"Oh? They sure know how to exploit the government's weaknesses," a cold light flashed in Joseph's eyes.
After serving as the assistant to the Finance Minister, he had gained a clear understanding of France's financial situation. A significant portion of the money borrowed by the government came from wealthy nobles, accounting for more than twenty percent.
If one also considered the money nobles deposited in banks and the state bonds they purchased, they were arguably the largest group of creditors to the government's debts.
That is to say, if the nobles were to stop providing funds to the government, the national finances would quickly become unsustainable. Historically, these characters had instigated the "Anti-Tax Alliance," using tax resistance to blackmail the Royal Family, and ultimately they succeeded.
No wonder Brian came hurrying to Paris to find himself; he truly feared the nobles would come to blows with the government.
Brian said with an anxious look, "Your Highness, shall we postpone the trial of Necker and have him pay a fine first..."
Joseph frowned, "What, are you scared by those nobles?"
"No, it's not that." Although Brian was saying "it's not that," his expression was filled with tension, "But you know, if they really did that, even if only a small half of them did, the finances would..."
Brian wanted to say more, but Joseph gestured towards his carriage, "Let's go to the Palace of Versailles and discuss it on the way."
The carriage started slowly, and inside, Joseph asked, "Archbishop Brienne, have there been similar commotions caused by bank bankruptcies before?"
Brian shook his head in recollection, "Your Highness, it was usually just one bank with problems, and since it wasn't related to any case, the bankruptcy process wasn't so swift, giving people time to manage their investments in the bank."
"But this time Belanger Bank collapsed too quickly, and with over a dozen more banks facing bankruptcy soon after, everyone is terrified." Continue your story on freewebnovel.com
Joseph nodded, "So, the reason the nobles are reacting so furiously is because Belanger Bank did not settle its debts, nor did it announce a plan to offset debts with credits, abandoning all their investors?"
"Precisely, Your Highness."
Joseph narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment, then continued, "So, if someone were to acquire Belanger Bank now and promise the nobles to acknowledge and repay their investments, they'd immediately be satisfied and disperse?"
Brian said with a pained expression, "But as it stands, nobody is willing to buy it, because no one knows how much the bank will have to pay in fines..."
He paused as if realizing something, "You mean, to waive its fines?"
Joseph immediately shook his head; if those involved banks weren't penalized, wouldn't that mean allowing them to sheer millions or even hundreds of millions of livres off the government for nothing!
The current problems all focused on how to pay the nobles' investments.
He reviewed all the banking and financial operations from future knowledge, yet found no ready-made solution. Brian was even more clueless, only able to look at him with a frown.
As trees and buildings whipped past the window, Joseph thought about the various ways these great nobles had previously hampered him and damaged the country, and he felt a surge of anger.
He punched his fist onto the seat, grinding his teeth, "Just confiscate all those bastards' money!"
He exhaled, knowing it was just a temperamental outburst...
Wait... a new thought occurred to him. Although he couldn't confiscate the nobles' money, he could delay payment to them!
If it could wait five or seven years for France's financial issues to alleviate, the country would be fully capable of paying off these debts.
Therefore, some tactics would be required to make the nobles "voluntarily" leave their money behind.
When it came to tactics, he immediately thought of "debt-to-equity swap," but felt it wasn't quite right; the shareholding system of that era was far from perfect, and it wouldn't be easy to handle such a large amount.
Then he considered a variation, something like a "debts-to-funds swap"...
As the carriage left Paris City, Joseph looked up at Brian with a smile, "If no one acquires it, then my Bank of France Reserve will make the purchase."
"Your bank?" Brian exclaimed in shock, "Your Highness, if you want to acquire Belanger Bank, not only will you need the acquisition costs, but you will also need to prepare a large sum to pay the investments the nobles might reclaim."
"And even if you manage to gather the funds to acquire Belanger Bank, there are still over a dozen more banks that are going to fail. You can't possibly acquire all of them, can you?"
Joseph smiled, "Why not? I indeed plan to acquire all of them."
"But where would you get such a vast amount of money?"
Joseph shook his head, "There won't be a need for much money."
"The banks' credits minus their debts generally result in an asset balance of several million to tens of millions of livres. And because of these cases, the government can impose fines equal to the value of these assets."
"Then the government can use the amount fined to invest in the Bank of France Reserve, allowing the bank to complete the acquisition at zero cost."
The so-called bank's credits were the loans lent out, most of which were to the government. The debts were the deposits from the public and the investments from the nobles. After offsetting the two, plus the bank's cash, tangible assets, and so on, one has the bank's net assets.
Brian patiently explained, "Your Highness, that is true in the ledger accounts. But once you've acquired those banks, if the nobles want to reclaim their investments, you will need to pay them. Meanwhile, the assets, which are loans to the government, cannot be recovered immediately."
Joseph calmly said, "As long as the nobles don't reclaim their investments, that will do."
Brian sighed, "Your Highness, but what if they don't cooperate with you? Especially after this recent turmoil, they'll surely feel that keeping their money in the bank is not safe enough..."
Joseph laughed and waved his hand, "Then it's not up to them."
Two hours later, the carriage stopped in the Marble Courtyard.
As soon as Joseph got out of the carriage, he heard someone outside the Palace of Versailles shouting loudly, "For the financial stability of France, the interrogation of Necker must be stopped!"
"Please, Your Majesty, grant us your mercy and leniency!"
"If banks keep going bankrupt, I'll never dare to buy government bonds again..."
"Right, and government loans too! We've got to hold tight to our own purses!"
Joseph looked at those excited nobles, couldn't help but chuckle, and signaled to Brian beside him, "Archbishop Brian, the door is about to be blocked by them, let us go to the Petit Trianon Palace first."
"Alright, Your Highness."
No sooner had they walked a short distance when they saw a plump figure, with wavy hair bouncing, trotting towards them.
"Count Mono?" Brian halted.
The Minister of the Interior bowed to Joseph and Brian in turn, then hesitated and said, "Your Highness, where are you going? I have some suggestions I'd like to discuss with you."
Joseph smiled, "We're going to see Queen Mary. You can join us. Oh, what is it you want to discuss?"
Mono hurried to catch up, with an apologetic smile, "Your Highness, regarding Necker's case, perhaps it might be better to postpone it for a while."
"Oh? Why?"
"Look, many nobles will suffer huge losses because of this. You have to be their advocate, right? This is definitely a good opportunity to enhance the prestige of the Royal Family."
Joseph glanced at him but said nothing.
Mono rambled on for a while, realizing he couldn't bluff his way through, and could only wring his plump hands and laugh dryly:
"Your Highness, actually, I also have some investments in Klassen Bank.
"Of course, I've already requested to withdraw the money, but as you know, the bank needs 20 days to raise the funds. If we could continue with Necker's case after 20 days..."
"How much did you invest?"
"Ah, it was over 700,000 livres."
Joseph rubbed his forehead and said coldly, "You know how much of an impact Necker's affair has. At this time, is it your choice to support me or your 700,000?"
Mono's forehead beaded with sweat as he said with difficulty, "Of, of course I support you. You know I always follow your orders. But the bank..."
"That's good." Joseph gestured towards the Petit Trianon Palace, "Come with me later to persuade Queen Mary."
"Ah? Persuade Her Majesty about what?"
"To step forward and establish the 'French Industrial Development Fund'."
One hour later.
Queen Mary looked at the three men before her, finally turning to Brian and said, "Are you sure this 'Industrial Development Fund' will keep those people outside from bothering me?"
Brian hurriedly responded, "Yes, Your Majesty, I guarantee it."
Joseph added, "It will also significantly reduce the national debt."
The opinions of two Cabinet Ministers, highly trusted by the two Queens, convinced her, and she finally nodded, "Then fine, do it as you say. After all, it doesn't require any government money."
She furrowed her brows slightly, "However, what Archbishop Brian just said about those 'funds,' 'bonds,' and the like is a bit complicated, I'm not certain if I can remember it all by morning."
Joseph immediately interjected, "I can assist you with that."
The Queen immediately smiled and touched his head, "Dear, your mind is always so sharp, I'm simply green with envy. You shall explain it tomorrow then."
When the three of them came out from the Petit Trianon Palace, Joseph gestured to Brian, "Archbishop Brian, then please trouble you to announce to the nobles as discussed earlier."
"Very well, Your Highness."
Brian left, and Joseph turned to Mono, "To be honest, I never expected you would disrupt my arrangement for a bit of money."
Mono was startled and hurriedly said, "Your Highness, please forgive me, I didn't mean to..."
Joseph raised his hand to interrupt him, "Rest assured, your money will not be less, and it will even become more. Especially your shares in the Bank of France Reserve, the future profits will be enough for you to live in luxury for a lifetime."
He left the Minister of the Interior with a bewildered face and hurried towards Louis XVI's workshop.
The King was much easier to talk to than Queen Mary. Joseph took just over ten minutes to persuade him to attend the "Industrial Development Fund" briefing tomorrow.
In fact, during those ten minutes, more than half of the time was spent helping Sixteen overcome the fear he would face when confronting dozens or hundreds of people.
...
North Africa.
In a fortress-like prison to the east of the Mitidja area of Algiers.
Charles listlessly piled the dust on the ground into a small castle, occasionally turning his head to look at the tiny air vent behind him.
The sunlight seeping in through it let him know that he had been locked up in this damned place for a full eight months. Explore new worlds at freewebnovel
The shipmates who had been captured with him had already been ransomed one by one or had turned into corpses.
Only he had not been able to return.
Not because no one cared about him, quite the contrary, because, as the first mate of the "Golden Wheat," he had become the most valuable person on the ship after the captain had died in the pirate attack that day.
To be honest, he didn't like his "noble" price at all, because it meant the Congress couldn't come up with enough money to ransom him.
The sound of dragging footsteps came from the end of the gloomy corridor. Charles hurriedly lay on the ground and peered through a crack in the wall towards the neighboring cell. It was empty.
He became somewhat anxious, kicked the bars of the cell fiercely, and then lowered his voice to call out, "Ali! Ali, the guard is coming, did you hear me?"
As the legs of the owner of the dragging footsteps appeared from the shadows, a corner of the bed in the neighboring cell was pushed open, and a stalwart middle-aged man with a beard poked his head out.
The man moved swiftly, "hissed" through a hole beneath the bed in one second, covered the hole with debris, and posed as if seated on the bed.
The guard happened to walk up to Ali's cell door, glanced indifferently inside, and shoved a piece of dry bread and a bowl of yellow-green soup, the ingredients of which were unknown, through the small opening under the cell door.
He then delivered the same lunch to Charles and lazily walked on to the next cell.
Charles lay on the ground looking towards the neighboring cell, saw the bearded man eagerly eating the dry bread, and finally breathed a sigh of relief, "Hey! Can you be a little more alert? I thought I would never be able to talk to you again."
Ali, speaking English with a strange accent, laughed, "Don't worry, I always know the position of the guards. I was just trying to work a bit longer."
"Oh, but you'll have to find someone else to chat with in the future."
"Find someone else?" Charles sat up in surprise, "What's wrong with you? Are you going to be hanged?"
"Look at what you're saying?" Ali grumbled while chewing the bread, lowering his voice, "In three days or less, I'll be able to escape."
"Someone is willing to pay the ransom for you?" Charles felt somewhat sad, "But congratulations to you. Although besides you, there's no one else here who speaks English to talk to me. I'll miss you."
Ali grimaced, "No one is paying for me. But my tunnel is about to break through."
"A tunnel? Haha," Charles laughed, "Do you really think it's possible to escape from this hellish place by digging a tunnel?
"This is the most well-guarded prison in Algiers!"
He once again lay down to get closer to the crack in the wall, "Do you know? Even the Pasha of Tunisia was locked up here. Oh, they say in some cell upstairs. Do you think just because you've been digging for two months, you can escape from here? Haha."
Ali muttered disdainfully, "Obviously you've never lived in Mitidja."
"Yeah, I'm American, it's my first time here," Charles shrugged, "Invited by the warm and hospitable pirate gentlemen."
"So you don't know, the Pasha of Tunisia escaped more than a decade ago. The guards in this prison are fools, it's easy to slip away."
"What? He escaped?" Charles's eyes widened, "How is that possible?"
"Everyone in Mitidja knows about it," Ali gestured upwards, "The one locked there is a fake, to fool the Guard during inspections."