I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1101 Liquidation
The London futures market experienced a major shock.

Everyone was talking about the massive defaults on contracts in Prussia, and no one dared to touch any contracts involving the German region anymore.

Fortunately, sugar delivery at the Port of London is still proceeding normally, which allows the futures exchange to barely maintain operations.

Robert Cooper Trading Company, which mainly deals in sugar in Prussia, has received hundreds of lawsuits with total damages exceeding £70 and still rising.

Meanwhile, people were still taking on all the sugar contracts – Rothschild and others had raised enough funds to buy 50 dan of sugar, but only bought 30 dan, far short of the expected amount.

Well, their share was snapped up early by panicked British citizens.

In an office opposite the London Futures Exchange, Petty stared at the desk as if a fountain of sugar would suddenly appear there.

“Your Excellency,” the assistant cautiously suggested, “shall we continue with the contract offerings?”

Just now, the last thousand dan (a unit of weight) of sugar for the Port of London has been sold. At this point, there is no more sugar available for purchase on the futures exchange.

Petty's hands clenched so tightly that the veins stood out, and his eyes were bloodshot.

He originally held more than 40 dan of sugarcane, enough to drain France's short-selling funds, but the day before yesterday Boris sent back a report saying that Prussia refused to sell sugarcane, and there would be a large number of defaults on the contracts there.

This caused him to lose 400,000 dan of sugar from Prussia. At this point, he only had less than 23,000 dan of Indian sugar left, while French capital was eyeing this last bit of stock.

He suddenly let out a low, defiant growl. Why had the Prussians betrayed Britain when victory was assured?!
The French had already invested over 180 million francs! This was far beyond France's financial capacity, but then it went bankrupt...

France has regained its monopoly on the sugar trade, and it is conceivable that sugar prices on the Paris futures market will soon rise to a high of 4 or even 5 francs per pound.

At that time, France will be able to immediately plug its fiscal deficit by selling off the cheap sugar it had previously purchased from London.

"Your Excellency..."

"Shut up!" Petty roared at his assistant, turned around, grabbed his hat, and slammed the door shut as he left.

10 Downing Street.

The faces of the British cabinet ministers were all grim.

“Damn Prussians,” Foreign Minister Fox gritted his teeth, “how dare they betray us!”

Petty chimed in, "I heard that the French threatened them with beet seeds..."

“These idiots!”

"We can't just let this go!"

Grenville raised his hand to interrupt the crowd's angry rebukes and said to Fox, "Go to Berlin immediately and tell the Prussians that refusing to keep a promise is unacceptable."

"Yes, Your Excellency the Prime Minister."

Petty whispered again, "But there are at least 100,000 dan of contracts that need to be settled within the next half month, and we will definitely default..."

Everyone fell silent immediately.

After a long pause, Petty turned to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and asked, "Lord Petty, how much sugar do we have in our warehouses in the Port of London?"

The latter paused for a moment, then said, "About 10 dan, or 15 dan. I need to do some calculations." Futures contracts only become actual transactions long after purchase; until then, they are merely contracts on paper. Therefore, a considerable amount of sugar is still piled up in the warehouse.

Peter Jr. then turned to Grenville: "Your Excellency, it seems we have lost control of the sugar market. So, we should try to cut our losses now."

"what do you mean?"

Pete Jr. took a deep breath and said, "Immediately halt sugar deliveries from the London warehouse and transfer all defaulted contracts to Robert Cooper Trading Company."

Futures trading does not require the identities of the buyers and sellers to be disclosed. Only after a default occurs will the defaulting party's specific information be provided so that the other party can pursue compensation for losses.

Therefore, if the London Futures Exchange engages in underhanded practices, it can concentrate all the default orders onto a single company.

Glenville's pupils contracted: "No, no, this is absolutely unacceptable! Robert Cooper Trading Company has assets of over £60, and it belongs to His Majesty the King..."

Pete raised his voice and said, "If we don't give it up, our losses will only be greater!"
“Using the remaining 100,000 dan of sugar to offset sugar subsidies would save the national treasury 500,000 to 600,000 pounds. But using it to fulfill the contract would yield nothing.”

His meaning was clear: make Robert Cooper Trading Company bear the burden of default, then declare bankruptcy, void all undelivered contracts, and the maximum penalty for breach of contract would be £60 for the liquidation company.

Moreover, it can preserve the reputation of the London Futures Exchange to the greatest extent possible.

“This… is too risky…” Glenville shook his head repeatedly, but soon said dejectedly, “I will report this to His Majesty the King.”

King George III received the news, but had no other choice—giving up a trading company was better than losing everything.

The UK has already invested 60 dan of sugar in its attempt to short sugar prices, incurring losses of nearly £200 million. Continuing to hold on will only benefit French short-selling capital.

He felt that even ten treatments couldn't compare to the torment this had caused him, and waved his hand at Glenville, saying, "You handle it as you see fit."

The royal family's quarterly stake in Robert Cooper Trading Company, worth £15, will also vanish.

The following day, the headlines of all London newspapers were: Robert Cooper Trading Company faces huge fines and will declare bankruptcy due to massive forgery of numerous fake futures contracts.

Three or four hundred sugar merchants from various countries who were trading sugar in London immediately erupted in a cacophony of curses.

Although they did not suffer direct losses—futures transactions are actually paid for at the time of delivery—many people would miss business opportunities and waste a lot of time in London.

Immediately, apart from the sugar merchants who needed to fight a compensation lawsuit with Robert Cooper Trading Company, everyone immediately thought of another place where they could buy large quantities of sugar – Paris.

The day after Robert Cooper declared bankruptcy, sugar prices on the Paris futures market surged to 3.6 francs per pound.

Moreover, the daily supply volume is less than 5 dan.

Yes, Joseph knew better than anyone the power of scarcity marketing.

The more urgently the market needs a certain commodity, the more likely it is to create the illusion of insufficient supply.

In any case, French citizens buy government-subsidized sugar with their ID cards, so they are completely unaffected by the price in the futures market.

As a result, just three days later, sugar prices in Paris reached a terrifying high of 5 francs.

The London futures market immediately followed suit, soaring to 5 francs and 2 sous per pound, but there was still no market for it – at this time, almost all of Europe's sugar supply was controlled by France.

(End of this chapter)