The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1505: One Hundred Thousand Pounds
The aristocratic officials in the colonies were even more eager for this golden signboard. After all, for these declining aristocrats, this was almost their only capital worth showing off.

Franz also understood the underlying logic, and those colonial officials could also benefit. In addition, the Australian company also formed a mining protection team to maintain local law and order and deter some scoundrels.

Some of these mining protection teams were mercenaries from the Austrian Empire, and some were regular troops from the Southern Ming Dynasty. Although there were many local criminal families that even gave the British colonial government a headache, they were still far inferior to the real army.

Franz's goal was to migrate the entire Southern Ming to Australia, so mining alone was far from enough.

Agriculture and animal husbandry must also be developed, and the local colonial government is very welcome to this, especially after seeing more taxes and population, they have even less objections, after all, these indicators are political achievements.

The number of Nan Ming laborers in Australia has grown from the original 20,000 to nearly 100,000. Every year, a steady stream of gold flows into the treasury of the Austrian Imperial Royal Family, and countless grains and wool are sold all over the world under the banner of the British royal family.

Franz got gold and the land of Southern Ming, while Southern Ming got a new world. The British royal family became richer and restored its influence.

It's a win-win deal for all three parties.
But the British government always suffers.

London, City of Finance.

In the week following the announcement, the British government and major banks were quietly converting silver into gold.

But the game of passing the parcel eventually came to an end. Suddenly, all the major banks began to sell silver at the same time, and the false price could no longer be sustained.

Overnight, the price of precious metals in the UK was successfully aligned with that in Europe, countless people went bankrupt, and the number of corpses in the Thames increased.

However, Chancellor of the Exchequer Charles Wood and Prime Minister John Russell were not at all relieved for having survived the disaster, because as the price of gold rose, Britain's economic crisis would be further aggravated.

After the European Monetary Union carried out the gold standard reform, the United Kingdom had to follow suit and purchase gold, otherwise it would be difficult to maintain its current trade scale.

Once the scale of trade shrinks, the British economy will enter another cold winter.

The continuous vicious cycle will completely destroy the British economy, and the UK will then be forced to give up its economic hegemony and even be charged seigniorage by the European Monetary Union.

In addition to economic problems, political and military issues also made John Russell feel overwhelmed.

From the island of Ireland next to us to Australia on the other side of the world, from America to Asia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the British have difficulty moving forward on every inch of land, and many problems have not even been solved for a long time and have become rotten sores of the country.

The United States, France, Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, every great power was eyeing Britain, and even the indigenous people who were supposed to be at the mercy of others rose up to resist Britain.

At the same time, domestic workers' issues are becoming more and more complicated, and the organization and discipline of those peasants have obviously improved a lot.

The British royal family is also regaining its influence, which is not a good thing for the British government. They have to compete with the royal family for influence, and restricting the royal family has always been the tradition of the British government.

It was impossible for the royal family to inject funds into the government like in the Austrian Empire. In this difficult time, John Russell had to be wary of the royal family and even consider how to weaken it.

John Russell had now begun to consider seriously Palmerston's evaluation of him.

"Am I really not suitable to be the Prime Minister?"

Windsor Castle.

Prince Albert rarely let go of his burdens, enjoyed a leisurely afternoon, and even had a drink.

The attentive Queen Victoria certainly couldn't have failed to notice this.

"My dear, what makes you so happy? Have you discovered any amazing inventions?"

Victoria vaguely remembered that the last time Prince Albert was so happy was because the Royal Navy successfully copied the Austrian airship, which made Britain the second country in the world to have an airship force.

Victoria and her husband decided to wait until the World Industrial Expo to shock the world. Victoria even thought about appearing on the scene herself in an airship, but was stopped by relevant personnel on the grounds of safety.

What a joke! Given the safety factor of the airship, if the queen crashed directly, it would be a big joke.

But this time Victoria obviously guessed wrong, and Prince Albert brought out a small wooden box.

Victoria immediately became happy and kissed her husband on the face, looking at the wooden box with shining eyes. "What is it?"

Albert took out a key and handed it to Victoria.

"open to take a look."

Victoria quickly opened the wooden box, and inside lay a set of diamond jewelry that looked extremely expensive. She quickly put it on like she had on her wedding day, but she didn't pay any attention to the list below.

"is it beautiful?"

Victoria asked ostentatiously, although they were already an old married couple, they still had passion, as evidenced by their seven children born out of wedlock.

"Of course it's beautiful!"

The two of them flirted with each other for a while, and Victoria finally realized what was going on and asked.

"Why do you want to give me a gift?"

Prince Albert smiled mysteriously and emphasized.

"This is not a gift, this is our reward."

Victoria frowned and thought for a moment, but she couldn't remember.

"Payment? I don't remember what we did."

"Have you forgotten? Our Uncle Leopold approached us about a business deal."

“Did he really make money?”

Victoria shouted excitedly. In fact, she still hoped that her uncle would be lucky. After all, he was the guide of their love.

Prince Albert nodded and said.

"Yes, Leopold found gold mines in Australia. And more than one!"

"Really? That's wonderful! God bless you."

Victoria was truly happy for Leopold at this moment, but she soon noticed something even more surprising.

"These are from Uncle Leopold?"

"That's right! In addition to these jewelry, there is also a list of items below."

Prince Albert picked up Victoria, and Victoria took out the list and read it aloud.

"96 step-cut diamonds, 120 rose-cut diamonds, 32 Hawaiian black pearls, Ceylon sapphires, Burmese rubies"

The front of the list is normal, but the back is weird.

"30 pianos, sewing machines, bicycles."

Victoria was confused.

"What is all this? Why not just pay by check? That would be much more convenient."

"Uncle Leopold knows you like diamonds. And that's his genius. How else can you get around those demons in the government?

Those damned power animals, they are going crazy trying to restrict us."