I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 878 Victory is in sight (asking for monthly tickets!)
Joseph smiled calmly: "You may have underestimated the cohesion of the Mediterranean Security Organization."

Fouché's eyes suddenly showed a thoughtful look.

Joseph continued, "Especially now that all the Italian countries are asking our country for help, you don't have to worry about this problem."

In fact, if Joseph had not ordered the French army in Ferrara to suppress it deliberately, at least half of the Papal States would have been under the control of the security organization at this time.

The reason why we are not in a hurry to move forward is to first see the attitude of the Italian states and then decide how to distribute the benefits.

Moreover, Joseph knew very well that even if there was no motivation to divide the Papal States, there were still tens of thousands of Napoleon's troops stationed in Mantua.

Once the French government gave the green light, the northern Italian countries dared not fail to pay immediately.

Besides, they were only asked to exchange gold coins for francs instead of paying money directly to France, which meant there was even less resistance.

After completing the deployment of the financial counterattack, Joseph remembered one more thing and said to Brian:

"This time, Württemberg and other countries violated the loan agreement, which gave us a good diplomatic handle. We must make good use of it."

According to the original loan agreement, the francs provided by France to the southern German states could only be used to purchase goods and for domestic investment, but countries such as Württemberg secretly used them for lending.

This matter can be big or small. After all, it involves tens of millions of francs, so it is not excessive for France to be angry.

And unlike military action, such financial disputes would not pose a threat to other German states.

He thought for a moment and continued, "After this shorting of the franc is over, you should immediately calculate the amount of our country's losses and inform all European countries."

Loss? Brian was stunned. According to the plan of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, France should not suffer any loss...

He remembered that His Highness had just mentioned "diplomatic leverage", so he smiled knowingly and said, "Yes, Your Highness, I understand. The violation of the loan agreement by Württemberg and other countries is likely to cause a loss of hundreds of millions of francs to our country!"

……

In a luxurious building on the west side of the Saint-Antoine district in Paris, Lord McGovern looked at the huge castle-like building outside the floor-to-ceiling window and suddenly felt like an unrivaled god.

The former Bastille, now the Bank of France, has begun to crumble under his heavy blows. If this is not divine power, what is it?
He spent a large sum of money to rent a house opposite the headquarters of the French Central Bank just to be able to admire his own "achievements" at any time.

In recent days, whenever he saw Parisians queuing for a mile outside the Bank of France, waiting to exchange their francs for gold, he couldn't help but smile.

Yes, he was the man appointed by Britain's second chancellor of the exchequer, Wilberforce, to carry out the plan to destroy the franc.

The plan went very smoothly.

The unprecedented war obviously made France's financial situation very unfavorable. He only exchanged two-thirds of the 4 million francs he brought with him for gold, and spread some rumors, which caused the French to panic.

Now he doesn't need to do anything. Every day, wealthy French people take millions of francs to the French Reserve Bank to exchange for gold.

The French government's response was laughable.

Lord McGovern picked up today's Paris Business Daily and saw the front-page news: "There is no problem with the government's gold reserves. Citizens are advised not to believe in rumors."

"Oh, the masters of the Palace of Versailles don't understand the thoughts of ordinary people at all." He smiled disdainfully, "The more you emphasize 'no problem' in this kind of thing, the more suspicious people will be."

The door was pushed open, and McGovern's assistant, Bruni, a Frenchman of Italian descent, walked in quickly, bowed to him and said:
"Your Lordship, today's exchange data has been calculated. 5 ounces of gold were withdrawn from the French Reserve Bank alone, and other banks should also have tens of thousands of ounces." More than 4 ounces of gold is approximately 6 million francs.

McGovern's eyes lit up with ecstasy.

At the rate of 6 million francs a day, the French Reserve's gold reserves would be exhausted in five or six days at most.

"This is nearly 1 ounces more than the previous highest daily exchange volume." He put down the newspaper and looked at Bruni. "What happened?"

"Yes, sir." Bruni said proudly, "In order to show citizens that there are sufficient gold reserves, the French Reserve allows people to visit the vault.

“I noticed that their gold bars were in odd shapes, so I called in reporters and cut open a few of them in public.

"Guess what? One-third of the gold bars were hollow!
“Perhaps the French Reserve Bank was in a hurry to melt and cast it yesterday, so the appearance is a little collapsed, which is why I noticed it.

“After the news spread, people realized that the French government didn’t have much gold left, and the number of people coming to exchange their gold increased dramatically.

"I estimate that there will be even more people coming to withdraw money tomorrow."

However, just as McGovern was about to open champagne to celebrate, the Paris Business Daily suddenly published a piece of news - 40 ounces of gold transferred by the French Reserve Bank from Marseille, Lorraine and other places had arrived in Paris, and the shortage of gold reserves was alleviated.

Paris financial markets seemed to breathe a sigh of relief at the news.

Sure enough, the next day Bruni reported to him listlessly: "Your Excellency, today the French Reserve Bank received applications for gold exchange that dropped to 160 million francs."

McGovern frowned.

According to his estimation, the French Reserve Bank had less than 20 million francs of gold left, but the number of people going to the bank to exchange gold was decreasing rapidly.

Now it’s a competition of who can grit their teeth and persevere to the end!
He immediately pointed to the safe in the corner of the room and said to his assistant, "Exchange the last 600 million banknotes for gold. We must keep the bank run going!"

But the situation did not improve. After he invested 600 million, the run continued for another two days, and then dropped again to less than 100 million francs per day.

How could he know that more than half of the people who had previously run on the bank were arranged by the French government.

They publicly exchanged banknotes for gold during the day, returned the gold to the Bank of France at night, and started the process over again during the day to create the illusion of a severe bank run.

After the news of "gold arriving in Paris" came out, they stopped exchanging it in order to "provoke" the British mastermind behind the scenes.

McGovern was immediately distraught.

He operated for more than twenty days, and victory was in sight, but the French government held him back to his last breath!

Reluctantly, he wrote to Wilberforce, requesting an additional 80 pounds, which would surely destroy France's gold reserves.

But it would take at least a week to send a letter from Paris to London and back, and he had to keep the run going during that time.

McGovern looked at Bruni and said, "You have a high reputation in the Parisian financial community. I hope you can help me borrow 10 million francs in banknotes."

(End of this chapter)