I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1098 The Sugar War: Standoff
Petty looked at the Lloyd's of London intelligence officer in front of him: "So, the French are buying sugar?"

For the past three days, approximately 3 dan (a unit of weight) of sugar have been consumed daily by mysterious buyers. Petty then hired Lloyd's of London to investigate the origins of these buyers.

The intelligence officer nodded: "Although the people involved in the transactions are different, their funds are all transferred from French banks."

Petty, on the contrary, smiled.

"The French finally couldn't sit still anymore. Good, that makes things interesting."

He dismissed the Lloyd's men and immediately instructed his assistant to increase the daily amount of sugarcane released into the market to 4 dan (a unit of weight).

He knew very well that with France's financial resources, it was impossible for them to buy up all of his nearly one million dan of sugar.

That would require a staggering 3 million francs, a sum that even if France were to drain all its domestic banks, it still wouldn't be able to come up with.

Or if France were to exhaust its domestic liquidity for sugar, that would be a blessing in disguise for England—France would immediately face an economic crisis and subsequent financial collapse.

Soon, news from Paris confirmed his suspicions.

Sugar prices on the Paris futures exchange have remained at 2 shillings and 6 pence, and the French are clearly about to go all out.

As Petit had predicted, after he released 11 dan of sugar, French buyers backed down, and daily trading volume returned to around 6 dan.

Immediately afterwards, the price of sugar on the Paris futures exchange also dropped to 2 shillings and 4 pence per pound.

Petty called a small celebration for his officials.

"It's clear the French have conceded defeat." At the dinner, Petit raised his glass triumphantly. "Sugar prices are back under our control!"

"Starting tomorrow, the price of sugar in Europe will be reduced to 2 shillings per pound."

"To the great victory!"

Dozens of finance officials stood up, raised their glasses, and cheered loudly, instantly overwhelming Petty with sycophantic praise.

They simply didn't expect that France's counterattack was just an appetizer.

The funds that entered the market were all from the wealthy nobles of Versailles, totaling less than 3 million francs.

Yes, thanks to the Countess of Provence's strict "secrecy," more than thirty nobles knew about this rare investment opportunity.

They were initially somewhat skeptical, but after learning that Queen Mary had taken 120 million francs from her dowry to buy sugar in London, they immediately followed her in.

Well, Queen Mary doted on her son to an extreme degree. Joseph only had to beg a little, and she took out the money without hesitation.

At this time, Joseph still held more than 23 million francs in government and bank funds, but he was not in a hurry to get involved.

The sugar war has only been going on for less than a month and a half, and the Paris futures market can withstand it.

His goal was to make the British feel that they had won, so that they could continue to short sugar prices with confidence, thus reducing the cost of the sugar they consumed.

He will continue to feign defeat to lure the British into throwing out all their "ammunition," and then strike to eliminate the short sellers, thus inflicting the greatest losses on Britain.

a.

Sugar prices on the London futures exchange had fallen to 1 shilling and 7 pence per pound, which is close to 2 francs, and Joseph intervened again.

Petty was somewhat surprised to receive the news, but the more than 80 dan of sugarcane in his hands gave him ample confidence.

His orders to his men were very simple: “Release enough supplies and see how much money the French have raised this time.” For four consecutive days, the mysterious buyer returned empty-handed after purchasing 120,000 dan of sugar.

Petty looked at the inventory data, which was still as high as 70 dan, on the report, and a smug smile appeared on his face.

……

St Giles, West London.

As Mrs. Bowen hummed a tune and turned the corner, she was startled by the long queue that stretched for hundreds of feet.

Since sugar prices started to fall, the sugar shop has been mostly deserted – this is true for all goods; the lower the price, the fewer people buy.

Mrs. Bowen was hesitating whether to join the queue when she saw a woman at the end of the line waving at her:
"Mrs. Bowen, over here, come quick!"

She walked quickly over, frowned, and gestured to the long queue ahead: "Mrs. Mars, I think we'll be waiting until dark. Why don't we come back tomorrow?"

Mrs. Mars, her neighbor, immediately grabbed her tightly and said very seriously, "Haven't you heard? Sugar is going to go up in price. Tomorrow it might not be 1 shilling and 4 pence anymore."

Mrs. Bowen was somewhat surprised: "But sugar prices have been falling."

Mrs. Mars lowered her voice and said, "I heard there's fighting all over the Caribbean, and this year's harvest is almost nonexistent."

"French beets are suffering from a pest infestation, and the yield is expected to be reduced by half."

"Right now, everyone is saying that sugar prices will soon skyrocket, even surpassing the levels of last July."

"real?!"

“You know, my cousin works at the city hall,” Mrs. Mars said. “He heard that many foreigners are coming to London to buy sugar, sometimes buying hundreds of thousands of bushels at a time.”

"Currently, London is relying on government subsidies to keep sugar prices down, but who knows when that will break down?"

“I plan to buy 15 pounds this time to stock up. Oh, you’d better buy more too, so you can save a lot of money if the price goes up.”

Mrs. Bowen nodded nervously: "Okay, I'll do as you say."

Lord Spencer, the British Home Secretary, frowned as he looked at his subordinates: "What's going on lately? People are buying sugar like madmen."

An official in charge of market management hurriedly said, "Your Excellency, there have been rumors recently that sugar harvests in France and the Caribbean are poor, and sugar prices will skyrocket, which has caused panic."

Spencer roared, "Damn it, who's spreading this nonsense? Arrest the liar!"

The rumors were naturally spread by the Irish Association at Joseph's request.

They penetrated deep into British society, working as ordinary workers and officials in their daily lives, and their numbers were enormous.

With thousands of people spreading rumors in an organized and widespread manner, fears of a sugar shortage quickly arose in British society.

Given the efficiency of information dissemination in this era, let alone information about the distant Caribbean, even information about the French beet harvest is beyond the reach of ordinary British people, making it extremely difficult to debunk rumors.

Let alone 18th-century England, even in the 21st-century internet age, if someone spreads a rumor about a poor harvest of ginger or garlic, it will trigger panic buying, and it will take at least a month to debunk the rumor.

Meanwhile, the situation at the London Futures Exchange also corroborated the rumors of a poor harvest—the transactions that bought over 20 dan (a unit of weight) of sugar in just over half a month could be easily found.

If it weren't for the poor harvest, who would buy so much sugar?

(End of this chapter)