Lord of Industrialization

The Kingdom of Anglan is always gloomy in autumn, with occasional rain, which makes people feel unhappy.

In the royal palace of the royal capital of Lundinium, Prince Charles and the Minister of Finance, Count Duval, sent off the staff of the Royal Bank and Wessen Bank and began to drink tea leisurely.

Charles picked up a gold-printed bill of exchange issued by the head office of Wessen Bank on the table, and shook his head and said, "Just a few minutes ago, it was worth 100,000 pounds!"

The gold coins of the Kingdom of Anglan are larger than those of the Rhine Alliance. The gold content of one pound is twice that of the florin gold coin, and 100,000 pounds is equal to 200,000 florins.

This money is part of this year's Wessen Friendship Bond.

In the Kingdom of Anglan, the Anglan branch of Wessen Bank deposited the money in the Royal Bank and used it as collateral to issue friendship bonds. After the Anglan royal family purchased all the bonds, they sold them on the spot to merchants who were about to go to Wessenburg to participate in the World Expo.

After receiving the money from the royal family to buy bonds, the Anglan branch of Wessen Bank loaned it to the Anglan branch of the Dawn Chamber of Commerce, and the Chamber of Commerce organized the purchase of raw materials.

The purchase of the Dawn Chamber of Commerce is a feast for local chambers of commerce, and countless exporters and transporters have been eager to get started.

Among them, the Dawn Chamber of Commerce pays the Chamber of Commerce with bills of exchange from Wesson Bank, which can be exchanged for gold coins in Wesson Bank or cooperative banks in the city of Londinium and other major cities in the Kingdom of Anglan.

In this series of operations, only bills of exchange are traded, and the gold lies in the vaults of various banks, but it keeps changing owners and has not moved an inch.

There are two types of bills of exchange. One is a named bill of exchange that specifies the exchange location and exchanger, and the handling fee is higher; the other is a bearer bill of exchange that can be exchanged in any Wesson Bank or cooperative bank, and the handling fee is lower.

Recently, merchants in the Kingdom of Anglan have promoted a bill that allows bills of exchange from several large banks to be used as currency, including Wesson Bank.

Count Duval took a sip of tea and said, "Your Highness, this bill of exchange is a bearer bill of exchange."

"What?!" Charlie was shocked, "You mean, anyone, even a beggar, can take out 100,000 pounds from the bank as long as he holds it?!"

Count Duval nodded seriously.

Charlie frowned. This matter was discussed by Count Duval in Weissenberg. He always did things properly. How could such a mistake happen?

Count Duval smiled and said, "Your Highness, if you were a bank employee, if a beggar came to withdraw 100,000 pounds, what would you do?"

Charlie immediately said, "I would call the guards immediately... Hahahaha, I know what you mean."

Such a large amount of money is not something that ordinary people can touch. Even if someone steals or robs it, they will be caught as soon as the bill of exchange appears.

If the bill of exchange is damaged, you only need to send a telegram to report the loss.

In this way, if the bill of exchange is bearer, you don't have to pay more handling fees.

Charlie was very satisfied with Count Duval's behavior of saving money for the royal family. Suddenly, he thought of an interesting thing and said, "If this bill of exchange is given to an honest and smart person, what do you think he will do?"

Count Duval thought for a while and said, "I think if it is an ordinary person, he may be scared, or even throw it away without knowing the value of the money."

"If he knows the value of the money and is brave enough, he will be arrested if he takes it to the bank to exchange it."

"If it is a smart person, he will go to some remote place to sell it to someone who doesn't know the value of the money and make a fortune."

"It is also possible that he is a kind person who is not tempted by money and puts an advertisement in the newspaper to find the owner."

Charlie looked at the golden bill of exchange in front of him and said, "How about we give it to someone before going to the World Expo?"

"Wait until we come back next spring and see what kind of experience and end he has."

Count Duval was speechless and could only say, "Your Highness, you still have a lot of work to do, so put aside the fun."

He could see that Charlie just wanted to use this useless large-denomination bill of exchange to play tricks on people and have fun for himself.

Maybe he will forget about it when he comes back next year.

But now King Edward of the Kingdom of Anglan has been in poor health since he was assassinated many years ago. He has been unable to handle state affairs for the past two years, and government affairs have been handed over to Charlie.

Charlie is quite good at handling government affairs, but he is still a young man and his playful nature cannot be changed.

"Okay, okay..." Charlie was a little helpless, "How are the preparations for purchasing weapons this year?"

Count Duval said: "My distant nephew helped contact the Springfield Armory, but still couldn't purchase standard weapons."

Charlie said regretfully: "I didn't expect that even the Baron of the Thermos Cup couldn't do anything."

Now everyone wants the active standard weapons of the Wesson Army, but no one can buy them, and the allies can only get the old models.

Count Duval said: "There is good news. A manufacturer of double-barreled shotguns has made some improvements to the original double-barreled shotguns, which can greatly increase the power and range of the original shotguns."

Charlie said helplessly: "Let's go and take a look. It's better than nothing."

"We need to speed up the replacement of longbowmen. The prospects of the Kingdom of Gaul in the Kingdom of Tarago are now very unclear."

"Although the Wesson Army killed the king of the Kingdom of Madeira, who can guarantee that they will not join the battlefield."

"And the Osmaga Empire, their new army performed very well. If Queen Anna intends to intervene, the situation will also change."

Count Duval nodded and said: "We underestimated the Osmaga Empire before. They still have their foundation. If they show some finger leaks, they can still change the situation."

Charlie put down the bill of exchange and began to ponder.

Count Duval continued, "Your Highness, you haven't made it clear which side we stand on in the Kingdom of Tarago."

Charles took a sip of the teacup slowly and said, "We will help whoever is at a disadvantage."

Count Duval asked, "Even the Kingdom of Gaul?"

Charles nodded and said, "Yes, we still have to help familiar enemies when necessary. If we change to a strange enemy, we will have a headache."

Count Duval thought it made sense.

Charles thought for a while while holding the teacup, and said, "What do you think about us helping the Piast Kingdom and letting His Majesty Casimir turn his head back to the west and take revenge on the Rhine Alliance?"

"One hundred thousand people were defeated by eight hundred people. It was such a great humiliation. I think Casimir must be thinking about revenge."

Count Duval thought for a while and said, "I agree in principle. The specific plan needs to be discussed by the cabinet ministers."

"We can increase the intensity of intelligence collection and find a focus to provoke irreconcilable contradictions between the Rhine Alliance and the Piast Kingdom."

Charles nodded, took a sip of tea and said, "Focus on His Majesty Rudolf. Some conspiracies and tricks are useless to Grand Duke Wesson, but he is different."

Count Duval thought it made sense. People who could come up with such a bad idea of ​​conferring the city captured by the front-line soldiers to the queen in a blink of an eye did not look very smart.

Charlie took another look at the bill on the table, pinched his chin and said, "Well, what do you think if I throw it on the street in the residential area and let someone pick it up?"

Count Duval was speechless about his unconventional thinking, and could only say, "If your highness is willing, then go and try."

"The most important thing now is to sell bonds. We don't have much time left."

This year, because the Duchy of Wessen suddenly had to send troops to Hanma City, the government needed to deal with many things, and Wessen Bank had some difficulties in turnover, so the time of the World Expo and the issuance of friendship bonds were later than in previous years.

The journey to the Kingdom of Anglan was long, and they needed to hurry, so Charlie and Count Duval soon got busy.