London, Westminster, 4 Whitehall Street, Greater London Metropolitan Police.

Arthur sat at his desk, staring at the report containing the list of shareholders of George Wilkinson's company for half a day.

It's not appropriate to say that he was looking at the documents, to be precise, Arthur was in the product.

Even if other shareholders are excluded, the first name on the list of shareholders alone is enough for him to be on the list for several days.

It is not accurate to say that it is the first name, but in this document sent by the French Embassy, these people in the front row can be summed up by one name - Lloyd's Insurance.

As the most successful insurance company in the world today, and perhaps the most successful insurance company in the three hundred years of the 19th and 21st centuries, Lloyd's Insurance has gradually become a golden sign in the British and even the world's shipping industry since the 17th century.

But most people don't know that the insurance giant's founder, Edward Lloyd, was a small self-employed entrepreneur who ran a café in the 17th century.

In its infancy, Lloyd's Cafe was located on Tower Street near the banks of the River Thames.

With Tower Street being London's proximity to the docks and the close proximity of important maritime authorities such as the London Customs, Admiralty and Port Authority, and the fact that their coffee may have smelled of the sea, Mr Lloyd was a talkative man.

Over time, it became a place for shipping industry stakeholders, such as captains, sailors, owners of microfinance companies, and insurance merchants, who were begging for a living at the docks, to brag and discuss tips for making a fortune.

Some insurance businessmen even put their offices directly on the table of Lloyd's Cafe because of the large number of customers here, where they can drink afternoon tea while signing insurance policies and conducting business with customers.

A few years later, Mr. Lloyd, who had made some money from running the café, moved the location of the café to a more upscale and more expensive place, at the intersection of Lombardy Street and Fonte Road, where the Royal Exchange of London was located.

As a successful café operator at this time, Mr. Lloyd's top priority after the move was how to attract new customers and win back those old customers.

He was keenly aware of the thirst for the latest news from the insurance brokers who came and went, and because of the poor communication conditions at that time, most of the merchants sitting in the shop drinking coffee could only wait silently for news, they were either waiting for the merchant ships that were about to land, or they were exchanging information with each other and discussing international news, and those whose lives were hanging by a thread came to Lloyd every three to five minutes to ask Lloyd if the merchant ship of Captain XX had arrived.

In order to better serve customers and expand his own customer base, Lloyd began to take the initiative to let the waiters pay attention to the merchants coming and going, and record the most timely shipping information from them, including the shipping information of major ports and terminals at sea and inland waterways, the international and domestic situation, new trends in the business community, etc.

In the evening, Lloyd would compile the latest news and write it on the bulletin board in the store for customers to browse.

Not only that, Mr. Lloyd also thoughtfully set up a podium in the most prominent part of the café, where the waiters read aloud shipping information to the merchants every day. After all, not all of them are literate, are they? In this era of illiteracy, there will be little nouveau riche who step on shit and fly up in every industry.

However, not every insurance businessman visits Lloyd's Cafe every day, and there is a chance that something will happen to everyone in their family.

To solve this problem, Mr. Lloyd has published a newspaper called Lloyd's Shipping News, so that businessmen who have missed the news can check the past information.

In this way, the small Lloyd's Café slowly became the main trading market for the London insurance industry. By 1719, the amount of marine insurance transactions completed in the café was a staggering £9 million.

Lloyd's Shipping News has developed into Lloyd's Ship Daily, a newspaper second only to the London Gazette for major political news in the UK government, and the Times and Manchester Guardian.

The regular customers of Lloyd's Cafe have also organized an organization called Lloyd's Register of Shipping, whose main business is to assess the safety level of ships and register them in the Lloyd's Shipping Register for reference by major shipowners and insurance merchants.

If that's all there is to it, the name Lloyd is clearly not worth mentioning.

The reason why Lloyd's insurance was put on a separate basis was that in 1771 the insurers found that the small Lloyd's Café was increasingly unable to support the large community of insurance merchants.

Therefore, Van Mayer, a Dutch insurance businessman who is a long-time customer of the café, proposed to the group to set up a 'new Lloyd's' firm as a trading platform for marine insurance.

He issued shares in the new firm for £100 each, and soon raised nearly £10,000 in funds, while John Angstein, a Russian insurer from St. Petersburg, suggested that the firm should lease office space on the Royal Exchange.

However, although the merchants were happy with the location of the Royal Exchange, they were not happy with the use of the loan.

As a result, they took over the Royal Exchange's office building in full and used it as a trading venue for Lloyd's Insurance.

What sets Lloyd's Insurance apart from other insurance companies is that it is not like a company in the popular sense, but more like a public trading platform for individual insurers.

To paraphrase the concept of later generations, Lloyd's Insurance is a syndicate monopoly through and through.

In terms of independence, although the participants in the syndicate remain productive and legally independent, they are already completely subject to the head office commercially and cannot act independently.

The members of the syndicate must be highly unified in business, they cannot have direct contact with the market, and can only negotiate business through the syndicate.

And if a syndicate member wants to exit, it will have to pay considerable costs, including rebuilding the buying and selling organization and reorganizing the connection with the market.

In addition, withdrawal may be thwarted and ostracized by the syndicate.

Lloyd's Insurance is one such insurance syndicate, which is made up of thousands of insurance merchants from all over the world, all of whom underwrite independently or jointly through Lloyd's Insurance's platform.

In Lloyd's Insurance's underwriting business, a small number of people may underwrite by a few people, while some large projects may be underwritten by hundreds or even thousands of people.

Lloyd's Insurance's unique structure has allowed it to grow rapidly in terms of membership since its inception.

Here, as long as you can come up with proof of assets of £500, you can become an insurance partner with Lloyds.

Such a special development model has also enabled Lloyds Insurance to win 90% of the British shipping industry and 50% of the world's shipping industry in one fell swoop after more than half a century of changes.

It is no exaggeration to say that almost all of the vessels moored at London Pier are basically insured by Lloyd's Insurance.

And, because of the large cash flow it holds, Lloyds Insurance is a force to be reckoned with on the London Stock Exchange. Even in political circles, the big names in London have always valued this group of insurance merchants who support the maritime empire.

For no other reason, because this group of people is able to make millions of pounds of wealth every year for Britain from overseas, sending a steady stream of gold and silver into Britain proper.

In addition, Lloyd's Insurance partners have also developed a strong interest in politics after they have money, and they like to sponsor parliamentarians, and they will also come out to elect parliamentarians themselves.

As for their political views, apart from other aspects, at least in foreign relations, they are as upheld as most businessmen.

It's no secret that wealth is inherently risk-averse. So with the exception of a few industries, war is usually shunned.

And when it comes to what type of wealth hates war the most, then there is no doubt that it must be these insurance sellers, especially large multinational insurance companies like Lloyd's.

No matter which side wins the war between the two countries, they basically lose money.

In the list in Arthur's hand, there were many names that he felt familiar to him, and even when he was in the lower house that day, he directly took a photo.

Since the Polish issue arose last year, the group of lawmakers close to Lloyd's Insurance have been calling on Poland and Russia to exercise restraint in the House of Commons.

And when the Westminster Federation wanted the government to send troops to intervene in Poland, the guys reacted quite violently.

Now that Lloyds did not want Poland to go to war with Russia, now that this was a given fact, it was imperative that they reconcile Britain and Russia as much as possible to avoid further conflict between the two world powers.

After all, Poland was flattened by the Russians and had little impact on Lloyd's Insurance, but once Russia and Britain fell out, it was difficult not to remind this group of insurance merchants of the news that merchant ships were sunk at sea every once in a while during the Napoleonic Wars.

Seven anti-French alliances were not only a disaster for France, but at the same time, a disaster for Lloyd's insurance.

For these insurance brokers - all the pounds spent in vain are sent under the gun, which is simply a sin!

In the face of this group of 'pacifists' with strange views, Arthur couldn't tell what he was feeling in his heart.

If Lloyd's Insurance was deeply involved in the Liverpool assassination, then many of the problems can indeed be explained.

With the strength of these insurance merchants, it would have been easy to figure out Arthur's whereabouts in a port city like Liverpool. It can even be said that it is a miracle that this assassination did not kill Arthur.

This only shows that they really did not intend to make the relationship with the government too stiff, and they did not intend to take Arthur's life. Or maybe they've negotiated with their bosses early in the morning, and they're just trying to come up with some appalling headlines.

After all, if the superintendent of Scotland Yard really died in Liverpool, he would not give a proper explanation, but would make his Excellency not come to the stage.

Thinking of this, Arthur finally had an idea of the slow progress of the investigation of the Investigative Committee of the House of Commons.

With this assassination, the Ministry of the Interior pushed forward the legislative work of the Municipal Police Act.

The Foreign Office agreed to suppress public opinion to aid Poland, and Lloyd's Insurance reduced the risk of a potential war between Russia and Britain.

The Cabinet has also justified its efforts to scrutinize foreign immigrants in the fight against cholera, and has been able to hammer down the Liverpool city authorities who have been in opposition to various issues in recent years.

As for the Russians, they can also go and clean up Poland with peace of mind, without fear that Britain may stab them in the back. As for the allies of the Poles, the French......

Judging by the fact that Talleyrand would take the initiative to contact a small person like Arthur, their situation is indeed bad. Instead of going to his old friend, the Duke of Wellington, the old cripple chose to start at Arthur's level, which in itself suggests that he was just trying to make one last effort before things were completely yellow.

As soon as Arthur thought of this, he suddenly picked up the document and threw it into the fireplace in the room.

He watched the paper burn, curl, and burn in the flames, and just brushed the hair on his forehead, and said in pieces, "I'm sorry, Mr. Talleyrand, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you this time." But a brilliant person like you should understand that it's not because I don't value our friendship, but because the question was a multiple-choice question from the start. ”

Arthur was talking when suddenly the office door was pushed open.

"Arthur ......"

Louis held the document he had just gotten in his hand, and his face was cloudy and uncertain, "Mr. Harrison, he ......"

Arthur had a premonition of this, and he just poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Louie.

"What's wrong? Hanging, throwing into the river, jumping off a building, you can't learn the old Russians' way, a stroke, right? ”

Louis was silent for a while, then replied: "He committed suicide with a letter opener, and before committing suicide, he also left a handwritten letter in which he admitted that he hired a hitman to go to Liverpool to assassinate him. And the investigative committee also found several remittance notes he gave to the killer in Harrison's mansion. ”

Arthur drank the wine from his glass and then opened the drawer of his desk, which contained four copies of the investigation he had written beforehand. This time, he chose the top one.

Arthur raised his hand and handed the document to Louis and commanded, "There are two copies in it, one copy to Director Rowan, and the other copy to be forwarded to the Ministry of the Interior, in front of the Viscount of Melbourne, the Secretary of State for the Interior." ”

Louis didn't even have to look at what was written in it, he knew exactly what Arthur meant.

But at this time, he still wanted to be able to fight, and Louis hinted: "According to the internal training manual you have compiled, if the victim's body has more than two fatal stab wounds, and the wounds are still disorganized, it is even more difficult to understand that the handle ......"

"Louie." Arthur put down his glass and asked, "What is the full name of the training manual?" ”

Louis blurted out: "Report! Criminal Investigation Manual. ”

"That's right." Arthur shrugged his shoulders and said, "This is a political offense, not a criminal offense, so the manual is not applicable in this case." As for why Mr. Harrison has multiple fatal knife wounds on his body, I am inclined to think that he is a stronger person. ”

Louis heard that Arthur had already said this, and finally stopped insisting.

He sighed and nodded, "Okay, I see." ”

He picked up the document and turned around and was about to go out, when he put his hand on the doorknob for a long time, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt bad in his heart.

How could the people of the Napoleonic family stand this kind of anger?

While he was still digesting his emotions, he heard Arthur's voice from behind him.

"There are cases that are not in a hurry. Although there is only one truth, in most cases, people will translate it into many forms. The clay figures can't stand the rain, the truth can't stand the investigation, and we still have a long way to go. If they desperately need a truth right now, give it to him. Next, we just have to wait and see what comes to the surface and what they want to do. ”

When Louis heard this, he suddenly turned his head to look at Arthur and asked, "What do you think they want to do?" ”

"I don't know." Arthur looked up at Whitehall Street with his glass in his glass: "I just think that the Whig feud seems to be more hidden and complicated than the Tory seems. ”

(End of chapter)