I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1102 Making Money Quickly Through Futures Trading
Swansea coal mine in South Wales, UK.

More than 170 meters underground in the mine, old David, on all fours, frantically pounded on the ventilation door at the front of the passage, shouting, "Jamie! Open the door, Jamie!"

Airlock doors are partitions in mines used to prevent excessive accumulation of methane and carbon dioxide. A child would always be waiting behind the door to open and close it for the coal miners.

However, there was no response from the other side of the door.

In the pitch-black tunnel, old David turned around and encouraged his fellow workers behind him: "It's okay, the child is just asleep."

He was completely unaware that they were in dire straits.

Jamie's family hadn't had sugar cookies or sweetened tea for a week. The lack of sufficient sugar intake made it impossible for him to work 17 hours a day.

He had fainted half an hour earlier.

His small, thin body was stuck at the corner of the tunnel, blocking the air vent.

It wasn't until close to the end of the workday, around 8 p.m., that the mine manager discovered four people were missing during roll call and immediately ordered a search party to go down the mine.

Two hours later, old David and Jamie were finally rescued.

David's two coworkers, however, had become corpses. After curling up in the tunnel for more than an hour, David finally collapsed from exhaustion, and the coal cart he was dragging, weighing over 100 kilograms, slid backward, crushing the two men behind him to death.

At the Eves textile mill in Manchester, Julia hangs the shuttle on its frame, but faintly hears Thomas proposing to her.

She turned around in surprise, only to see a large expanse of bright red.

Those weren't flowers Thomas had given her, but her blood—in a daze, she leaned against the rapidly spinning automatic loom, and her arm was immediately caught in the gears.

In the London suburbs, Mrs. Ricky's seven-year-old son is barely breathing. He fell yesterday afternoon while cleaning the roof.

The little boy, lying on the bed, reached out and weakly tugged at his mother's clothes, saying, "Mommy, can I have a sugar cake?"

Mrs. Ricky kept wiping away her tears, but could only shake her head.

All the sugar in the house must be reserved for my husband, otherwise he might be fired from the factory at any time due to exhaustion, and then the other two children in the family would starve to death...

Sugar is the "fuel" for the British. Currently, even with government subsidies, fuel costs 3.8 shillings per pound, and the price continues to rise.

Sugar consumption by ordinary households has dropped to one-third of last year's level.

In less than a month, chaos erupted in London.

Next to the sugar shop on Whitechapel Street, three policemen blew their whistles and waved their batons at the surging crowd, but the people, as if possessed, smashed the shop's door with the batons and then ran away with sugar in their clothes.

A march of thousands of people took place in front of St. James's Palace, demanding that the government control sugar prices.

Yes, these people were organized by the factory owners. Although British workers' lives were not considered valuable, their constant physical exhaustion severely impacted productivity.

Meanwhile, in the Palace of Versailles, Joseph was sipping green tea, while Godan, sitting on the sofa opposite him, was reporting the results of the recent short-selling operation: "As you instructed, by yesterday afternoon, 3,000 tons of sugar had been sold, generating a floating profit of 16 million francs. Currently, there are still 1,900 tons of sugar remaining."

Joseph had previously squeezed out more than 20 million francs from the French treasury to buy very cheap sugar in London.

Now that the price of sugar has risen to his target price, he has started to ship the goods.

This was also to appropriately control the price and prevent it from becoming too outrageous, otherwise it could easily provoke protests from allies such as Italy and Spain.

Even so, his profit margin was as high as 117%. Once all the sugar he had was sold, he should be able to make a net profit of more than 25 million francs.

This was only because he entered the market early due to his strategy of targeting short sellers; otherwise, his profits would have been even higher. However, entering early also had its advantages; most of the contracts he bought were successfully settled—at that time, the British short sellers were far from being liquidated.

As for the speculative capital such as Rothschild that entered the market later, although they obtained the chips at a cheaper price, only about 6% of Joseph's purchase price, nearly half of them failed to complete the transaction due to the British reneging on their promises, and they could only receive some compensation.

After Gordan finished his report, Joseph gave him some instructions on controlling sugar prices, and then the latter left.

After lunch, Emmanuel, accompanied by the Crown Prince's private accountant, placed a large stack of bank drafts in front of him.

Even the accountant, who was used to seeing large sums of money, kept swallowing hard. He picked up the drafts one by one and explained, "Your Highness, this is the profit share sent by the Countess of Provence, totaling 39 francs..."

"This was sent by the Duke of Debrissa... a total of 40 francs..."

"And Count Magimel's... totaling 22 francs..."

"The Baroness of Montaire's... a total of 26 francs..."

Joseph raised his hand to interrupt him: "Just tell me the total."

“Oh, yes, Your Highness.” The accountant hurriedly pulled out the bill, glanced at it, and said, “It totals 8,724,000 francs.”

Joseph smiled and nodded: "Let's deposit it all into the French Reserve Bank first."

This money was the agreed-upon reward he received when he revealed the "business opportunity" to the Countess of Provence.

Well, although he only told three people, the other participants who received the news certainly wouldn't dare not hand over their share to His Highness the Crown Prince.

In fact, even Queen Marie Antoinette, who was among the first to enter the market, earned 78 francs in the sugar market and was now thinking about using that money to build a Notre Dame Cathedral in Saint-Domingo.

Emmanuel then gestured to the servants behind him who were carrying small wooden boxes: “Your Highness, this is an apology from the Countess of Provence and the Duke of Debris. They were afraid of being reprimanded by you, so they dared not come in person.”

Yes, these three are still living in fear because they leaked inside information about the Crown Prince.

Joseph glanced at the red and blue jewels in the box and waved his hand magnanimously: "Please go and tell them that I have forgiven them."

As he was speaking, a servant came from outside the door and said, "Your Highness, Monsieur Lavalette has arrived."

"Please let him in."

The accountant and the servant carrying an apology took their leave, and Lavallet stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, news has just arrived from London that riots have broken out in London, Birmingham, and other places recently due to rising sugar prices."

"Lieutenant Porter's report states that the United Irish Association intends to participate in the riot."

Joseph immediately shook his head: "This will only get their people locked up in jail, and it won't do anything else."

"Yes, Your Highness, I will order him to stop the Irish."

Joseph suddenly narrowed his eyes: "While participating in the riots is pointless, they can do something else."

"For example, spreading rumors that the rise in sugar prices was due to the British government."

"We could even use this opportunity to raise grain prices. We can coordinate this with the international market..."

Currently, the UK is experiencing imported inflation due to soaring sugar prices. If this is compounded by soaring grain prices, the livelihoods of the poor will certainly become even more difficult, potentially triggering more serious riots.

(End of this chapter)