readx;?“ Fighting a battle to defend the pound? ”

In a cramped, old conference room at No. 0 Downing Street, the frustrated British Prime Minister Robert Churchill finally heard a somewhat constructive suggestion from his cabinet members. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Rothschild had been a member of the British Parliament since 858 and of course the head of the Rothschild Bank of England – a bank that was of course de facto bankrupt. As the largest underwriter of British government bonds, Rothschild Bank of England holds a large number of US Treasury bonds and British government bonds, and after the accurate news of the South China Sea War came, he knew that Rothschild Bank of England was finished!

However, he and Edward Charlie Balin, who controlled the Bahrain Brothers Company, did not fall into the trap at the most critical time of the British Empire. At least on the surface, there was no aggressive sell-off of British government bonds, and there were buy-outs in the London financial markets to maintain the value of the bonds – in fact, for Rothschild Bank of England and Baring Brothers, trying to get out of the British Empire was not a "one-time thing". The relationship between these two big banks and Britain has reached a point where they share weal and woe. If the British Empire loses everything, they will have no choice but to go bankrupt.

Of course, the current Rothschild Bank of England and Bahrain Brothers are both limited liability companies......

"Mr. Prime Minister, the greatest crisis of the British Empire at present is no longer from the battlefield. Rather, it comes from the collapse of the economy, especially finance...... "the beard is white, and it looks like it is about to be done, and it is Lionel Rothschild who drags out his voice meaningfully," and the pound is becoming waste paper. The exchange rate with the franc has changed from 20 francs to 0 francs for the current pound sterling for 0 francs...... Of course, this is nothing more than the official exchange rate. On the black market, the pound is now not even exchanged for a franc, and it continues to fall, and it is estimated that in a few months it will become waste paper, and then the British Empire will be completely finished. ”

"I don't think it's going to be so bad, the franc will still be able to hold on." Robert Churchill couldn't help but frown. "India and the Cape colonies are still in our hands as long as the war ends. We'll get enough hard currency from the Transvaal's gold mines and India's booming economy, and the exchange rate will stabilize. ”

"No, I think it's the opposite, only the exchange rate is stabilized first. Only gold and silver could flow into England. Lionel Rothschild smiled bitterly, "This is the experience I have learned from my lifetime of service in the financial world, capital is always risk-averse, and the falling pound exchange rate and the British economy on the verge of collapse or the British banks that are actually all bankrupt will scare away money!" Why not go to the thriving Roman and German empires? There are investment opportunities there, and the returns are guaranteed and very safe. ”

Qiu Fatman's face was ugly, of course he knew that this Rothschild was not talking nonsense, in fact, Churchill himself, who was the British Prime Minister, after the news of the defeat in the South China Sea War. Some of the assets were also transferred to Rome......

Lionel Rothschild sighed, "Actually, the economic crisis in Britain has just begun!" The damage that the war took on the British economy. It is impossible to become invisible with a peace treaty. He paused for a moment and showed a sad expression, "The Rothschild Bank of England has in fact gone bankrupt, and all our investments in the United States and Canada have been lost, and we will not get a penny back!" Our banks in the UK are also heavily loss-making...... You know, many of the big customers of the Rothschild Bank of England exchanged their positions for gold francs and silver pesos before the war and in the early days of the war. And we turned these gold francs and silver pesos into British government bonds......"

That's the biggest loss! Although British government bonds also fell a lot after the outbreak of the war, after all, national bonds are guaranteed by the credit of the British state. In other words, it is guaranteed by the printing machine of the Bank of England, and it will not fail to repay the debt in any case. But the fall in the pound rate was fatal for the Rothschild Bank of England, just as deadly as the American Revolution - if calculated at the black market exchange rate, the Rothschild Bank of England had already lost 500 million gold francs, and the American Revolution had caused almost the same amount of losses to the bank.

"Now that the war is not over, there are still controls on the flow of capital (but there are still ways for those who really have access to the means to send money out of the country), and once the war is over, the capital controls will be lifted...... A large amount of money will definitely flow out at the first time, and no British bank will be able to come up with enough foreign exchange and gold and silver at that time! Not a single one! ”

The old man is not alarmist. Because the banks live on interest rate differentials, after the outbreak of the war, the interest rate on the pound and British government bonds was much higher than that of the gold franc and the silver peso. It would not be profitable at all for the British banks to deposit the gold francs, silver pesos in their hands with the Bank of Rome on the other side of the channel. In order to use the funds to buy British government bonds or lend money to domestic businesses, they must be converted into pounds sterling - a loss alone that would cost all British banks!

It's going to be a big financial crisis! Robert Churchill gasped. At this time, the slogans of the protesters could be faintly heard outside the window.

"Long live the Republic! Long live universal suffrage! ”

The popular protests continued, and although the army had been mobilized, Robert Churchill did not dare to order a suppression - after all, the popular protests were still peaceful, and if the army opened fire, it was likely to trigger an armed uprising! Of course, if the pound continues to depreciate and eventually becomes waste paper, an armed uprising will certainly be inevitable! And...... There is a big question mark over who the British soldiers who receive the waste paper as their salaries will stand on.

"It's really bad, it's very ...... Worst! Robert Churchill nodded and agreed with Mr. Rothschild, "If you want to stabilize the current turbulent situation, you have to save the economy, and you want to save the economy...... The pound must be saved! ”

"The British economy will only be saved if market confidence in the pound is restored!" Lionel Rothschild said, "Mr. Prime Minister, I think you should understand that any currency in the world today is based on credit, not on sufficient gold and silver. Even the Roman Empire did not have enough gold and silver to exchange all the gold francs and silver pesos. ”

"I understand that." Qiu Fatzi nodded, "But the whole world believes that the treasury of the Roman Empire is full of gold and silver treasures!" ”

And that's true! The vaults of the Bank of Eastern and Western Rome were full of gold and silver, and the world's gold and silver continued to flow there. But the vaults of the Bank of England were empty enough to run away.

"But everybody has to be convinced that the pound in their hands can be exchanged for gold and silver." Rothschild said, "Mr. Prime Minister, we must restore the gold and silver standard and at the same time liberalize the pound exchange rate!" ”

"It can't be!" Robert Churchill shook his head repeatedly.

"It was possible, and it had to be done, with the help of the Roman Empire, of course!" Rothschild paused and continued, "I am not thinking nonsense, but I have exchanged views with my relatives in Paris, and Napoleon IV did not want to see the situation in England continue to deteriorate......"

Now the British Prime Minister understood.

"I knew that Napoleon IV would not agree that England would become a second America!" Robert Churchill looked at Rothschild, "What does he want?" ”

"Gibraltar and Egypt!"

"What about the conditions?"

"The Roman Empire will help Britain with currency reform, help us stabilize the pound exchange rate within a range that the British people and the British economy can afford."

"Can you be specific?" Robert Churchill asked.

"The Roman Empire will provide 000 million gold francs in exchange for our interests in Gibraltar and Egypt, while providing a loan of 5 billion gold francs in three tranches to stabilize the pound exchange rate. In addition, the Bank of England has about 2 billion gold francs in gold and silver reserves, so we have 8 billion gold francs of the Gold Pound Reform Fund. ”

"A total of 8 billion gold francs...... Where can the pound exchange rate be maintained? ”

"It is impossible to restore the pre-war exchange rate, and the official exchange rate of :0 is also a joke, but the price of :2 can still be maintained. At this exchange rate, 8 billion gold francs can be exchanged for 0 billion pounds...... There are less than 2 billion pounds in circulation in the market right now, which should not be a problem. "And we can also issue government bonds and raise the interest rate on the pound to bring back some of the pound." ”

This plan is feasible. Robert Churchill thought in his heart that the battle to defend the pound would not take long, as long as the situation stabilized, the gold and silver of India and the Cape Colonies would flow in continuously, and he would not be afraid of it. In addition, the industrial base of the British Isles is still there, and as long as the financial sector is stabilized, industrial production will soon recover, and then the trade surplus will be obtained through exports, and the pound will naturally be able to strengthen.

And, more importantly, when the battle to defend the pound is successful, the Bank of England can regain its position as a "lender of last resort" and can naturally lend to the troubled British banking sector to avoid a serious crisis caused by the collapse of the financial sector.

Thinking of this, Robert Churchill nodded his head, "Okay, that's it!" In principle, that's it...... If the parliament does not object, we will start the reform of the Golden Pound as soon as possible, and try to come up with a draft within a month and reach an agreement with the Roman side! To be continued)