Eugenie with money [Grandet]

When Eugenie asked what she said, the father and daughter looked at each other and suddenly laughed.

That's why they are the father and daughter, and they are all people who don't want to let others take advantage of their own disadvantages.The only difference is that Eugenie does not delay her enjoyment of making money, while Grandet uses ascetic means to accumulate wealth.

This does not hinder their common goal-to make more money and keep the money they get.

Grandet glanced furtively around, and Eugenie had to remind him that this was in her own home, and the soundproofing effect of the small reception room had been tested. One could hear what he said.

This didn't make Grandet feel uncomfortable, he still lowered his voice: "Are you going to give the 400 million to the person with the gun?"

Seeing Eugenie nodding, Grandet finally asked his question after hearing about it: "How do you know them? Are they trustworthy? Are you not afraid that they will end up like the king?"

For these questions, Eugenie has passed the test of the peasant uprising in England for two years, so she can naturally answer: "Father, you know that when I was in Madrid, I met Mr. Riago of the Spanish constitutional cabinet, and later he was forced to He went to America, but I provided the funds for the equipment to leave the army with him. In order to thank me, Mr. Riego left a hundred soldiers who should go to America with him, and obeyed my orders."

The source of the people was clearly explained, and even though Grandet was so angry at herself for spending so much money, Eugenie still explained clearly whether those people could be trusted: "Because I don't know how to arrange these people so that they won't cause trouble. Unnecessary attention. It happened that there was an uprising of landless peasants in the UK, so I gave them part of the funds and let them go to the UK.”

Needless to say, just looking at the worsening situation in Britain in the past two years, Grandet knew that the Spaniards were very resolute in carrying out Eugenie's orders.That was still far away from Paris and it was difficult to communicate with Eugenie.Once these people return to the European continent, it will be more convenient for Eugenie to instruct them.

Grandet also had other concerns: "There are only 100 people, too few."

"Although there were only 100 of them at first, because they sympathized with the peasants who lost their land and took part in their uprising with their own equipment, those peasants who lost their land admired them very much."

"If someone brought money to help me fight, I would also admire them." Grandet muttered, but he felt relieved.When Eugenie asked him about military expenditures, he was also willing to say a few words:

"Those people are too daring. I have been to the Ministry of the Army. It is said that if you do not give benefits to the people in the Ministry of Finance, even with the approval of the Ministry of War, you will not be able to get the money. This is not bad. You said that it is only for individuals If you don’t let me touch the money, I won’t touch it. But they dare to get the money again when they set up another name for one fee. No pressure at all."

Even if she knew that the whole officialdom was rotten, Eugenie was a little surprised.Judging from the reaction of Earl Niezhilang, the King of France was not ignorant of this, but he and the queen allowed the situation to spread, except for reaching out to weak people like themselves who were powerless to resist the kingship.

Reaching out to himself or other weak people can be regarded as the Dharma King’s open source, but if you don’t cut down on expenditure, no matter how much you open up, it can’t stop the money that should be used for righteous purposes from being diverted into private pockets.

Holding the strong to bully the weak, bullying the weak and fearing the hard, that's all.Eugenie can assure you that if it weren't for Grandet, a freak who loves whoever spends money, the King of France would rather raid all the common people or the bourgeoisie than touch the nobles. centimetre.

He was afraid that the fate of Louis XVI would repeat itself.

Eugenie looked at Grandet and smiled. Grandet felt that she should wear an extra dress.Before he could go back to the room to add clothes, Eugenie said again: "Father, you can actually continue to cooperate with the Ministry of War. They know what they need best and which projects are pretentious. In this way, you don't even need the account book Look, you can recover a large sum of money for the king."

"Why do you take back a large amount of money for the king?" Grandet became even more angry when he said this: "Although it is said that all the money recovered should go to the national treasury, the minister said that the two sums of money I just recovered should be directly transferred to the Ministry of War." However, the Undersecretary asked the War Department to justify the disbursement of the money."

Needless to say, the minister of the Ministry of Finance is a man of the French king, and the deputy minister trips the minister on behalf of the queen.Eugenie was more concerned about Grandet's income: "Where's your money, have they withheld it too?"

Grandet smiled triumphantly: "Before they know that the money has been recovered, I have already got what I deserve."

Eugenie reminded him: "Then you must keep accounts well, and you must also keep an eye on your assistants." How many of them fell in the hands of their so-called confidantes.

Grandet understood this, and nodded to reassure Eugenie: "I keep two accounts for every sum of money, one is in the office, and the other is taken home every day. The assistant is just a person who runs errands for me. They don't know how much money was recovered."

Eugenie knew that Grandet, who was able to expand her property during the imperial regime, was not so easy to be caught, so she temporarily put it down without asking how much he charged.

Nucingen, who also collected money from people, was so angry that his liver hurt-the king's attendant had an order, and the bankers in Paris had to attend the meeting.When they heard that Nucingen asked them to come up with money to rescue the market together, they all cried out bitterly.

Everyone's reason is very good, that is, they bought a lot of railway bonds in the early stage of the issuance of railway bonds. Seeing the price of bonds rising all the way, they increased their holdings from time to time.Therefore, the funds of the banks are running out. The market price plummeted a few days ago, and the books of the bankers are no longer looking good.

In a word, they were not rich in money, and could not afford as much as Nucingen hoped.

At this time, the Nucingen Bank had invested 2000 million francs in the railway bond market.In fact, these bankers only need to scrape together another 1000 million francs to support the future. When the market sees that the buying power remains undiminished, confidence will inevitably be boosted, and the funds needed for the day after tomorrow will be greatly reduced.

But these extravagant bankers on weekdays actually said that they couldn't even come up with 1000 million.Nucingen had no choice but to seek help from Earl Negeron again. He declared that if these people did not cooperate in raising funds, the Nucingen Bank could not support the important task of bailing out the market alone. up.

Even if it was a threatening sentence, the King of France had to admit that the Nucingen Bank satisfied him more than other banks this time.In any case, he will not let the largest bank in France be liquidated-Nucingen Bank now holds nearly [-]% of the railway bonds, and if it is liquidated, it must be sold.

The market cannot afford such a huge selling order.

So Count Niegerand, accompanied by Nucingen, once again convened a gathering of bankers in Paris, and kindly reminded them that the current supervisor of the Ministry of Finance, Count Grandet, not only knows how to check military expenditures, he knows best Where will everyone's secret vault be located?

If the bankers refuse to raise funds, then the king will ask the Earl Grandet to stop supervising military expenditures and first check the funds of each bank.Once it is found that the funds of any bank do not match what the bankers said, all property will be confiscated on the charge of deceiving the royal family.

For King had reason to believe that the same bankers who were unwilling to bail out the market were the ones who caused the railroads to fall in the first place—who would pay to buy back what they sold?

Not to mention that those bankers knew the attitude of the King of France, and they collected 2000 million francs in a short time to rescue the market. It is only said that if Eugenie knew that the King of France threatened the bankers in this way, she would not be able to help teaching him a lesson:

Not everything that is sold is unwilling to buy back, such as public bonds, how normal is it to sell high and buy low?

Now Eugenie had obtained eighty-five thousand bonds, indeed more than the Queen had extorted from her.Mrs. Taigou looked at the [-] public bond certificates that Eugenie had distributed to her, and she refused no matter how excited she was: "I have been recuperating from my illness, and I have not helped the lady."

Eugenie continued to push the debenture certificate towards her: "You just need to collect well. Although it is not much, the return on public debt is higher than that of ordinary investment, and it is safe."

Mrs. Taigu followed with a smile: "This time the turbulence is very severe." How can you still say it is safe?

Eugenie, who had nothing to do, knocked her teeth at her: "No matter how turbulent it is, you can see that some people have been holding it all the time and have not sold it. This is the difference between wanting stable income and speculation. You don't speculate, you just want to Seek higher returns than other investments, just keep holding it.”

After talking about this, Mrs. Taigu put it away.The door was pushed open at this moment, and Nanon's loud voice came in: "Miss, I'm back, why don't you see the master, has he gone to buy gold again?"

While speaking, the tall figure blocked half of the door.Eugenie stood up cheering: "Ah, Nanon, you are back at last. I thought you would not come to Paris until after you planted the seeds."

"My dear madam," Nanon looked at Eugenie, "Cornoire is the one who sows the seeds. I want to complete what the master told me." Mrs Taikoo.

Madame Théigoud knew that Nanon had always been on guard against her, and now that she had come back from Saumur, she had something to say to the lady, so she got up and said to Eugenie: "Then I will go back to my room to rest." And nodded to Nanon.

Even though Mrs. Taigu showed her kindness to Nanon in this way, after she left, Nanon still asked worriedly: "Did she ask the lady for money again?"

What a psychological shadow this is, which made Nanon suspect that Mrs. Taigu was trying to count his money when he saw Mrs. Taigu staying with him.Eugenie smiled at her and shook her head: "Is your journey safe and sound, have you encountered any trouble?"

Nanon looked up triumphantly: "Cornoillet sent me to the car and paid the fare for me. The journey went smoothly. When I arrived in Paris, someone picked me up. Why did I encounter trouble?"

Eugenie looked at Nanon in her maid's attire, even wearing an apron, and thought of the flat, shy expression on her face when she was not talking or smiling, and believed that she was not in trouble—maybe someone else She had to stay away, lest she offend Nanon.

"Miss, let me tell you." Nanon approached Eugenie and whispered, "This time I discovered that the master has been lying."

What?Eugenie looked at Nanon's big face in surprise: "Did father lie?"

"Yeah." Nanon nodded heavily: "No matter what he asked me to move, the master said it was just some big money. But this time the master gave me the key to his secret room, and I realized that what he kept was not big money at all. , all gold, a lot of gold."

Eugenie didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Papa should only be for safety."

"But I won't tell others. Why did the master tell me that?" Nanon was a little sad because he didn't gain Grandet's trust.

"Dear Nanon," Eugenie could only comfort this good man for Grandet: "Father said this not because he doesn't believe you, but because he is afraid that others will tell you what to say." Seeing that Nanon's face improved, she quickly changed the subject: " You said Dad has a lot of gold, how much is it, let's go and see."

Nanon had never been able to resist Eugenie's request, and the two of them came to Grandet's room together. The old leather suitcase that Nanon had brought along from Saumur was left by the door.

Before Eugenie could say anything, Nanon immediately closed the door, locked it, and opened the box skillfully: "Miss, I think what you said is right. When sir told me it was just some big money , No matter how many boxes or wine barrels I bring, I don’t care, and sleep all the way with my eyes closed after getting in the car. But this time, I didn’t dare to blink along the way.”

Eugenie could no longer hear what Nanon was saying, and her eyes were filled with gold.Eugenie has always known that the pile of gold has a great impact on people. Not long ago, she used gold to bribe others, but it was not as intuitive as the box Nanon opened.

The old cowhide box, many places have been worn so that the original color cannot be seen, and the disconnected stumbles on the top are just hanging on the ground, which makes the gold inside even more dazzling.

This box is much bigger than the ones that Eugenie gave to the Count of Niegeland and the Marquis of Lascambes. Just looking at the size, Eugenie can roughly calculate the value of this box, which is more than 400 million francs. .

She felt her breathing quicken: "Nanon, is it all gold underneath?" Eugenie heard her voice tremble slightly.

Nanon nodded: "Yes, madam, you don't know, this box was driven by Cornoille and two people were hired to lift it up. I told him that it was full of money, which is why it is so heavy."

All right.Eugenie looked at Nanon helplessly: "You have become just like your father."

Nanon also smirked: "Miss just looked at Jin Jin in the same way as Master."

Come on, these are two people who have been assimilated by Grandet.But Eugenie still struggled a bit: "But I never treat myself harshly."

"Yes," Nanon said with some emotion, "not only are you not treating yourself harshly, but you are also treating me and Cornoille..."

"Nanon, are you back yet? Where are you? Why don't you come out to see me soon?" Grandet, who was planning on Nanon's return, didn't see Nanon for the first time after returning home, and was so anxious that he went upstairs. shouted.

Nanon responded loudly: "Sir, Miss and I are in your room." After speaking, he had to close the box, and quickly unlock the door and open the door.

Eugenie did not ask Nanon to close the lid of the box. She sat on the small sofa in the room and continued to stare at the gold in the box unconsciously.Grandet came up quickly, and the first thing he saw at the door was the open box lid.

He took a quick step forward, closed the lid with a bang, and looked back at Eugenie vigilantly: "I have accumulated these slowly, and they belong to me."

Eugenie calmly reminded him: "Father, there is at least one hundred thousand francs of gold in it, which I asked you to bring back to Saumur years ago."

"But at that time you already said that it was given to me." Grandet didn't allow him to be in his sight, and there were still people who wanted to take his gold for himself.

"Then you have more gold in your secret room than this." Eugenie looked meaningfully at the locked secret room, making Grandet look at her more vigilantly, but did not answer Eugenie's question. question.

Eugenie felt strange. She remembered that after the death of Grandet in the original book, there was only 200 million francs of gold in the inheritance. Why are there so many now?It was impossible to ask Grandet, so Eugenie could only discuss with him: "Father, you know that I have exactly 400 million francs in my hand, can I tell you..."

"Don't even think about it." Grandet refused without even listening to it: "These are all mine, don't even try to take them away."

Impossible not to take.Eugenie was still so calm, but what she said made Grandet go crazy: "You are a father who knows my ability. I can make the railway bond market fall by half, and I can also make the gold market fall. By 400 It is not so much gold that ten thousand francs can buy."

"That's right." Eugenie clapped her hands and stood up: "If I don't need it urgently, why should I spend half the extra money to buy your gold. Please move them to the secret room, father, I will Go think of another way."

"Wait a minute." Grandet hesitated. His own daughter has a steadfast temper, and she is not lenient even when dealing with the king and queen. I, I don't seem to have much to keep her from driving down the gold market. grasp.

"410 million francs." Grandet felt that he could still fight for it.

"Only four million francs, papa, you know that's all I have in my hand now." Eugenie refused to budge.

Grandet looked at Eugenie with some distrust: "Since the turmoil in the railway bond market, the price of gold has risen. It was sold to eleven francs yesterday. Are you sure you can really make it fall by half?"

Just kidding, gold is a store of value. Even if there is a large amount of gold suddenly appearing in the market, how can it fall by half in a gold standard market?Eugenie just looked at Grandet with a smile, and the old cooper slowly lowered his eyes: "All right, you can take it, but I will see the same amount of gold in a month's time."

Eugenie nodded noncommittally: "Father, how much money you have drawn, should you give it to me?"

"You are robbing, miss, robbing your father." Even though he knew that the words he yelled had no effect on Eugenie, Grandet still couldn't help but uttered his own voice.

Eugenie waved to Nanon who was stunned: "Nanon, take the gift you brought me from Saumur to my room."

Poor Nanon didn't know who to listen to. He looked at Grandet, then at Eugenie, and finally followed his heart and pressed the lid of the broken box. Seeing that the box was not very tight, he found a rope to hold it After it was tied up, he called a porter and carried the box with him to Eugenie's room.

At around twelve o'clock that night, the gate of Eugenie's mansion was quietly opened, and the carriage, which covered the wheels and horseshoes, drove out quietly without even lighting the lantern.Nanon was sitting in the car, and beside her was the "gift from Saumur".

On the dark street, there were still lanterns on outside the doors of some houses on Bertin Street, making the night look even more intense.After passing by, the car blended into the night, as if it had never appeared before.

"Is that place really safe?" a worried voice asked in a low voice.

"Don't worry, Dad, no one knows that it's my house. Others think it's just a rented house for an ordinary woman who comes to Paris to seek a living. How could she be the landlord?"

Then the night was quiet again, and the conversation was blown away with the wind.

The next day, Nanon, who was always as diligent as an old cow, got up late, which made Mrs. Taigu concerned: "Is Nanon sick?"

Eugenie reassured her, and told Mrs. Taigou about her itinerary: "I haven't been to the mask factory for a long time. Do you want to go with me, Mrs. Taikou?"

Mrs. Taigou, who is deeply in favor of facial masks, is naturally willing to travel with Eugenie after Nanon has come to Paris: "Of course, I heard that the Countess of Nucingen has already sold the facial masks out of Paris."

"Yes, the Countess of Nucingen is very capable. Thanks to her presence, the purchase of saltpeter was so smooth." Eugenie echoed Mrs. Taigou's words.

Mrs. Taigu was a little surprised: "But the weather is still very cold now, why do you store so much saltpeter?" The current masks are all in limited supply.There are very few that need to be sold long-distance to other places, and even fewer that need to be stored in ice.

"You also said that it is storage. Now there is a great demand for nitrate in various countries. Maybe there is a lot of storage and it can be sold at a good price." Eugenie bypassed this topic very briskly.

Considering that Eugenie has been engaged in speculative business, Mrs. Taigou felt that it was not incomprehensible that she wanted to develop a new market, and the two got into the carriage together.