"A million livres?!"

Mr. Montemar froze, his gaze slightly glazed away, and he sat as if petrified staring at Lawrence's outstretched index finger.

If someone else had offered such a ridiculous price, Mr. Montemar would have laughed at the ignorance of the other man and walked away.

Even in Paris, where prices are high, it only takes a dozen livres to keep a low-level commoner on the back for a month; The shopkeepers and craftsmen above are paid no more than 30 livres a month.

Five hundred livres was enough to cover all the expenses of a decent petty bourgeoisie or petty nobleman for a month, including rent and the salaries of servants.

Even for a figure like the Duke of Schwartle, his annuity was only 60,000 livres, and of course he had many other sources of income.

That's why Mr. Montemar couldn't help but be distracted when he looked at Lawrence's outstretched index finger, which in his eyes was a mountain of silver coins.

Even with tens of millions of livres, Mr. Montemar was still panicking about such a huge investment.

Especially for a banker like him, this investment needs to take up a significant portion of his cash flow.

If something goes wrong with the bank's cash flow, then a run and credit bankruptcy will follow, and when the bank reaches credit bankruptcy, it can be declared bankrupt.

Mr. Montemare couldn't help but swallow at this thought, even though he knew that there was a huge risk ahead, this was a great investment opportunity in front of him.

Lawrence, on the other hand, sat down and looked at Mr. Montmar with a smile, waiting for him to make a final decision.

"That's... What are the shares I can get a share of? ”

Mr. Montmar asked, twinching his fingers, a little excitedly and nervously.

Lawrence wasn't much of an actuary, but he never wanted to run the company well, so he said casually after some tacit calculations:

"About a quarter, but I have to state in advance that this part of the shares only contains the right to dividends, and does not have the corresponding board voting rights. Even after listing on the stock exchange, I will only issue non-voting shares. ”

"A quarter?! That's really...! ”

When Mr. Montemar heard this figure, he immediately gave his actuary a look of surprise and motioned for him to begin calculating the feasibility of the investment, while subconsciously using his fingers on the tablecloth to calculate the calculations.

As for Lawrence's statement that there are no voting rights, it is not Mr. Montmar's concern, and since the National Silver Company is run by the government, it is quite normal that the officials would want to retain the right to make business decisions.

Even later stock investors will not care about this, after all, even if they have a vote on the company's affairs, it will not help, once the two major shareholders of the Corsican government and the French royal family have made a decision, they will not be politically opposed to it.

The actuary, who had been instructed by Mr. Montmartre, skilfully pulled out a large pile of papers, flipped through them quickly, and at the same time flicked a small mechanical device resembling an abacus in his hand, and whispered words in his mouth.

After a few minutes, the actuary's face showed some pleasure, and he leaned into Mr. Montmar's ear and said:

"Sir, if we discount the short-term Treasury bond interest rate as the risk-free rate, and then use the earnings of companies in the same industry to revise the estimate, the net present value of this investment can reach 1,723,400 livres, although the investment period will be a little long, but it is undoubtedly an investment project with a rating of 3A."

"More than 1.7 million? Hiss..."

Mr. Montemal breathed a cool breath, and the greed in his eyes became even more difficult to hide.

Net present value (NPV) is the value of all future earnings discounted to the present, minus the cost of the current investment; In other words, as long as the risk is not considered, Mr. Montmar invests 1 million, which is equivalent to his immediate profit of more than 1.7 million.

As for the possible risks, Mr. Montemar would not have doubted a company with the guarantee of a royal and government background.

Even Lord Melly, who was on the side, sat in place in great annoyance when he heard this, regretting that Lawrence had set a minimum amount of shares, otherwise he would definitely spend most of his wealth in this promising silver company.

"Hahaha Bonaparte, you are so generous, I don't know how to praise you."

Mr. Montmar trembled with excitement, and hurriedly motioned to his employees to begin writing a contract agreement for the purchase of shares, and said gratefully:

"I'm very happy with your proposal, if we can, let's sign a contract here, right?"

"Absolutely." Lawrence nodded flatly.

...

The contract was soon signed at the table, and Mr. Montmarre packed it up to his satisfaction, and took his men and Lord Merry to take their leave.

Although the sumptuous lunch at the round table was scarcely unused, Mr. Montemar had apparently feasted on a feast of capital, and was secretly pleased to have picked up a big bargain.

As if fearing that Lawrence would repent, Monsieur Montmar hastily delivered to Lawrence a large pile of bearer deposit receipts from the Commercial Bank of France, which had just been signed, and hurried away with the crowd.

With the group leaving, only Lawrence and the Duke of Choiseul and two scholars of the Royal Academy of Sciences were left in the room.

"I didn't expect you to sell a quarter of your shares casually."

The Duke of Choiseul frowned slightly and looked at Lawrence, who was counting the deposit slips, and said with a little displeasure:

"Although I don't understand finance, judging from the banker's expression, it seems that you made him pick up a big bargain."

Half of the profits of the Corsican National Silver Company were to be attributed to the French, and Lawrence's sale of the company's shares would certainly affect the French royal family's earnings.

This is why the Duke of Choiseul felt slightly unhappy with Lawrence after selling his shares cheaply.

Faced with Duke Choiseul's blame, Lawrence smiled indifferently and continued to count the bearer deposit slips in his hand.

In this era, there were basically no personal accounts in the banks, and all deposits were embodied in such anonymous deposit slips, just like the several Venetian bank deposit slips that Lawrence had previously seized from the Genoese, and anyone could exchange such deposit slips.

In this sense, this kind of deposit certificate is actually more like an acceptance bill.

Lawrence had in his possession a hundred certificates of deposit in the denomination of 10,000 livres, signed by Mr. Montmar himself.

A random one out of it would be enough for any citizen to spend the rest of his life in peace and well-being.

After counting the deposit slips and keeping them in good place, Lawrence shook his head with a smile, looked at the Duke of Choiseul and said:

"He may have really picked up a big bargain, but I also got a reward that was exactly in line with the value."

The Duke of Choiseul glanced at the deposit slip in Lawrence's hand and asked puzzledly:

"Return? A million livres is a big number, but you can obviously sell more. ”

Lawrence pursed his lips and smiled, took a sip of champagne, and said slowly:

"You may not know it, but there's a well-known story in the world of finance."

"Oh? What's the story? The Duke of Choiseul was a little interested, and asked in a loud voice.

"A young entrepreneur went to a well-known investor to seek investment, and the investor said that he was very optimistic about the young man's project and was willing to invest 500,000 silver coins for him. The young man left satisfied, but waited a long time and did not see the investor deliver the money. So the young man found the investor again, but the investor said that he had paid 500,000 silver coins to the young man. ”

Lawrence touched his chin and said:

"Do you know why?"

Duke Choiseul shook his head directly, he was good at politics, diplomacy and military, but he didn't have much experience in finance and finance.

"The news that the well-known investor said that he was willing to invest 500,000 yuan for young people is worth 500,000 silver coins."

Lawrence chuckled and said:

It sounds ridiculous, but that's the case in the financial world, and Mr. Montemar, as the person at the top of the investment world, will undoubtedly be valued and imitated by countless people. In other words, the investment he gave me was only worth one million livres, and the fact that he invested me one million livres was probably worth more than the million. ”

"And this kind of thing..."

The Duke of Choiseul thought for a while against his forehead before realizing that what Lawrence said was indeed very reasonable, after all, the main body of transactions in the financial market is people, and once people gather, they will inevitably form a collective psychology of following the trend and conforming to the herd.

In this way, the value of the Corsican National Silver Company itself, combined with the capital injection of Monsieur Montmarre, a top banker, will focus the attention of the Parisian financial community, and even the financial circles of the neighboring countries, on the silver company, which has not yet been formally established.

And the Duke of Choiseul didn't have to think about it, and it was followed by an unimaginably large amount of capital, and I don't know how much wealth would be gathered in this mere shell enterprise.

Lavoisier and Academician Geeta at the table were even more stunned when they heard this, from the deal that had just reached a million-livre to the follow-up plan that Lawrence said, this was completely beyond the understanding of the two natural philosophers.

But Academician Gaita is still very clear about one thing, that is, the national silver company he is about to work for will gather countless wealth, and as a consultant of the company, his treatment will naturally rise at that time.

At the thought of this, Academician Gaita's eyes suddenly became even hotter, and he had already made up his mind to use all means to show his hospitality to Lawrence to ensure that the position of consultant to the company fell into his hands.

Lawrence also noticed his fiery eyes, smiled and glanced at Academician Gaita, and said slowly:

"Your argument is excellent, Mr. Geta."

"You've won the award, and since this is a report I compiled, of course I want to use my reputation to defend its truth." Academician Gaita hurriedly said with a smile.

Lawrence nodded, deliberately looked up at the wall clock in the room, and said in an undeniable tone to Academician Geeta and Lavoisier:

"I don't think it's too early, it's time to leave. However, the Duke of Choiseul and I have some business to do, and I'm sorry we can't send them back. ”

The two also understood that Lawrence was giving an eviction order, so they quickly got up, bowed respectfully to Lawrence and the Duke of Choiseul, and left.

Now, only Lawrence and the Duke of Schwartell were left facing the feast.

"Do you have something to say? Governor of Bonaparte. ”

The Duke of Choiseul asked unhurriedly, and since Lawrence had dismissed the others, it was clear that there must be some topics that needed to be discussed privately.

Lawrence nodded slowly.

The two things that worried him the most at the moment were the expansion of the National Silver Company in the financial circles of Paris, and the second was the political attack of the Duke of Richelieu with the Duke of Choiseul.

Originally, in Lawrence's plan, these two things, one in finance and the other in politics, would not have intersected much.

However, after being placed by Justice Mope at the Palace of Versailles a few days ago, Lawrence quickly realized that the hands of the Duke of Richelieu and Justice Mope were likely to take the opportunity to intervene in the Corsican National Silver Company.

After all, after Justice Mapp took over the negotiations with Lawrence, he would basically overturn all the achievements of the Duke of Choiseul, which naturally included the fact that the Corsican government and the French royal family jointly formed the National Silver Company.

And the performance of the national silver company, which has lost the support of the royal family, will certainly be greatly reduced in the financial markets, which is definitely not the result that Lawrence expected.

Not to mention that the Duke of Richelieu may find a way to directly press the national silver company to death in the financial market, preventing Lawrence from using it to raise funds.

So after retiring the others, Lawrence informed the Duke of Schwarcel directly of his thoughts.

"Hmm... You're right, Justice Mopp won't let you call the tide in the financial markets. ”

After listening to Lawrence's analysis, the Duke of Choiseul also nodded very approvingly, but his expression was not worried, but he took the initiative to ask:

"Since you have thought of this layer, it means that you already have a way, right?"

"You're exalting me too much."

Lawrence said with a wry smile, but still nodded and analyzed:

"I think it's very easy to keep the royal family's share of the company, after all, the royal family itself will benefit a lot from this financing."

Even the most conservative estimates suggest that the National Silver Company was able to raise five million livres in this financing, and nearly forty percent of that money would go into the pockets of the royal family.

Including the million livres that Lawrence just received, 375,000 of which are owned by the French royal family.

"So the royal family must be on our side in this matter."

Lawrence tapped on the table and said:

"So... Perhaps this was an opportunity to break the fragile alliance between Justice Mup and the Duke of Richelieu. ”