gradually cools down, the unit time changes from unit area to unit area. The dissipated heat is proportional to the temperature difference, and this proportionality factor is called the heat transfer coefficient.

The recognized publication time of this law is 1701. Silver is a very soft metal. A good quality silver coin can be cut off a little, and it looks like it is worn. People in the mint used to do this. Don’t look at it as just a Angle, adding up to a lot is also quite impressive.

At that time, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Landis, advocated doing that, reducing the silver content in the coins, and depreciating the value of the recast silver coins by 20%. The same silver can mint more coins, which is equivalent to a part of the debt. .

  In addition to the silver content, the fineness of silver coins also has craftsmanship, but how can a farmer who does not know big characters understand what calculus is?

The result of the    cabinet debate was that the silver content of the recast remained the same, and the government assumed the full cost of the recast, with Locke's friend Newton taking care of the work. In the process of coinage, Newton's theory accumulated a large amount of data, and copied the records on the quality and quantity of silver coins from 1659 to 1691, and continuously improved the machine operation, casting speed, metal purity and other technologies, and finally minted The new coins meet the design requirements in terms of precision, purity and pattern.

The    sterling price in Amsterdam recovered and British government bonds were quickly subscribed. The French government bonds issued in 1802 have higher interest rates than British government bonds, and no one buys them, which shows how bad France's credit rating is.

In addition to using tobacco tax as a "collateral", if the new franc has high gold content, good quality and exquisite workmanship, it can also improve the confidence of international buyers. The Bank of France can also win this credit war like the Bank of England. Financing does not need to go through the Netherlands.

  If the Dutch merchants are the number one merchant group, the powerful navy of the Kingdom of England defends this trade order.

  Leviathan is more than just a "rule of the game", but one basic law remains unchanged, that is, those who "participate in it" will not feel injustice.

   For example, in the prison, those who have the ability to do ivory carving have a good life, and those who are incompetent have a bad life. This is the result of free competition - the survival of the fittest.

   "Without free competition, there will be no commercial prosperity, but in a market economy where the fittest survives, polarization is inevitable." That is to say, freedom and equality cannot coexist.

There is a movie called "The Shawshank Redemption". One of the protagonists in it is a banker. He is sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife. He has a bad beginning, but he will make false accounts for the prison guards. After accumulating a lot of wealth for them, the banker not only has the protection of the guards from being harassed by other prisoners, but can also ask the guards, repair the library, or drink a cold beer after a hard day.

   But this also led to the fact that in the end, when he was proven innocent, the warden was unwilling to avenge him because he needed the banker to continue to serve him free of charge.

  Hobbes said in Leviathan that the laws of a country are like the rules of the game, but the "rules of the game" that make up the Leviathan are not just laws. If a group of people are playing cards on a table, and one person keeps winning and one person keeps losing, of course the winner finds the game interesting, while the loser doesn't want to play. At this time, the winner will accuse the loser of breaking the rules of the game. Because this game originally stipulated 4 people to play, if the loser leaves, there will be one person missing, and the game cannot be played. Unless the loser finds someone to replace him, the winner will not let him go. Does the person who wants to quit at this time still think the rules of the game are fair?

   Suppose the loser does the same and finds a hapless guy to replace him, still the same rules of the game, but the winner finds that he can't win as often as before, and the fun of the game is halved.

   The origin is still because the new player does not play according to "his mind", but unless the winner finds the lost loser back, the replacement will not change the way he plays.

   At this time, the winner can either change the rules, or continue to play so boringly, and once the rules are changed, those who originally agreed to participate may also choose to quit.

   In the past, one person won the big head, and the others got a little bit. In the new rules, the big winner will eat the small winner. Who will do this?

   Whoever has more new game participants and is popular is the sovereign.

   Today is roulette, tomorrow is Texas Hold'em, and the day after tomorrow is Pai Gow.

The goal of    respect for others is power, because when a person sees others being respected, he will think that this person has power, and then it is easier to obey him, which makes his power stronger.

  This is the birth of the Leviathan, in Hobbes's words - this is the birth of God.

As Voldemort said, greatness leads to resentment, resentment breeds envy, Leviathan represents the original sin of envy, and in Hebrew mythology, it means "thing that is entangled", so Leviathan is also called For the "Twisted Serpent", it is much more terrifying than the Basilisk.

   A black oil is also squeezed out of coffee, and it is difficult to get out of the relationship with the Middle East anyway. Can you die if you don't drink coffee? Is there an alternative to chicory?

   She smashed the pepper and salt-coated steak with a hammer. The "dong dong dong" sounded very rhythmic. Although she could do it with magic, she felt comfortable doing it.

   After smashing the steak, she looked at the sky, it was already dark, it was almost ready to fry, right?

   "He didn't even tell me to wait for him." She muttered to herself, wrapping the steak in egg wash and bread crumbs and frying it in the pan with "Zira", the oil splashed everywhere, and she subconsciously took a step back.

"Wow!"

   "Ah!" She jumped up in fright, and turned to look at the person who scare her. He was still wearing the first ruling court uniform, and the sword was not unfastened. It seemed... very unsuitable for a place like a kitchen.

   "What are you doing in here! Get out!" She pushed him hard. "There is a smell of soot inside."

   He opened his hands and hugged her tightly.

   "I know, you would rather not have me in your life, but please don't take away the short-lived happiness you gave me." He said softly, "I am the happiest person in the world now."

   She lost her ability to think for a while, originally she wanted to say something to tease him.

   "This is what I want to do most on this tour."

   She stood stupidly, time passed in silence, and the steak in the pot was still sizzling.

   "Need my help?" He loosened his arms and rolled up his sleeves.

   "Have guests today?" she asked rhetorically.

   He shook his head.

   "Take out the cutlery." She said listlessly, "If you don't want to smell the fumes, take the cutlery to the dining room."

   "Eating in the kitchen?" he asked.

   "Is it strange, sir?" she sneered.

   He smiled and turned to get his plate.

   At this time, she glanced at the old fried steak in the pot. It was a pity that magic couldn't conjure food, and it couldn't make it "rejuvenated", but she still fished it out before it was charred.

   Food can’t be wasted, especially now that many people are still not full, although the fresh and juicy taste is better, the older it is, the older it is.

   (end of this chapter)