Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 974 - 882: Got it in my hands, and you still want to take it back?

Chapter 974: Chapter 882: Got it in my hands, and you still want to take it back?

The twenty million francs worth of gold was organized by Lafitte as a "drag", exchanging in and out, and did not affect the inventory at all.

The remaining part was covered by long-range transportation clauses for exchange applications, and gold was not actually paid.

Therefore, it appeared on the books that the French Government had exchanged over a hundred million francs worth of gold, but the actual payment did not deplete the Bank of France Reserve’s gold reserves.

Then Joseph instructed the Italians to enter the market.

Ross slapped his thigh and exclaimed to his journalist: "Simon, write ’France encounters gold exchange run, total scale reaches over a hundred million francs, financial market remains stable.’ This news will surely pique people’s interest!"

The foreign journalists nearby were all visibly excited upon hearing this.

Having come all the way, they had to report some news to take back.

Just then, someone from the Paris Futures Exchange posted an announcement on the wall.

Ross instructed Simon to take a look.

Simon squeezed through the crowd, quickly returned, and reported to Ross: "Big news! The French Government announced that all transactions involving sugar will no longer accept gold payments."

Before Ross could react, the last two hundred or so people queued outside the Bank of France Reserve to exchange gold suddenly dispersed.

From now on, sugar must be purchased with francs, so really, some banknotes should be kept on hand.

The citizens in the square grumbled discontentedly: "Those damned financial experts, no, fraudsters, actually said the government might not exchange gold."

"The Bank of France Reserve exchanged over a hundred million francs worth of gold, the government is very trustworthy."

"I said how could the franc go wrong? Wasted 3 days lining up here!"

"Who’s to say otherwise? If I had known the bank’s gold reserves were so abundant, I wouldn’t have lost a few days’ wages..."

After Ross and the foreign journalists collected enough material, they each returned to their accommodations to prepare their reports.

As they viewed the Paris street scene along the way, they were all impressed by the ubiquitous rail transport, gas street lamps, and tidy clean streets, already planning to write a column called "The Prosperous and Fashionable Paris."

...

Rouen East Suburb.

Lord McGovern was calculating the losses from this operation in the carriage, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

Yes, upon confirming that the French gold reserves could not be depleted, he immediately left Paris.

Before him, the ledger showed loan interest payments amounting to over 4 million francs — this did not even include loans from Wurttemberg, Upper Hesse, etc., just the interest on the loans he took in France.

There was also the cost of exchanging the 800 thousand British Pounds into francs, 1.7 million francs. freewёbnoνel.com

Additionally, expenses paid to Bruni, etc., and foreign journalists totaled 170,000 francs.

McGovern closed his eyes and sighed deeply: "Spent 230 thousand British Pounds, yet resulted in absolutely no gains."

"Upon returning, Mr. Wilberforce will surely punish me harshly..."

thousand British Pounds is 5.8 million francs, enough to build four top-notch third-level battleships.

The attendant sitting across from McGovern said: "Sir, you didn’t come away completely empty-handed."

"Hmm?"

"At least you caused a serious panic in Paris; their banking industry was in chaos for about a month. I reckon they lost at least four to five million francs."

McGovern looked at him and nodded slowly: "Yes, it’s a draw at best!"

He immediately picked up the pen to start drafting his report to Wilberforce.

As he was just beginning, he heard the attendant tapping on the carriage window: "Sir, Martin has an urgent matter to see you."

McGovern frowned immediately.

Martin was his trusted aide left in Paris to handle aftermath affairs; how could he suddenly chase after him?

The carriage stopped, and the aide, sweating profusely, got into the carriage without even greeting, urgently saying: "Lord, the French tax authority has shut down our five companies involved... these were engaged in loans and franc banknote exchanges."

McGovern’s heart sank: "What’s going on?"

"It’s said that the French tax authority discovered their massive fund flows and deemed them as tax evasion." Martin swallowed hard and continued, "Now the tax authority has frozen all assets related to them, including those loans and gold..."

McGovern only felt a "buzz" in his brain, nearly fainting.

He brought nearly 40 million francs from the Southern German States and got loans totaling over 20 million in France. All this money was on the books of the White Gloves Company...

The shameless French froze all this 60 million-plus fund!

He clutched his chest and only after a long pause caught a breath, secretly grateful that the francs exchanged from those 800 thousand British Pounds had not yet been spent and were still housed in a secret warehouse; otherwise, the loss would have been even greater.

He knew very well, the French tax authority may say "frozen", but the prospects for recovering these funds were grim.

Even if one could lift the freeze through a lawyer’s lawsuit, the French tax authority could still impose a huge fine.

Retaining two-thirds could be considered lucky.

If Joseph knew his thoughts at that moment, he would surely disdainfully tell him, "Wishful thinking."

First, it’s difficult to clarify the source of these funds; the court could drag the review of "fund source evidence" for a year or two.

Then comes the tax authority’s progress in investigating tax evasion.

This has to start from the establishment date of those companies, checking these many accounts for two to three years isn’t slow.

Only after that can you start suing to lift the freeze; the court reviews, the tax authority appeals, remands, and re-reviews.

Casually dragging it out for another two to three years.

In all, at least seven or eight years, and the money would be used by the French Government.

Then the tax authority finds a pretext and sets the fine amount at 80% of the total funds.

Don’t agree?

Fine, then continue the lawsuit.

This is still playing clean with you.

If disregarding the impact on financial credibility, directly accusing those companies’ shareholders of "espionage" or similar, even the people could be wiped out!

That night, Lord McGovern fell seriously ill, and upon returning to London, he was unable to get out of bed.

Meanwhile, the news of this gold exchange panic, thanks to those foreign journalists hired by McGovern, quickly spread across Europe.

Impressions like "French finance on the brink of collapse," "France facing massive debt crisis," were completely overturned.

All countries began to realize that France’s financial situation was beginning to recover healthily.

What Joseph did not anticipate was that after this incident, the franc became exceptionally strong — everyone knew that francs could truly be exchanged for gold anytime, even if continuously exchanging over a hundred million francs was no problem.

Many Russian, Austrian, Prussian, and even Ottoman merchants, when engaging in trade with France, were now willing to accept franc banknote payments.

Stuttgart, Wurttemberg’s capital.

In the royal palace hall, Talleyrand sat stern-faced across from Crown Prince Lucyvida Eugen, speaking in a deep voice:

"Due to your country’s violation of the loan agreement, our nation has suffered enormous losses!"