"Mr. Wickham, I have already inspected the goods you brought back from China, and most of them are in good condition and have no loss, so let's skip the inspection and talk about the price. To show our sincerity, we at the Chelsea family can buy it for £450,000, what do you think? Old Chelsea took a sip of the servant's coffee, looking at his enjoyment.

How could Wickham agree to such a condition, if the two ships of silk were inferior silk used by Canton merchants to fool foreigners, the price was indeed not low. But the crux of the matter is that the silk that Wickham brought back from the Qing Dynasty is all high-quality Suzhou silk, and there is also a dark embroidery embroidered by Suzhou embroiderers, which shines brilliantly in the sun.

Silk of this quality is absolutely hard to find in Europe, and it is almost the best French Lyon silk, even if it is sold for five times the price of ordinary silk, some people will rush to ask for it. Old Chelsea bought these Suzhou silks at a price slightly higher than ordinary silk, which is simply a representative of profiteers.

"I'm afraid it won't work, Mr. Chelsea. If you insist on this price, I suggest you go to the East India Company and buy the silk they buy from Canton, China, which would be more realistic. To be honest, the goods I brought back were the finest of Chinese silk, and it is impossible to buy them on the London market, so I don't think they will be worth less than a million pounds! Wickham leaned leisurely back in his chair and opened his mouth. Anyway, he is a seller's market, and it doesn't matter if he sells high or low.

Hearing this offer, old Chelsea's right hand shook unconsciously, and the coffee in the cup almost spilled. Wickham's offer is a bit outrageous, you must know that a first-class battleship equipped with 100 guns will cost about 100,000 pounds, and 1 million pounds is ten first-class battleships! Even if the Chelsea family were to dominate the British shipping industry, they wouldn't be able to come up with a million pounds in cash at once.

Old Chelsea put down his glass, with a hint of sneer on his lips: "Young man, the most important thing for us English gentlemen is to be pragmatic and sincere, not to be as big as the Italians." If you put these goods at auction in Paris, France, the arrogant and vain aristocrats of the mainland will surely buy these silks for more than a million pounds. But now that the European continent has fallen into a scuffle, and the fashionable French aristocracy has also been robbed of all by those who have no pants, I am afraid that the sales of your batch of Chinese silk will become a problem. To be honest, our family has already taken a big risk at the price of 450,000 pounds, and it is not certain whether we can make money or not. ”

Wickham will not be intimidated by the words of old Chelsea, now that Britain's GDP has exceeded 100 million pounds a year, most of this wealth has been usurped by the aristocracy and the new bourgeoisie. No matter how much luxury, newmoney has the ability to consume it.

"Mr. Chelsea's words underestimate the spending power of our wealthy in the United Kingdom of Britain. As far as I know, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is not at all rigid and rigorous as a German, but a young man with a lover of Parisian fashion and art. Driven by His Royal Highness the Prince, there is now a trend of luxury and fashion in the aristocracy of the whole London, and they are not short of money, as long as they can keep up with the trend of St. James's Palace, they are willing to pay more money! The Suzhou silk I brought back from China is absolutely unique in Europe, and I think the rich people in London are definitely willing to pay for it. "Anyway, it's about business, and the price is all over the place to pay back, and Wickham has already prepared his own rhetoric.

Old Chelsea was a little surprised, he didn't expect Wickham, a soldier, to have such a high grasp of the market!

After knowing that the other party was a knowledgeable person, the old Chelsea no longer said falsely: "Mr. Wickham, what you said is indeed the truth. However, if you have been at sea for two years, you may not be very clear about the domestic economic situation. In the past few years, the Chinese people were too enthusiastic about the investment in the textile industry, and a large amount of capital poured into the cotton textile sector, and the sharp increase in output caused the price of cotton cloth to plummet, and many cotton textile factories just barely survived. ”

"Last year the kingdom declared war on revolutionary France, our exports to the European continent were shrinking, the price of 100 cotton yarn fell from 30 shillings to 16 shillings, and many textile mills could not hold on! A few days ago, a textile mill with a capital of up to one million pounds also declared bankruptcy. The collapse of this textile giant has caused a linkage effect of the closure of hundreds of local banks. The economy of the United Kingdom is a mess these days, so to be honest, my shipping company simply can't come up with so much cash to trade right now. ”

It dawned on Wickham that the port of London today is not at all as prosperous as it was two years ago, and looks much more depressed. However, Wickham does not believe how much the Chelsea family's business has been affected, because the Chelsea family's shipping company mainly operates routes to North and South America and the west coast of Africa, and the shrinking trade between the European continent and the United Kingdom has basically not affected the Chelsea line's profits.

"Mr. Chelsea, in the past two years, the demand for cotton textiles in the United States has been increasing, and the shipping company of the Chelsea family has not been less stained. Otherwise, you and I should each take a step back, for a total of 800,000 pounds, how about it? "Wickham doesn't expect the Chelsea family to shell out £1 million comfortably, his psychological price is at £550,000.

Since the outbreak of the economic crisis, the Chelsea family has relied on the expansion of the American market, and has made a lot of money instead of losing money, but the old Chelsea will not rush to admit such a thing, and it is their family's survival principle to make a fortune quietly.

Just when the two sides were about to cool down, Bert, who had been silent, suddenly said: "Old man, George will hand over this business to our Chelsea family is enough to be interesting, why bother arguing over some small money, I think 600,000 pounds is counted, anyway, you won't make less money in this business." ”

At this time, Bert's heart was very happy, and his father always accused him of not doing his job properly, and often stuck his own shell on his pocket money. Now he's finally moved back to the bureau, and he's a part of the shipment.

Hearing this, Wickham almost squirted the coffee in his mouth, and he really doubted that Bert was the old man's own son, and that he had such a pit on his father. As soon as Bert said this, the Chelsea family had to shell out an extra 150,000 pounds.

Old Chelsea's heart is also trembling, hundreds of thousands of pounds have become "small money" in Bert's mouth, and the Prince of Wales's annual salary is only 50,000 pounds. The old gentleman subconsciously wanted to smash his son with the book on the desk, but because of Wickham's presence, he had to withdraw his hand in a curt.

After being cheated by his own son, the old Chelsea no longer insisted, anyway, this business is profitable or not: "Since my son Bert has spoken, let's go according to the price of 600,000 pounds, this is already the bottom line of our Chelsea family." But it is still a little difficult for our family to come up with £600,000 for a while, and I propose to offset some of the transaction with some real estate, company shares and bonds, what does Mr. Wickham think? ”

£600,000 is not a small amount, and even the bank will not be able to come up with that much money at once, so Wickham was not at all surprised by the old Chelsea proposal.

"I wonder what kind of estate Mr. John Chelsea owns?" Two years ago, Wickham's greatest wish was to buy a scenic estate like Bloomberly's, and then live a leisurely and prosperous squire life. If the Chelsea family has any good real estate in their name, it is a good choice to buy it.

As soon as the old Chelsea heard Wickham's tone, he knew there was a way to do it, and began to talk about some of his properties: "I have a nice estate in the resort town of Bath, very beautiful, very suitable for a summer holiday, if Mr. Wickham is interested, £40,000 will be sold to you." I have a property in Kent, which is not subject to the law of limited inheritance, and the annual rent is £2,000, which can be worth £90,000. ”

Wickham is a little tempted, especially the real estate in Kent, only those who own land in Britain today are the real people with social status, not to mention the free real estate without feudal obligations, which is even more unattainable!

Wickham was about to say yes, but Bert jumped out to send his father to the stage: "George, our family's villa in Bath is not bad, but the property in Kent is worthless. The land is right next to the Earl of Astor's estate, and now the Earl of Astor is active in the House of Representatives, hoping to make him occupy the land in accordance with the new enclosure bill! If you buy this land, you will definitely be occupied by Count Astor. ”

Wickham was instantly bunkered, but he didn't expect that such a thing as a rodeo movement would be encountered by him!

From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century, in order to promote the development of the land industry and sheep farming industry in England, the parliament representing the interests of large landowners vigorously promoted the land enclosure movement.

Since that piece of real estate is within the scope of the circle, it is a chicken rib for Wickham, I didn't expect old Chelsea to be so treacherous and want to package and sell such junk assets to himself.

Old Chelsea was already driven crazy by his own son, and reprimanded loudly: "I talk business with Mr. Wickham, what are you still doing in the study, get out of here!" Bert saw that his father was really angry, so he walked out of the study in a gloomy manner.

"And what shares does Mr. Chelsea want to sell?" Wickham asked casually, thinking that old Chelsea would fool himself with a company that was about to go bankrupt in the economic crisis, so he insisted on collecting cash.

"Will Stephens Textiles has a 30% stake, Kingston Steel has a 26% stake, and Taylor Lloyds Bank has a 45% stake, I wonder which company you're interested in?" The companies that Chelsea Sr. spoke of were a few assets that were not painful and had no conflict with the family's core business, and the core ones such as the shares of the East India Company, the Royal African Trading Company and the Chelsea Shipping Company, he would not mention it.

After hearing the names of the companies, Wickham was shocked and said in a trembling voice, "You mean you own 45 percent of Taylor Lloyds Bank?" ”

Old Chelsea wondered why Wickham was so excited to hear about Taylor Lloyd's Bank, which was just a small local bank in Birmingham.

"Mr. Wickham, have you heard of this bank too? A keyman in Birmingham named Kane Taylor pledged his shares in the bank to me and borrowed £100,000, but the hapless guy had failed in his business and could not redeem the shares. If Mr. Wickham is sincere, he will sell you the original price of £100,000, for our family has no intention of getting involved in banking anyway. ”

Wickham was ecstatic in his heart, he didn't expect that the top ten banks in the world in the 21st century would now be the price of cabbage! Founded in 1765 by John Taylor, a key maker, and Simpson Lloyd II, a steel producer and distributor, in Daleend, Birmingham, the bank has remained a stale in British financial circles for more than 100 years.

It was not until the 90s of the 20th century that Lloyds Bank eventually became the largest mortgage and savings bank in the UK through a series of mergers and acquisitions, absorbing nearly 250 billion pounds in deposits, becoming the largest bank in the UK!

Of course, the bank's international fame is linked to a scandal involving British royalty, which Wickham has seen on forums before.

In September 1971, a "bank robbery" occurred in Britain that shocked the world - several gangster robbers infiltrated the underground vault of Lloyd's Bank in London and robbed jewels and gold bricks that are currently worth up to 5 million pounds. But then someone broke the news that the robbery was secretly planned by the British ** Intelligence Department, and its real purpose was to steal a group of nude photos of Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, hidden in the bank vault, so as not to plunge the royal family into an unprecedented scandal!

The origin of this scandal is this. Princess Margaret's marriage broke down and she lived in seclusion on a small island in the Caribbean Sea for a long time to avoid her husband. During her seclusion on the island, Princess Margaret and her lover, the gardener Roddy Llewellyn, who was 17 years her junior, often sunbathed on the beach, sometimes stripping naked and taking many provocative photographs.

Unfortunately, the photos fell into the hands of "Michael X", the leader of the notorious criminal organization in the Caribbean. Immediately, the photograph was secretly kept in a safe box belonging to "Michael X" in the underground vault of Lloyd's Bank on Baker Street, London.

When the British ** intelligence department learned of the existence of the photo, it immediately fell into a great fear - because once the nude photos were made public, it would definitely bring shame to the royal family. Amazingly, MI5 secretly devised a plan - to infiltrate the underground vault of Lloyd's Bank and steal the nude photos! In order to hide the situation, MI5 agents also deliberately took five million pounds worth of jewellery and gold to fake the scene of the bank being ransacked.

Of course, these are just rumors, and neither the British royal family nor the official family has come forward to confirm it, and the robbers involved in the robbery have been silent about the matter, so the bank robbery has become a historical mystery. In his previous life, Wickham was interested in this big robbery, and by the way, he checked some information about Lloyd's Bank, and then he learned something about this bank.

It must be admitted that after the acquisition of this bank by Wickham, it may not be able to become a big bank in the future as it has in history, but it is an opportunity for Wickham to get involved in the banking industry, and he can use the shell of Lloyd's Bank to take advantage of the economic crisis and the sluggish financial industry to buy small local banks and establish a commercial bank with branches all over England!

"Mr. John Chelsea, at the price you set, 100,000 pounds, 45 per cent of Lloyd's Bank, I want it!" Wickham's heart stirred that one of Britain's largest banks would be surnamed Wickham from now on...... Well, half of Lloyd's Bank is going to be surnamed Wickham.

Old Chelsea were a little puzzled by Wickham's euphoria, because the shares weren't worth £150,000, and the £150,000 offer was just a test. Judging from the performance of the Wickham negotiations just now, this young man does not look like a nouveau riche with a lot of money and stupidity.

Old Chelsea thought for a while and felt that there was no problem, anyway, it was not him, so he nodded and said: "In that case, tomorrow I will call my lawyer to come over and sign the transfer agreement with you, and the rest of the money will be paid when the agreement is signed tomorrow." ”

In addition, Wickham also bought the property in Kent for 50,000 pounds. Regardless of whether the Earl of Astor enclosed the estate in the future, he had to give it a try, because there were so few estates in England that did not carry feudal obligations, and he did not want to give it up.