Lionel raised his hand at the servant standing beside him, and soon a document was delivered to him.

He laid it on the coffee table and smiled and introduced Arthur, "Mr. Hastings, it's actually a very coincidental thing, if you're planning to invest in more stable sovereign bonds, then you can just catch this wave." ”

"Is sovereign bond investment stable?" Dumas leaned back on the sofa and said, "As far as I know, among the public bonds issued by South American countries, only Brazilian government bonds are still paying interest as usual, right?" ”

Lionel smiled and stretched out his hand to Alexandre Dumas, and he said, "So this gentleman has ever invested in public bonds?" This is not an area that the average person can deal with. But I don't look at your appearance very familiarly, you probably didn't do this in London before, did you? Can I take the liberty of asking for your first name? ”

Alexandre Dumas shook his hand and said, "The Rothschilds really have extraordinary eyesight. Yes, I did invest in this in the past, and I opened an account with Rothschild Bank, but you may have frozen my account. After all, I'm now a wanted criminal by the French government, and I, Alexandre Dumas, am glad to know. ”

When Lionel heard the name, he couldn't help but open his mouth slightly, he was a little surprised, but he quickly came back to his senses.

He smiled and patted his head: "I should have thought of it, Monsieur Dumas, when I traveled to France before, I accompanied my uncle to the theater to see your "Henry III and His Court", and the historical drama "Christina", which is quite a wonderful script. At that time, I heard my uncle say that you have earned nearly 100,000 francs from this play, and that you are one of the most outstanding French playwrights. ”

Lionel's sycophant Dumas was quite comfortable, and he nodded proudly: "It's just a little work written by hand, you really have a good reputation." ”

However, Lionel quickly turned the conversation back to Arthur with a smile.

"I knew that Mr. Hastings' friends weren't any ordinary people. Exceptional people are always attracted to each other, and Rothschild is not only investing in wealth, but also very willing to invest in great people of the present and tomorrow.

Mr. Hastings, I will not hide it from you. South American sovereign bonds are certainly not trustworthy, but Rothschild was recently authorized by the Treasury to issue a modest amount of British government bonds for the government.

I can tell you a little bit about it, this is a batch of 100,000 pounds worth of 100,000 pounds of urban construction bonds, which should be at an interest rate of 3.15% per annum.

If you want to invest in a sound asset, I can privately set you a share of £1,000 in advance. In this way, you can earn £31.5 per year for the next 10 years.

In the current environment, although such a rate of return is not particularly high, it is better to be safe and stable. ”

Arthur nodded slightly when he heard this, and he asked instead, "What if it's a real estate investment?" ”

Lionel opened the document in front of him and released the information on it in front of Arthur without reservation.

That's a summary of the price movements of all rental and sale properties represented by a London property consultancy.

Arthur turned the page and examined, and Rothschild patiently explained to him.

"As you can see, property prices in London have always been relatively stable, with most of the exception of a few popular areas where prices have risen more quickly, with average annual increases of 1% to 2%, and rental returns have fluctuated around 4.8% per annum. After deducting your home maintenance, taxes and other expenses, the approximate rate of return should be 3.5%.

It's a higher return than UK bonds, but it takes a little time and effort to take care of it. Of course, if you don't like to waste time taking care of these properties, you can also entrust our company to run them on your behalf. But in this case, we will have to charge a certain service fee.

All things considered, the profit of buying a property may be similar to that of buying public bonds, and its advantage over new public bonds may be that it brings hidden income such as voting rights to the owners. ”

Arthur nodded slightly, Lionel did not deceive him, and even in order to win his trust, he did not hesitate to display the trade secrets coveted by various real estate brokerage companies in front of him.

But he also understands what the other party means by doing this, there is no free lunch in the world, some things don't need to be said too clearly, just a simple action can make the two sides reach a tacit understanding.

Arthur slowly closed the document in front of him, he looked at the smiling Lionel, and understood that from now on, he would be on the Rothschild cruise ship floating on the Thames with the Duke of Wellington and others.

"What about the stock market?" he asked. ”

Lionel raised his eyebrows, he didn't talk about stocks first, but asked with a smile: "You are well-informed, then you must know that the railway industry has been very hot recently, right?" ”

Arthur nodded: "Of course, everyone says that the first thirty years are the world of the canal industry, and the next thirty years belong to the railway industry. ”

"Hearing is of course an important reference, but I have a more important piece of data here."

Lionel smiled and opened the other document at hand: "You see here, in 1821, the first railway company in Great Britain was officially approved, but it was not until 1824 that we had a second railway company. However, you can see that since 1824, there has been a rapid rise in the number of approved railroad companies.

In 1826, Parliament approved five newly established railway companies in one fell swoop. By the end of the year, Great Britain already has 21 railway companies, and last year Parliament approved 105.25 miles of rail applications, more than half of the total construction applications in the past eight years.

While there was a bit of an unfortunate hiccup at this year's Manchester-Liverpool rail opening ceremony, we don't think this episode should interrupt Britain's rail construction frenzy. As you said before, the next thirty years will belong to the railroad industry, and I can even assert that the 19th century will be the century of the railroad. ”

Arthur asked tentatively, "So your advice is, invest in railroad stocks?" ”

"Nope."

Lionel replied with a smile: "On the contrary, we strongly discourage you from touching the shares of the railway company. Because I understand that many railway companies listed on the London Stock Exchange are taking advantage of the rail boom to get financing.

A considerable number of them are only in the planning stage, and some of them are already desperate to absorb the money before even the parliamentary permission for the construction of the railway has been approved. If you don't have a deeper understanding of this industry, you can easily be deceived by them. ”

When Arthur heard this, he seemed to gradually understand that he recommended the railway industry, but did not recommend the railway company, so the answer was already coming out.

He asked, "You mean that you recommend a road and bridge construction company that has the technical ability to build railways?" ”

Lionel smiled and clapped his palms, pointed at Arthur and said, "Mr. Hastings, you are indeed very talented in finance. That's right, it's these construction companies that I'm recommending, or more accurately, Thames Tunnel and Brunel Road & Bridge Construction, which are currently at their lowest point in stock value. ”

"I haven't heard much of Brunel Road and Bridge Construction, but the Thames Tunnel Company ......"

Arthur couldn't help but take a breath when he heard the name.

Speaking of this company, it should be a well-known company in London, and at the same time, it is also the subject of a favorite report of the London newspapers.

As the name suggests, the original intention of the company was to build an underwater tunnel railway on the Thames, which was designed to connect Wiping and Lotsea on both sides of the Thames.

But there is such a thing as an underwater tunnel, just by listening to the name, you can tell how difficult it is to build, not to mention that it is still the early 19th century.

This idea is also confirmed by its slow construction progress, which can only be slowly advanced by three to four meters per week.

And not only has construction been slow, but the most fucked-up thing is that this underwater tunnel has had several water seepage accidents since construction began in 1825. Water seepage is not counted, but the critically foul-smelling Thames water can also release large amounts of methane gas into the tunnels and cause explosions.

Engineers and workers who have been working in this environment for a long time are also often sick, and since the beginning of the project, many on-site engineers have been rushed to the hospital.

One of the most serious construction accidents of the project occurred in 1828, when the foul-smelling Thames River directly washed the tunnel, drowning six construction workers, even the son of the project's chief designer, Marco Brunel, who came to intern, almost drowned in the tunnel, and the poor young man lay in the hospital for six months before relieving.

Since the accident, the Thames underwater tunnel project has been at a long-term standstill, and in order to compensate for the overrun and save the public's safety concerns about the tunnel, the tunnel company even came up with a trick to open the tunnel after the tunnel was pumped and repaired.

What's even more amazing is that there are still quite a few Londoners who are willing to pay a shilling to see this 'hot spot' that has repeatedly made newspaper headlines.

But the tourism boom did not restore the goodwill and shares of the Thames Tunnel Company, whose shares on the London Stock Exchange were almost intrigued.

For rational investors, buying their shares is throwing money into the Thames.

Arthur asked, "Didn't I hear that the Thames Tunnel project was stalled because of lack of funding?" ”

Lionel saw Arthur's doubts at a glance, and he asked with a smile, "Do you remember the upcoming urban construction bonds issued by the Ministry of Finance that I mentioned to you earlier?" That £200,000 public debt, with your ingenuity, must have you thought of what it was going to be used for. ”

Arthur woke up like a dream, he picked up the teacup, savored the afterglow of this sentence for a long time, he looked at Lionel and took a sip of tea: "Otherwise, it's easy for you Rothschilds to make money." ”

Lionel smiled and nodded: "Mr. Hastings, you must know that for us who do finance, news is life. Only a fool would stare at the numbers of stocks for a day, and the people who really make a lot of money rely on well-informed information.

I can also share two more pieces of information with you, one of the major shareholders of the Thames Tunnel Company is another of our major customers, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.

As for the other company I just mentioned, Brunel Road and Bridge Construction, his major shareholders are none other than Mark Brunel, the chief designer of the Thames Tunnel Company, and his son Isanbad Brunel.

Both of these gentlemen are top design and construction talents in railway construction. Moreover, Brunel Road & Bridge Construction has recently hit rock bottom due to the impact of the Thames Tunnel project.

But as you know, you can't live your life with bad luck, and I stumbled upon Mr. Brunel Jr.'s design that had a good chance of winning the bid for the bridge across the Avon Canyon. If he wins the bid, Brunel Road and Bridge Construction will soon be able to come back to life. ”

With that, Lionel lifted the teapot and added some more to Arthur's half-empty teacup.

He poured his tea and said, "You know, Mr. Hastings, life is so wonderful. ”

Arthur looked at the waves in the teacup, and couldn't help but nod in agreement: "That's right, life is indeed wonderful. It's time for the Brunel father and son to have good luck too. By the way, I would like to ask you to put £500 each in shares in Thames Tunnel and Brunel Road and Bridge. ”

When Lionel heard this, he got up satisfied, he took off his hat and bowed slightly: "Thank you for your insight, you have shown strong investment strength and far-sighted investment vision today." Mr. Hastings, Rothschild is honored to be able to advise you today. ”

When Dumas heard this, he was so angry that he bit into the doughnut and muttered, "Is this also called a torch of discernment?" If I change it, I can do it too. It's all news, it's all 'luck'. ”

When Lionel heard this, he shook his head with a smile and retorted: "Mr. Dumas, you have to understand that only with strength can there be 'luck'. In my opinion, Mr. Hastings is very strong, so it is only natural that he has 'luck'. ”

As soon as he finished saying this, the real estate agent who had left the seat before ran back from the back hall with a snort, panting.

He came to Arthur and respectfully handed over the house price assessment in his hand.

"Excuse me, Mr. Hastings, but this is my reformulated home recommendation report, please take a look."

Hearing this, Lionel smiled at Arthur and nodded: "Come, Mr. Hastings, your luck has come again." ”

(End of chapter)