San Francisco, USA.

Lin Guokai looked at the procession outside the car window and said in an exclamatory tone: "I have only been out of the United States for a few months, and the situation has deteriorated like this." ”

"What can be done," said Giannini, the president of the Bank of Italy, in a nonchalant tone, "the casualties in the Asian theater are too great to be dissatisfied." ”

The only relationship between the so-called Bank of Italy and Italy is that the founder, Giannini, is of Italian descent, and in addition to this, it is a native American bank and currently the largest bank on the entire West Coast of the United States.

"I've heard a rumor," Giannini squinted at Mr. Lin, "that the anti-war activists who marched were backed by someone I don't know." ”

"And that kind of thing?" Lin Guokai looked shocked, "This kind of guy with bad intentions must be caught and severely punished." ”

"Oh, I really didn't expect Mr. Lin Guokai to think like this, it's really surprising."

"I'm a patriot, and I'm in love with America." Lin Guokai looked pious.

Giannini stared at him for a few seconds, then looked away.

"Well," she said, "I've lent a lot of money to unknown people anyway, and we're even." Mr. Lin, you won't have anything to do with these mobs outside, will you? ”

"Don't you think these people will become an important bargaining chip in the state legislature election? If the congressman you support openly declares that the war in China is the wrong war, it should get a lot of votes, right? ”

"But then you will lose a lot of political donations. Although I can increase the amount of donations to the government, politicians are very greedy, and they know that I will definitely continue to support them and it is impossible to stop donating to them, so they will always draw donations from other places as much as possible. ”

"What if I donate to them?" Lin Guokai looked at Giannini with a smile, "Vale is willing to provide a political contribution equal to the total amount of contributions they have received now, do you think this will make these parliamentarians change their minds?" ”

Giannini glanced at Lin Guokai again and did not speak.

Lin Guokai continued: "Tang? Mr. Giannini, we have a lot of common interests. Now this war doesn't have so many benefits for the western industrial union, does it? The industrial magnates and chaebols in the east greedily take most of the benefits, and in the old Chinese saying they eat meat, and you drink soup, which is not very tasty, isn't it? ”

"Mr. Lin, you are right, but after all, the war has brought us benefits, and so far, I have not found how much benefit the truce can bring us. On the contrary, a truce could necessitate mass layoffs in factories. ”

"But the truce also means the beginning of post-war reconstruction, and both Europe and Asia will generate a lot of demand for goods because of post-war reconstruction."

"Yes, you're right, but in the present state of truce, these needs will be in the hands of the businesses of our current enemies. So we have to cease fighting, and we have to cease fighting after defeating the enemy, otherwise we won't be able to gain any benefits. ”

Lin Guo laughed: "This is the part I want to discuss with you today, we Vale can guarantee that after the armistice, the companies under the Western Industrial Federation will participate in the post-war reconstruction of the Asian region, and the merchants in the east will be excluded." If the war ends in the form of an American victory, then you will have to face competition from the various consortia in the east. ”

"Do you want me to sacrifice the interests of the country for my own interests?"

"On the contrary, the truce is best for the United States now," Lin Guokai pointed out the car window with a thumbs-up, "You see, in the past, the government has been concealing the number of casualties, but now there are too many people killed in battle, and it is no longer possible to fool the people with the number of thousands dead and tens of thousands of wounded as in the past, and the government has to come up with a bigger number." 150,000 deaths have already made the people feel so emotional, Mr. Giannini, what do you think will happen to the people when that number rises to 500,000 or 1 million? ”

"Do you really think there will be such a big casualty?"

"Of course it will, in fact, I think that the number of US military casualties will only be 150,000 now, in addition to the government's deliberate concealment, the most important reason is that the US military has a good medical security capability, but I also know one thing, that is, in the Asian theater, the US military's medical security is no longer so sufficient, because now the front has advanced to the area where the transportation is not so convenient, and the combat area is unusually large, and most importantly, guerrillas are everywhere, and the US military's drug transport team, is their favorite target. ”

Lin Guokai paused, glanced at Giannini, confirmed his expression, and continued: "This war has now begun to become a war that outweighs the losses, and I think you are actually very aware of this. Therefore, if any politician starts to push for a truce at this time, he can get a pretty good bargaining chip in the future political battle. And those who support that politician will also profit from this bargaining chip. ”

Giannini pondered for a few seconds, then smiled: "I admit that your statement is very attractive, but it is a bit of a shame for us to raise the banner of peace now, so I can only promise that when you can convince more forces to become our partners, we will not hesitate to join, and that's it." Of course, as a sign of my sincerity, the Bank of Italy can provide Vale with a large loan as our deposit. ”

"That's enough." Lin Guokai paused, "Then let's change the topic, are you interested in the development of Brazil?" ”

"Is that a side benefit of joining your planned anti-war coalition?"

"Sort of, now that Britain has paid so many pounds for weapons and equipment, your bank has a lot of pounds in charge, right? Instead of letting these pounds rot in your hands, you should invest them, right? After all, the risk of a large-scale depreciation of the pound in the future is not small. ”

In the international trade of this time and space, there is no such thing as using the US dollar as the accepted settlement currency, and the British buy weapons in pounds sterling, while American companies naturally hope that they will get US dollars, and the financial institutions responsible for specific settlement and handling the circulation of funds can only pay the settled goods to American enterprises in the form of US dollars, so on the basis of the trade surplus, these financial institutions have a lot of extra pounds in their hands.

These pounds cannot be directly put into circulation in the United States, and it has already been exchanged once, and a second exchange is equivalent to generating a large number of dollars out of thin air, which will cause inflation.

So these pounds can only be used to invest outside the United States.

By the way, the reason why the government of a certain country holds a large amount of dollars in another time and space but does not use these dollars to invest in the country is also based on the same reason: these dollars are concentrated in the hands of the central bank responsible for international settlement in international settlements, and the value they represent has actually been exchanged for renminbi into the domestic circulation market, and then putting these dollars into the domestic market in any form will lead to terrible consequences. Therefore, when I see someone shouting "why don't you give so many foreign exchange reserves to the poor" and something like that, you can directly throw him a "fool".

Back to the United States, at this time, the international trade settlement in the United States was still decentralized (in contrast, the international trade settlement in Germany was basically in charge of Lin Youde's Deutsche Investment Bank, so the foreign exchange accumulation generated in the international trade settlement was all in the hands of Lin Youde), so the financial institutions involved in the settlement accumulated a lot of pounds in their hands, and the same was true for the Bank of Italy.

At this time, the economic situation in Britain is not optimistic, and it is not clear when the pound will become waste paper -- of course, the current pound is still very strong, because Churchill has been gritting his teeth to ensure the gold standard of the pound in order to ensure the purchasing capacity of the pound and the stability of the financial system of the Commonwealth countries.

By the way, this time and space is different from the previous time and space, the British Empire is declining at a slower rate than another time and space because of the existence of the gods, and the gold standard of the British Empire in another time and space has collapsed during the First World War, and it was only restored by Churchill after the end of the First World War, but it did not last for a few years. The gold standard of the British pound in this time and space was only briefly interrupted in World War I, and it was restored immediately after the end of the war, which also shows from one side that the British Empire in this time and space is indeed tougher than the British Empire in another time and space.

Without the emergence of Lin Youde, the British Empire might have been able to ensure the actual existence of the British Commonwealth after the end of World War II, and would not have become a showmanship.

But Lin Youde appeared, so the Commonwealth was bound to become a showcase, and the gold standard of the pound would never last long.

Although Britain temporarily abandoned the gold standard in World War I, because the British still had some advantages over Germany on the battlefield, everyone also felt that Britain had a big chance of winning, so they had a lot of confidence in the pound, so the pound's ability to pay was not greatly affected. But this time is different, once Churchill abandons the gold standard, everyone's trust in the pound will drop significantly, after all, most people now believe that Britain has not been defeated only because the United States entered the war.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Giannini is in a hurry to throw the pound in his hands.

The property will not depreciate significantly, especially the property of the mine, before the lighting, there is basically only the possibility of appreciation.

Giannini thought about it, and finally smiled at Lin Guokai and said, "You said that you moved me, Brazil's development plan, please allow me to participate." ”

"Welcome." Lin Guokai stretched out his hand, and when the two shook hands, he continued, "In this way, we can be regarded as allies with common interests, right?" ”

"I'm afraid so."

As soon as the news of the Bank of Italy's investment in Brazil's Vale project spreads, everyone will assume that the two companies have reached an intention to work together.