Mid-May 1884

City of the Red River Valley

Queensland Home Authority, Office of the Governor.

In his capacity as governor, Li Fushou met here with the members of the Australian mediation representative group of the colonial department headed by the Marquis of Winchester.

The Marquis of Winchester was a 37-year-old young aristocratic gentleman, personable, noble, and his speech and demeanor revealed that he had a good aristocratic education, and was a standard English gentleman.

In every respect, it is flawless.

The only drawback is poverty, there is definite evidence of this;

In order to maintain a decent life for the upper classes, the Marquis of Winchester had sold the castle's valuable paintings, works of art and jewelry, which can now be said to be a family of people.

There are many, many more British nobles like him......

"I have to marvel at how much the Lord Queensland's lands are so rich as I could have imagined, and if I'm not mistaken, even more populous than Belize or Manchester, oh my God, it's unimaginable!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Lord Winchester, I would rather have a castle in London than a city here, which is so far away from the political and economic centre of the world."

"Huh...... You're right, and I agree with you. ”

"I had the pleasure of visiting London a few years ago and was impressed and fascinated by the luxury of London's high society."

"To be able to get such a high evaluation from you, there must be only London, the world's central city, which really deserves it."

The Marquis of Winchester looked up proudly, wearing a fitting and expensive tuxedo, and a precious cane worth more than £140 leaning on the side of his chair, and spoke with confidence, without showing any sign of poverty.

This is the down-and-out British aristocracy, who wears almost half of his property on his body, and the donkey and eggs are light outside, and if he falls outside, he can directly declare bankruptcy.

The real billionaire Li Fushou has a decent smile on his face, and he seems to have no idea the details of the other party, and he is just right.

In fact

The expatriate agencies in England had already investigated the Marquis of Winchester, who had almost no walls except for a large castle in disrepair.

Moreover, Mr. Marquess Winchester was in a small role in the British Overseas Colonies, with a salary of £13 and 7 shillings a week.

It stands to reason

A salary of more than £700 a year is enough to support the middle class or a small aristocracy, but for Mr. Marquess Winchester, this is only a drop in the bucket.

To maintain the basic functions of the vast castle building, it was necessary to employ no less than 60 servants (which was already the minimum), and the two carriages required to attend the high-ranking occasions and ordinary times, which required no less than £5,000 a year, which he could never afford.

The British Overseas Colonies Department was originally established in 1768 to deal with the affairs of the North American colonies, and after the North American Revolutionary War, the thirteen North American states broke away from the British jurisdiction and established independent states, and the status of the Overseas Colonies declined sharply.

In 1801, it was incorporated into the War and Colonial Ministry.

In 1854, with the rapid expansion of the British Empire's colonies during the Victorian period, the government split the War Office and the Colonial Office into two departments, the War Office and the Colonial Office, in order to cope with the heavy colonial affairs.

The Colonial Department was responsible for colonial affairs and was headed by a new Colonial Minister.

The Colonial Office was not the department responsible for all the affairs of the British Overseas Territories, but the Indian Department was responsible for the Viceroy of India, while the affairs of the British Protectorate, such as Egypt, were entrusted to the Foreign Office.

The two sides talked for a while without nutrition, and gradually cut to the chase.

The Marquess of Winchester's slender white fingers sharpened the jade carving of the precious cane, and said in a reserved tone full of London flavor;

"Lord Gulliver, Minister of the Colonies, was deeply concerned about the situation in Australia that day, and entrusted us with a delegation to investigate and mediate, and has been here for more than a month and a half, making a detailed visit to the southern states of New South Wales and Victoria, and what we have heard and seen is not satisfactory......"

He is well versed in the skills of conversation, but he just talked about it in a foggy way, anyway, the listener knows it.

In some cases, there is no need to make it clear, let alone name the problem, but most of them are ambiguous words such as "deeply worried", "disturbing", "looking forward to a better solution", "expecting both sides to put aside their prejudices and have frank and sincere talks", and so on.

Li Fushou also responded with a serious look, from time to time "um", "ah", "I think so too", "look forward to better results", "firmly maintain the unwavering unified market of Australia", and once again emphasized his solemn position.

The talks lasted more than an hour and ended with formulaic clichés.

In order to welcome the arrival of the seven-member delegation on behalf of the mediation team in Queensland, the Governor of the Governor, Mr. Li Fushou, hosted a gala dinner and dance to entertain the delegation from London.

The party was not over, and Li Fushou left.

According to him;

It's already okay, I don't have any more time to waste on this Hanako from London, just entertain me.

In fact

For the aristocrats from London, the upper class of the Red River Valley and Brisbane were full of enthusiasm, and lavish balls and dinners followed one after another, seemingly never ending.

Belch...... The mediation team was the same kind of hospitality in Sydney and Melbourne, spending the whole day at balls and lavish dinners, without going to the frontline of the countryside to find out the real situation, and these old bureaucrats from London did not bother to do so, it was too disrespectful.

More than ten days passed in a flash

Red Fort, Sky Tower

Li Fushou and Xin Changjun sat opposite each other on the sofa, with a pot of fragrant cloud tea in front of them, and the two drank and talked.

"Yuan Ding, it's not authentic for you to do this, these days you have lost all the mediation team to us, and the whole person doesn't even see a shadow."

"I know that Brother Changjun is very talented, and he can deal with this group of flowers."

"My Lord Yuanding, Mr. Marquis Winchester is not a three-year-old child, he is not so easy to fool, he has expressed his dissatisfaction in various ways, although he has not said it explicitly, in fact his patience is running out."

"Hmph, I'll kill him."

"That can't be said, although the Marquis of Winchester is an insignificant minor role in the Colonial Department, he may not have the ability to get things done, but he must have the ability to do bad things."

"So, that's what he's worth, how much do you think it's worth?"

"This ...... I'm hard to sure. ”

"Hehe......"

Li Fushou smiled calmly, picked up the teacup and took a sip gently, letting the fragrant taste of tea linger in his mouth, and said in a deep voice; "Mr. Gulliver, the Minister of the Colonial Department, sent them to Australia, with no expectation of solving any problems.

There is already a policy on the Australian situation, and as Queen Victoria is about to face the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne, more is better than less, and this time it is just to create an opportunity for them to fight the autumn breeze and fill their depleted pockets.

In my opinion

It would be too much of a concession to give money directly, so it would be better to let them take a stake in the joint venture of the FLM Gas Cooker Company in the UK, take out a stake worth 40,000 pounds, and give Mr. Winchester 20,000 pounds of equity.

In this way, you can get a stable income of more than 2,000 pounds per year.

Of course, these shares are not given to them for free, they are not worth my big fight, I have to pay real money to buy, I just give them such a chance to buy shares. ”

"Take out real money? Hehehe...... I don't think Mr. Marquis Winchester could afford £20,000 and it wasn't worth the money to sell him. Xin Changjun laughed when he heard this.

"You're wrong, the Marquess of Winchester is not as depressed as you think, this title alone is worth millions of pounds, and there are countless wealthy American tycoons willing to pay for it."

"Uh...... And what's going on? ”

"Of course, have you ever heard of an American princess?"

"Yuan Ding, do you mean ......" Xin Changjun finally suddenly realized.

"Hmm!"

Li Fushou nodded seriously, expressing his approval of the other party's guess.

End of the 19th century

With the rapid take-off of the US economy, a large number of factory owners and entrepreneurs have made a fortune, but these nouveau riche are rich and powerful but have no social status, and they are simply looked down upon in Europe, and are ridiculed as "American cowboys with black fingernails" and "a group of rich old hats".

meanwhile

At the height of the Victorian era of the British Empire, London's high society life became more and more impoverished and luxurious, and it became more and more difficult to maintain a decent high society life.

Many traditional aristocrats, who lived only on land rent, did not catch up with the wave of the industrial revolution and became depressed because of their stubborn and conservative concepts.

Handsome, dashing, well-behaved, noble, well-educated and educated, and even more rare, with a dazzling title of nobility on his head, the only drawback is poverty, which is not uncommon in London.

Therefore, there are young British aristocrats who advertise marriage in New York, USA, attracting wealthy American tycoons to chase after them, vying to marry their wealthy daughters into British aristocratic families, and at the same time bring a large amount of rich dowry, which is the so-called "princess of the United States".

The down-and-out aristocracy is interested in the money of the rich in the United States, and the rich in the United States are interested in the status of the British aristocracy.

This was the case with Churchill's mother, as was the case with the mistress of Downton Abbey, which was not uncommon at the end of the 19th century, when hundreds of American princesses married into British aristocratic families, and there was very little real happiness.

Mrs. Churchill gave birth to him after seven months of marriage, and it is said that he was born prematurely, and I am afraid that everyone knows what the truth is.

Mr. Winchester has the title of Marquis on his head, and he has a long and glorious aristocratic heritage, and for this alone, it is not too much to be worth a million pounds, and some of the tycoons of the United States are willing to pay for it.

He obediently gave his beautiful daughter and offered a rich dowry of at least a million dollars.

Coupled with the financial support after marriage, almost regardless of the cost, it is possible that millions of pounds is still underspoken.