Shadow of great britain

Today's Europe is like a powder keg, and the leaders of various countries are like people smoking in the arsenal. A spark will cause an explosion and engulf us all.

——Clemens von Metternich

Göttingen University, the sun is shining today.

The stone porch outside the office of the Dean of Students is full of portraits of former presidents and famous professors.

These paintings are either oil paintings or etchings. Through these paintings, Göttingen proudly shows their glorious academic tradition as a traditional German university.

The floor of the corridor is paved with thick stone slabs, and the monotonous and crisp footsteps echo here.

Although people often come and go in front of the Dean of Students' Office during weekdays, there is usually no one visiting here on Sundays.

But today is an exception. As the footsteps gradually approached, a young man appeared at the end of the porch.

Today, Bismarck dressed himself up and deliberately changed into a formal suit that he had only worn once at the opening ceremony.

The silver buttons on the front of the well-tailored long-tailed coat were polished by him until they sparkled. The white high-collared shirt was matched with a dark black silk bow tie that he had bought after running all over the streets and alleys of Göttingen. The gold chain of the pocket watch was exquisitely exposed in the vest pocket of the shirt jacket.

He stopped in front of the door of the school supervisor's office and saw the school emblem and the Latin school motto "In publica commoda" (for the public interest) inlaid on the door frame. Bismarck felt that his arm was really heavy when knocking on the door.

He took a deep breath and recited the speech he had prepared last night in his mind. Then he finally mustered up the courage to knock on the door.

Knock, knock, knock!

"Professor Hastings, I am Otto von Bismarck, a sophomore in the law school. May I come in?"

However, after a long time, Bismarck did not hear anyone in the office reply.

He frowned and knocked on the door again, but unexpectedly, this time he pushed the door open directly.

This was the first time Bismarck had seen what the office of the school supervisor looked like. Usually, he went to the courtroom to punish the student committee.

The first thing that caught his eye was the heavy oak desk. The tabletop was smooth and spacious, with ink bottles, quill pens, letters and some beautifully bound books on it. Behind the desk was a high-backed chair made of dark leather, and the grooves left by the carvings could be clearly seen on the armrests - those exquisite patterns.

On both sides of the office were tall bookshelves, which were filled with various academic works such as law, philosophy, and history. Judging from the cover, most of these books were written in Latin, German and French, and the binding was very exquisite. Some of the book covers even had the book title and author's name written in gold foil.

Next to the bookshelf, there was a small ladder, which was probably for the convenience of Hastings, the school supervisor, to take books from a high place. Even though he was as big as Bismarck, the three-meter-high bookshelf was still a bit out of reach for him.

Bismarck saw that Arthur was not in the office, and his slightly nervous mood soon relaxed.

He walked into the office with his hands behind his back, sometimes taking a book from the bookshelf and flipping through it, and sometimes sitting down in the high-back chair used by the school supervisor and fiddling with the small globe on the table.

"Huh? What is this?"

Bismarck stretched out a finger to stop the rotating globe. He found that several special places were marked with ink on the globe, arranged from north to south: Devonport and Plymouth in Britain, Cape Verde Islands, a colony of Portugal, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Montevideo in Uruguay, Porto Blanca in Argentina, Buenos Aires and Santa Fe.

However, these marks should have been drawn a long time ago, because the ink marks of these cities looked obviously dry.

And the newest mark on the globe fell on Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America.

Bismarck was wondering what these inexplicable circles meant when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a wax-sealed letter on the table. The handwriting on the cover of the letter was quite arrogant, and it was clearly written in English: Sent from Tierra del Fuego.

"Huh?" Bismarck scratched his head.

Could it be that Arthur Hastings had some relationship with the natives of Tierra del Fuego?

Or, did he have business in South America?

Is he a slave trader in private? !

"Oh, my God!"

Such an astonishing fact surprised even a courageous young man like Bismarck.

A British man, but actually a slave trader!

Didn't the newspaper say that the British government had announced the complete abolition of slavery in the mainland and overseas colonies this year?

Where did he get the courage to do such a business?

But Bismarck thought about it and found that this might be a good business.

Because he remembered that the way the British government abolished slavery was that the government paid to redeem the slaves from the slave owners. If he could transfer a group of slaves from others before the redemption work was completed, he could make a lot of money from the difference.

It is not surprising that Bismarck had such an idea, because when the Prussian government announced the abolition of serfdom more than a decade ago, some Junker landlords were doing similar business.

In the October Decree of 1807, Prussia stipulated that peasants were no longer the property of the lords, they had the right to independently manage farmland, and could migrate and marry freely.

But correspondingly, in order to compensate the losses of the land nobles, the peasants need to obtain the land use rights that originally belonged to the lords through redemption. Redemption includes three methods: land redemption, labor redemption and cash redemption.

Among them, land redemption means that the peasants can choose to give up part of the land use rights in exchange for full ownership of the remaining land.

For example, if a serf cultivates 100 acres of land, he may give up 50 acres of land to the landlord in exchange for full ownership of the remaining 50 acres. This is a more common redemption method, but since not all serfs have the right to rent 100 acres, some people choose labor redemption and cash redemption.

Labor redemption literally means that the peasants provide the landlord with a certain number of years of unpaid labor in exchange for freedom.

Cash redemption is simpler, spending money for freedom, which can be paid in one lump sum or in installments.

But most farmers cannot pay so much money at one time, so the mainstream choice is 20 or 30 years of installments, similar to the modern loan repayment model.

However, some Junker landlords were in poor financial condition, so if someone was willing to pay them 70% to 80% of the lump sum, they would be happy to transfer the loan contracts of these farmers.

The total cost of the slave redemption bill introduced by Britain this year was more than 10 million pounds, so most slave owners also received installment compensation from the government.

Therefore, Bismarck boldly guessed that there would definitely be people engaged in the business of exchanging cash for loans.

It must be said that Bismarck's guess was very correct. At present, there are indeed many people in Britain who are engaged in this business, or more accurately, those who are engaged in these businesses are from the City of London.

Bankers unanimously believe that this kind of installment compensation with government endorsement is unlikely to default on debts. This kind of compensation can be ranked at the same level as the credibility of British government bonds, and both are very high-quality financial products.

Therefore, as long as someone is willing to sell the contract, they will accept it all.

But unfortunately, Arthur has no intention of getting involved in such things.

On the one hand, this is out of moral concerns. The bankers in the City of Finance may not care about their reputation, but Sir Arthur Hastings, who has mixed reputations in London, has to care.

On the other hand, this is out of political considerations. Arthur made his name by fighting against Fred and the Barbary pirates' slave trade. A decent York gentleman couldn't do it just to get those broken silver coins.

Not to mention, he had discovered a new way to get rich some time ago. Compared with operating slave redemption contracts, supporting the Italian Revolution not only earned reputation, but also made money much faster.

But as an 18-year-old Prussian youth, Bismarck certainly couldn't imagine that in the diplomatic field he longed for, those diplomats who looked like idiots talked in French about big businesses that made more money than the slave trade.

In the process of supporting the Young Italy, Mr. August Schneider, Assistant Under-Secretary of the British Foreign Office, gave 3,000 pounds, Mr. Wilhelm von Krommel, Cultural Counselor of the Austrian Embassy in France, gave 4,000 pounds, and Arthur Hastings, the "conscience" of the European diplomatic community, gave 2,500 pounds.

As for why Arthur only received 2,500 pounds, it was because he felt guilty, so after weighing the pros and cons, he still gave 500 pounds in cash to Garibaldi privately, and repeatedly told him not to disclose the connection between the British Foreign Office and the Young Italy.

Before leaving, Garibaldi did not forget to thank Arthur, and sincerely apologized to Arthur on behalf of Mazzini: "This 10,000 francs is of great help to us. Sorry, Arthur, we shouldn't have doubted you before."

Bismarck stared at the strange-looking envelope on the table for a long time, and his fingers itched. He really wanted to see what business the proctor was doing in private.

He hesitated for a long time, and suddenly heard a burst of laughter coming from the window behind him.

Bismarck tiptoed to the window, opened a slit in the curtain, and saw two gentlemen standing on the boulevard outside the window, smoking.

One of them was Mr. Arthur Hastings, and the other looked a little unfamiliar, and no one knew where he came from.

However, judging from the language used by both parties in the conversation, the stranger should also be British.

Although Bismarck was not very interested in professional courses, he was a genius in languages. At the age of 18, he had mastered French, English and Latin, and even Italian and Russian.

Bismarck leaned against the wall, pressed his ear against the window through the curtain, trying to hear as clearly as possible what the two guys were saying.

"Arthur, it seems that you have adapted well in Göttingen. Look at your black robe, you really look like a scholar."

"To be honest, I still prefer the uniform of Scotland Yard, which is much more spirited than this robe."

"Hahaha! It doesn't matter. Aren't you planning to test your police reform plan in Göttingen? On the surface, it is a student union, but in fact it is a police organization. How did you come up with such a dirty trick?"

"This is not surprising. For the police, it is a routine operation to plant informants in opposition organizations. And my experience in France has also given me a lot of inspiration. Mr. Vidocq told me that in those so-called revolutionary organizations, many people climbed to the leadership just to sell them out better, so as to get themselves a job or some pension money."

"So you plan to practice the French experience in Hanover, not the British wisdom?"

"Well... I personally think that there are some differences between continental countries and maritime countries like Britain. Therefore, the French experience may be more suitable for Hanover than the British experience. The student union in Göttingen is just a pilot. If this pilot is successful enough, I will later suggest that the Governor-General write the experience here into the new constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover."

"Arthur, I have to say that I was still grieving for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before. I feel very painful for losing such an outstanding person as you. But now it seems that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is your final destination. You can do all these things in college, I dare not imagine how much you will achieve if you are sent to manage the Ministry of Internal Affairs. "

"August, don't flatter me. I just happened to find that the University of Göttingen is very suitable for this. To be honest, I found a good guy these two days, Otto von Bismarck, this kid will definitely have a bright future. If it weren't for his help, I might not have made up my mind to reopen the student organization of the University of Göttingen. "

"Arthur, you always do things so humorously. You say you want to give them freedom, but in fact you want to open a branch of Scotland Yard in Göttingen. What do you plan to name the student union in Göttingen? New Scotland Yard? "

"No, I plan to call it: Göttinger Enthusiasten für Soziales Tun und Aktivitten Planung Organisation (Göttingen Social Enthusiasts and Event Planning Organization).

"Isn't this name a bit too long?"

"I think it's too long, so I plan to just call it by its abbreviation."

"What's the abbreviation?"

"Gestapo."

"Gestapo? Oh, man, did you know that this abbreviation can also represent another organization? It can also be Geheime Staatspolizei (Secret State Police). "

"Oh, August, you really reminded me. Sorry, I didn't learn German very well?"

"No, on the contrary. Arthur, I think your German level may be a little too good now. Hahaha!"

"August, I'm not being modest, I really think my German level needs to be improved. For example, I don't understand this student file in my hand, and I was just thinking of asking you for help."

"Huh? Whose student file is this? There is too much dust on it."

"It's normal to have a lot of dust. After all, this student has graduated from Göttingen for decades. August, take him with you. Although this may not be helpful, for a diplomat who is about to go to the Munich Conference, it is better to know more than nothing."

"This is... Clemens von Metternich! This is Metternich's student file when he was studying at the University of Göttingen? ! Arthur, you really can always solve my urgent problems. With this file, even if I don't make any progress in Munich, I can extract some insignificant information from this file and write a report to hand in when I return to London. You are such a good friend! When I come back from Munich, I will treat you to a bath."

"August." Arthur exhaled a puff of smoke and tapped Schneider's shoulder with the back of his hand: "Who are we to each other?"