I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 881 Italian Competition

McGovern suddenly fell into his chair, his eyes unfocused.

1 million, this number is really too big, he simply does not have so much "ammunition" in his hands.

He borrowed nearly 3 million francs in total, and with the interest he had to pay, he had mortgaged all the gold he had.

Yes, although he submitted an application for the exchange of more than 5 million francs of gold, due to the "long-distance transportation clause", 7 million francs of gold would have to wait for more than ten days to be delivered.

He was now out of ammunition and food.

"No! I won't give up!" Lord McGovern suddenly jumped up with a roar, took out a piece of letter paper from the drawer with trembling hands, and shook his head continuously, "I will apply for funds from Mr. Wilberforce! If there is another 50 pounds, the French will definitely not be able to hold on! Yes, 50 pounds!"

He quickly finished writing the letter, stamped it, sealed it with wax, and waved to the attendant at the door: "Thomas, send it to the embassy immediately and have Mr. Harriet send it to London! Quick!"

As his attendant went out with the letter, several carriages passed by McGovern's window.

The Minister of Finance of Milan in the car kept urging the driver: "Mr. Bianchi, go faster!

"Damn the rainstorm! We were supposed to be the first to arrive in Paris. But now the Parma people have gotten there first..."

"Yes, Baron Colombo. The French Reserve Bank is just ahead."

The driver immediately swung his whip, leaving an afterimage, and the carriage sped past, scaring passers-by and making them scream.

Fortunately, the products of the Gem Carriage Factory are of excellent quality, otherwise the axle would have broken long ago if the carriage had been speeding with such a heavy load of gold coins.

Baron Colombo had already seen the side door of the Bank of France. He was thinking that after completing the exchange procedures, he should still have time to go to the Palace of Versailles to meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. Suddenly, he saw several carriages rushing out from the right and cutting in front of him without any hesitation.

The driver Bianchi hurriedly tightened the reins and shouted, "Oh!"

The cars coming from the side brushed past his horse's nose and then stopped steadily outside the VIP channel of the Bank of France.

Baron Colombo saw the emblem on the car and was so angry that he slammed the car: "These shameless Modenese! Shameless!"

They had arrived in Paris a week earlier, but Archbishop Briand asked them to wait in the suburbs.

They were just notified yesterday that they can start redeeming.

But Baron Colombo's carriage got stuck in a puddle of water and was delayed for half a day, and today he was overtaken by the people of Modena.

He knew that it would take a lot of time to count so many gold coins. By the time the people of Modena had moved all the gold coins, he would definitely not have enough time to go to the Palace of Versailles.

This is likely to give His Royal Highness the Crown Prince the impression that Milan is not paying attention to his requests.

Both Milan and Modena have been coveting the Papal Province of Ferrara. Seeing that the security organization's army is about to control the entire Ferrara, now is the time when the competition is most intense.

This small mistake may cause Ferrara to miss out on Milan.

Soon, the attendant came to Baron Colombo's car and whispered to him, "Master, I heard that the Modena people brought 900 million ducats."

Colombo heaved a sigh of relief.

900 million ducats is only 1 million francs, and he brought gold coins worth 1 million francs.

Humph, the poor guy from Modena still wants to compete with Milan?
He remembered the French government's motivation for asking Italian countries to bring gold coins to exchange for francs, and a brilliant idea suddenly popped into his mind.

In the long queue outside the Bank of France, Mrs. Colamo watched as people kept leaving the queue and asked the middle-aged man in front of her in surprise: "Mr. Durak, you see, many people have gone back. Maybe the government really won't ban the exchange of gold." They had been queuing together for a day and had become familiar with each other.

The middle-aged man looked at the Modena people who were unloading the gold coins, and shook his head in thought:

"The gold coins brought by the Italians may not be able to fill the gap in the French Reserve Bank. It is safer for us to get gold."

Mrs. Colamo looked at the long line ahead and sighed, "Well, it looks like we'll have to stay here for at least another day. I hope Miss Maria won't find someone else to take my job."

She was a laundress and her biggest customer was the noble lady Maria.

But competition for laundry jobs was fierce, and she wanted to get back to work right away. Even if Miss Maria didn't fire her, she would at least lose two days' wages.

That meant two fewer meals of mashed potatoes with olive oil for her children.

Just then, the Modena people had finished moving their gold coins, and several carriages immediately stopped outside the side door of the French Reserve Bank.

A Milanese official got out of the car and asked his servant to carry down a box of gold coins. He opened it in public and said loudly in French: "The first box, 5 ounces of gold coins. Please check."

Someone brought a scale and started weighing right away.

Although there were more than a dozen guards between them, the people around could still barely see that the weight stopped at around 8 ounces.

The Milan official continued, "The next box will still contain 5 ounces of gold coins."

The "public display" lasted for nearly an hour. Mrs. Colamo looked at Mr. Durak again and asked uncertainly, "How many gold coins did those Italians move in just now?"

Drucker had never learned arithmetic, so he looked around for help.

Finally, a young man shouted: "A total of 13 ounces of gold, worth about 8 million francs."

The people in the queue suddenly became quiet.

Most of them had no idea how much 1 million francs were, but they knew that it was a huge amount of gold coins.

Several groups of Italians have already moved gold coins into the French Reserve Bank today. How much do they add up to?

Mrs. Colamo and Mr. Dulac looked at each other, and then nodded to him decisively: "I don't want to delay here any longer. If I go back now, I may be able to wash the clothes for the evening. Mr. Dulac, I hope to have the opportunity to see you again."

There were many people who had similar ideas as her, and one third of the people queuing to exchange gold soon left.

On the second floor of the French Reserve Bank, the supervisor in charge of directing the "shills" pretending to be queuing saw this and hurried to discuss with Mr. Lafayette, signaling the "shills" to disperse as well.

Now the team that was originally more than a mile long was reduced to only two or three hundred people.

In the Cloud Cafe, someone said to the man in black who came to give a speech every day:
"Mr. Philip, didn't you read the newspaper? The Count of Provence exchanged a large amount of gold just to buy plantations in America."

Another person continued: "I think there will be no problem with the franc. I heard that the Italians exchanged gold coins for tens of millions of francs in order to facilitate business in the 'Common Market'."

The man in black interrupted them angrily: "What do you know? Francs are just waste paper..."

Before he finished speaking, four policemen walked in from the front and back doors of the cafe at the same time, surrounded him, and said in a cold voice: "You are arrested for 'spreading rumors' and 'maliciously interfering with the market'. You can contact a lawyer, but you have to come with us now."

(End of this chapter)