Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 52: Bank of France Reserve (Added for Finance Uncle Ning)

Joseph had just acquired a small bank on the verge of bankruptcy two days ago and then renamed it to the Bank of France Reserve. The entire renaming and registration process was fast, after all, he had connections in the court.

The bank’s storefront and personnel were already in place, so it had started normal operations from yesterday.

The next day, the Paris Stock Exchange, at Brent’s request and after receiving a handsome fee, dedicated five additional dealers specifically for the business of Paris Angel Company.

The speed of stock transactions immediately picked up, and by 4 p.m., close to closing time, a mysterious buyer suddenly appeared and snapped up the remaining 430,000 shares of Paris Angel Company.

When the transaction information “Buy, Paris Angel Company, 2 livres, 430,150 shares, for a total of 860,300 livres.” appeared, the entire trading floor went silent for a moment.

After about ten seconds, the trading information board displayed: “For sale, Paris Angel Company, 2 livres 2 sous, 40 shares, for a total of 84 livres.”

The record of these 40 shares being bought immediately appeared below.

Soon, more sell orders emerged, and in less than ten minutes, the asking price had reached 2 livres 5 sous, with all shares being instantly bought up.

The next morning, the share price of Paris Angel Company opened directly at the high of 2 livres 8 sous, but it was still in short supply, and stock trading suddenly became lively.

At the trading floor, a young American surrounded by seven or eight bodyguards sat in a corner observing the trading information.

After a moment, he signaled his assistant with a glance, who immediately approached the dealer and placed a sale of 8,000 shares at 3 livres each.

The investors didn’t pay much attention, as the price was too high, and it seemed unlikely they would be sold.

However, within three minutes, these 8,000 shares were all bought up in three separate purchases.

All present holding stocks realized something was amiss—the stock price was surely worth much more if someone promptly bought them no matter how high they were offered. In an instant, everyone started to hold back from selling.

Afterward, the American directed his subordinates to make more than a dozen buys and sales, mostly selling stocks themselves and then buying them back under a different guise, with the sale price increasing each time.

After the closing, the American youth, along with his bodyguards, went to a nearby upscale hotel, double-locked the room door, placed a large stack of notes on the table, and began to reconcile accounts with Joseph’s personal accountant.

Yes, this person was the operator Joseph had hired, with all of the bodyguards being from the Royal Guard.

Due to restrictions from countries such as England and France on company stock sales, the unrestricted United States had become a paradise for stock trading, giving birth to many stock market prodigies.

Thanks to their skilled manipulation, the closing price had already reached nearly 3 livres 5 sous.

The headlines of Paris’s newspapers were almost all frantically reporting on the stock price of Paris Angel. Now it wasn’t just Paris; even people from nearby provinces were rushing to buy stocks, and a massive amount of capital flooded into the stock exchange.

By the sixth day of Paris Angel’s stock offering, when the share price of Paris Angel Company hit 4 livres 5 sous, a large number of sell orders surfaced. However, once the stock price started to slide, someone would immediately step in to buy in bulk and stabilize the price.

Just after noon, the American operator sold the last batch of 100,000 shares and then left the crowded place, looking relieved.

Under Joseph’s direction, through his buy-low sell-high operations, he had also sold 200,000 original shares belonging to Joseph, altogether acquiring 6.15 million livres in funds!

Inside the office of the Finance Minister at the Palace of Versailles, Joseph looked at the loan agreement in front of him with an easy smile, finding it somewhat amusing. He was both an assistant to the Finance Minister of one party and simultaneously the owner of the Bank of France Reserve of the other party; he was literally dealing with himself.

Finally, he, representing the French Government, signed a loan contract with himself for 6 million livres, at an interest rate of merely 15%.

The payment of funds was not an issue; at that moment, more than 8.1 million livres lay quietly in the account of the Bank of France Reserve.

Royal Palace.

The Duke of Orleans looked at the headline of the Paris News on the table— “Crown Prince Struggles to Address Financial Distress, Government Debt Looming Default.” He suddenly grabbed the newspaper and tore it into pieces with force.

This was the newspaper from the day before yesterday.

He had received the news this morning that the 6 million livres national debt had been fully paid off, with funds flowing out of that Bank of France Reserve.

Half an hour ago, representatives from Ravel Bank and Labod Bank had just left. To appease both banks, he had no choice but to allocate more of the British business to them.

The Duke of Orleans couldn’t help but recall a month ago, at that party, where he had used the opportunity to introduce major French banks to invest in the British automatic spinning machine project, asking the two banks to thwart the 6 million livres loan and get other banks to cooperate as well.

At that time, he thought it would only take a simple maneuver and the Crown Prince would surely be out of options since the leading figures of the entire French finance industry were by his side at the table. As long as they agreed, no one else could possibly get a large loan from a bank.

Unexpectedly, that young man managed to secure the funds.

Soon after, the butler knocked and entered, saluting the Duke of Orleans: “My lord, we’ve found out that the bank was originally called Seltor Bank and had just been acquired by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince a few days ago.”

The acquisition information of the bank was public and easy to check.

The Duke of Orleans immediately furrowed his brows—how was this possible? How could the Crown Prince manage to come up with a bank with a capital of 6 million? How did he do it?