From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

"Uh, the one with the most money?"

The coachman glanced at Lawrence with a strange expression.

If he hadn't seen Lawrence walking out of the Palace of Justice, the coachman would have thought he was a thug going to rob a bank.

However, the coachman was still very sensible and didn't say much, and quickly drove the horses onto the street. After all, judging from Lawrence's attire, he must be either rich or noble.

After a journey of more than twenty minutes, the driver drove the carriage to a building only three hundred yards away from the Exchange Square.

"Sir, we are here, the headquarters of the Bank de la Commerz de France."

After stopping the carriage, the driver turned his head respectfully and said.

Lawrence didn't waste any time. He nodded slightly and threw him a few lifre silver coins. Then he jumped out of the carriage and walked quickly towards the bank.

The size of this bank building is indeed quite large. The four marble pillars at the entrance are as thick as three people surrounding them. The interior hall is also extremely luxuriously decorated.

The crystal chandelier is inlaid with gold and silver, and even in the daytime it is filled with fine jade wax. The tables, chairs and counters are also decorated with ivory, as if every object here is showing the wealth of this bank to visitors. .

Being able to own such a building in such a valuable location shows Mr. Montmartre's financial resources.

However, Lawrence didn't care much about these luxurious arrangements. In his opinion, these arrangements were not so much about showing off wealth, but more about reassuring savers and increasing their confidence.

As soon as Lawrence stepped into the lobby of the bank, the smiling waiter immediately greeted him, bowed deeply and asked:

"Good afternoon, sir, do you need to handle any business?"

Lawrence waved his hand directly and said:

"I want to see Mr. Montmartre if he is here. If he is not here, someone will take charge."

The waiter was stunned for a moment. He had never seen someone so arrogant in wanting to see the president in all the years he had worked in this bank, so he frowned and said:

"I can serve you with any business you need to handle. If you don't need it, please don't stay here."

Lawrence glanced at the waiter and asked:

"I want to withdraw money, can you be responsible?"

The waiter puffed out his chest and said:

"Of course, how much do you want to take?"

"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand."

"what did you say.?"

The waiter was just about to take Lawrence forward. When he heard the number in his ears, he thought he was hallucinating and asked with a frown:

"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand...? Are you here to have fun?"

"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand livres, cash."

Lawrence added calmly:

"If you cannot take responsibility, call Mr. Montmartre and tell him that Laurence Bonaparte is here waiting for him."

"You, you are Monsignor Bonaparte?! Sorry, I will go and inform Mr. Montmartre right away."

The waiter said in panic, and then he bowed deeply twice before running away as if he had been relieved.

Less than five minutes after the waiter left, Mr. Montmartre was seen running down the stairs dragging his fat body.

Judging from the unwiped butter at the corner of his mouth and the smell of wine on his body, he was probably called down by Lawrence in the middle of lunch.

"Oh my god, Your Excellency Bonaparte, why did you come suddenly and didn't tell me in advance? Hahaha, come on."

Mr. Montmartre trotted to Lawrence and said slightly out of breath:

"It's noisy here, please come to the VIP room with me."

The two moved to a VIP room in the corner of the bank. After entering, Mr. Montmartre personally took out a bottle of sherry from the counter and poured half a glass for himself and Lawrence.

"Ahem. Well, I heard that you are coming to withdraw money?"

After Mr. Montmartre poured the wine, he quickly sat down on the sofa and looked at Lawrence nervously and anxiously and asked.

Lawrence took a sip of the special sherry and nodded and said:

"Yes, three hundred and seventy-five thousand livres, cash required, no paper money accepted."

"This is Your Excellency Bonaparte."

Mr. Montmartre showed a troubled expression, and his eyes wandered around helplessly. After a while, he said cautiously:

"It is also difficult for the French Commercial Bank to take out so many reserves at once. You may not know that this will affect the bank's credit and operational stability."

"I understand your difficulty, Mr. Montmartre."

Lawrence nodded in approval and said.

After all, banks are not safes. Banks need to make profits.

After depositors deposit their funds in the bank, the bank must lend or invest these funds to make profits.

The bank will only retain a small part of the funds to meet the daily withdrawal needs of customers. This small part of the funds is the reserve.

Since reserves only account for a small part of customer deposits, banks will impose restrictions on large withdrawals, and generally make appointments in advance to avoid affecting the bank's credit.

Lawrence's sudden need to withdraw more than 300,000 yuan in cash may cause major problems for the bank's operational stability.

Once reserves are insufficient and depositors are unable to withdraw their deposits from the bank, depositors will not care about complex economic principles. They will only think that there is a crisis in the bank, so they will rush to withdraw their deposits.

In this way, more and more people will join the ranks of runs, and banks that were originally only a little cash-flowing will be completely credit-bankrupt due to such runs.

If such a run is not controlled, it will soon spread from one bank to the entire banking industry, and may even lead to a financial crisis.

"While I understand your difficulty, I still need the funds."

Before Mr. Montmartre could be happy for a few seconds, Lawrence shook his head and said:

"But as compensation, I can reveal a piece of news to you."

"information?"

Only then did Mr. Montmartre become interested. A person of Lawrence's level must not have come into contact with anything that everyone knew, so he quickly asked:

"You mean...?"

"In just the next few days, there will be a general contraction in the securities industry in Paris, especially the stock market."

Lawrence crossed his legs and said directly without any hesitation:

"That's a short-lived short market."

As soon as Lawrence finished speaking, Mr. Montmartre couldn't help but his eyes sparkled, and he came up to Lawrence and asked repeatedly:

"Are you serious? Can I know the source? Oh my God, this is huge news."

For financiers, whether it is a short or long market, as long as they can know the market trend in advance, there will be room for profit.

"I don't want to reveal the source of the information, but I can guarantee more than 90% accuracy." Lawrence shook his head and said:

"Now that you have heard the news, then"

"Ah yes."

Mr. Montmartre hesitated for a moment. Now that he had accepted this precious news, he could only grit his teeth and said:

"I will prepare this fund for you. When will you need it?"

"The sooner the better, I will send someone to deliver the corresponding deposit slip to you."

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, Lawrence returned to his mansion on the Champs Elysées.

After returning home, Lawrence immediately got into the study, and after thinking hard for a while, he wrote a letter. Then he counted out the corresponding amounts from the unnamed deposit slips locked in the safe and gave them to the old housekeeper of the mansion, and ordered:

"Send these deposit slips to Mr. Montmartre, and send this letter to the Daily Observer. Send someone there in person. In addition, prepare the carriage at the mansion."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

The old butler said ably, and then turned around to carry out Lawrence's instructions.

It took more than an hour before someone from the Banque Commerciale de France delivered the cash Lawrence asked for.

I saw six freight carriages parked neatly outside the mansion. Each carriage was piled with heavy oak boxes. It was estimated that there were nearly a hundred wooden boxes here.

Even the gentlemen and ladies living on the Champs Elysées had obviously never seen such a battle, and they all stopped and watched curiously.

And when they learned that the hundreds of wooden boxes were actually filled with livres, they were even more surprised and couldn't open their mouths from ear to ear. Such a visual impact was very rare.

Even if some of them had assets no less than the silver coins in these more than a hundred wooden boxes, they still couldn't help but click their tongues when they saw with their own eyes the silver coins that were enough to pile up a hill.

"Damn it, how many lifetimes can this money last?"

Grosso opened a box casually, grabbed a handful of silver coins from it, then let the coins slip from his fingers, cursing.

Although his eyes were about to pop out, Grosso still suppressed his desire for wealth. He also knew that he could only ask for what Lawrence gave him.

Yan couldn't help but stare directly at these boxes. The last time he saw such a shocking wealth was the box of gold coins that Lawrence showed off at the Ajaccio patrol.

There were more than a hundred boxes in front of him, and the livres in each box were much more valuable than the Corsican gold coins that day.

Lawrence stepped forward and patted Grosso, smiled and shook his head and said:

"Okay, this money is not ours, at least not this part."

"Huh?" Grosso's face suddenly fell, he scratched his head and asked:

"Isn't this sent by the banker? Isn't this part of the money he invested in the company? Why is it not ours?"

Lawrence also stepped forward and picked up a few livres and looked at them. The brand-new quality looked like they had just been minted. They should have been brought directly from the mint by the bank as reserve funds.

"The Corsican government is not the only shareholder of the company." Lawrence threw the silver coins back into the box and said with a smile.

"Hey, you mean...?"

Grosso glanced at the carts of silver coins, took a breath and said:

"Is this the king's share?"

"That's right."

"That's true. But why did you go out of your way to change it into cash?"

Grosso asked still puzzled:

"Wouldn't it be the same to just send those deposit slips over?"

Lawrence smiled, pointed at the six full carts in front of him and said:

"Normally, His Majesty the King would not care about these hundreds of thousands of livres. The wedding he bought for the Crown Prince and Crown Princess cost millions of livres. This money is only a drop in the bucket in the royal family."

"Yes, that's true." Grosso said with a hint of understanding.

"So if I just send a few flimsy deposit slips, it won't attract the king's attention at all. Three hundred and seventy thousand is just a number to him."

Lawrence put his hand into the pile of silver coins and said slowly:

"But if the king saw this mountain of silver coins in person, such a visual impact is not what those deposit slips have."

This is why Lawrence went to Mr. Montmartre to exchange cash.

The Palace of Versailles can spend a quarter of France's fiscal revenue every year. If his more than 300,000 livres were just a bunch of numbers, it would not make any waves in front of Louis XV.

If you want to impress Louis XV, you still have to use some psychological tricks.

And once Louis XV recognized the value of the National Silver Company of Corsica, the situation of Justice Maupe and the Duke of Richelieu, who had been clamoring to suppress the National Silver Company, was difficult to say.

The old housekeeper came forward and reported respectfully to Lawrence:

"Your Excellency, the carriages are all ready according to your instructions and are ready to go at any time."

"Well, has the letter to the newspaper arrived?" Lawrence nodded and asked.

"It has been delivered. President Hailsen fully understands what you mean. Your request will be reported tomorrow."

The old housekeeper lowered his head slightly and spoke clearly.

"Very well, Grosso, gather the precision shooters as escort, we will set off for Versailles immediately."

Lawrence closed the box in front of him and gave Grosso instructions in a deep voice.

Lawrence went to Versailles this time for another important reason besides resolving Justice Maupe's accusation against him. That is to consolidate the relationship with Prince Louis.

Lawrence has not officially performed this duty since he became the first chamberlain. In order not to leave anyone speechless, Lawrence still has to spend some time with Prince Louis.

"However, the best result would be to bring Prince Louis to Paris. This would be of great benefit both in the political and financial fields."

Lawrence sat in a four-horse carriage with the Corsican flag and thought to himself.

Just as Lawrence's majestic carriage convoy set off, a man wrapped in a black trench coat anxiously got into the carriage and returned to the Palace of Justice on the Champs Elysées.

"Your Excellency!"

As soon as this man returned to the Palace of Justice, he eagerly opened the door of Justice Mopu's room and reported.

"What happened? What did Bonaparte do?"

Justice Maupp glanced at the man with slight displeasure and recognized him as a secretary he had just sent out to follow Lawrence.

"Yes, he withdrew a large amount of money from the Bank of Commerce of France, and is now escorting the cash out of Paris. Apparently he is going to Versailles."

The secretary said rather urgently.

"To Versailles.?"

Justice Maupp was stunned for a moment. He did not know that the French royal family had a share in the Corsican National Silver Company, but he was very smart and quickly realized that something was wrong.

"Damn Laurence Bonaparte, was that all an act at noon?"

Justice Mopu slammed his fist on the table, stood up angrily and shouted:

"Get me a car immediately! I'm going to Versailles to see His Majesty the King!"