CHAPTER 561: CHAPTER 552 THE SUBMISSIVE BANKER

"Didn’t you have something you wanted to say to Mr. Algus? Now that Mr. Algus is here, you can say whatever you wish!"

Jerome Bonaparte’s voice was not loud, but it instilled fear in the bankers.

The bankers present had not anticipated that the Emperor would appear at Count Algou’s residence. Had they known of the Emperor’s return, they would not have walked into this trap.

Now, without having even discussed a counter-strategy, the Emperor had caught them off guard.

The once bustling hall was now utterly silent.

In front of Jerome Bonaparte, who symbolized imperial power, these bankers, who prided themselves as representatives of France, did not dare to breathe loudly.

Every second that passed was torture for the bankers in the hall.

After ten minutes had passed, Jerome Bonaparte, observing that the bankers were too afraid to speak, sarcastically said, "Speak! Why aren’t you saying anything now? You blocked Mr. Algus’s hall to converse with him, didn’t you? Now that Mr. Algus is here with you, why are you all silent?"

The bankers were as silent as cicadas in winter, none daring to speak out of turn.

Jerome Bonaparte looked around, counted the people in the hall with his hand, exactly 30, then pointed to one of the bankers and said, "You... come out!"

The old man pointed at by Jerome Bonaparte hesitated for a moment, then asked hazily as if he had just woken from a dream, "Your Majesty, did you just call for me?"

"Indeed! It’s you, Mr. Rodolphe Kappaphiler!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded and said to him.

Rodolphe had no choice but to step forward, bow before Jerome Bonaparte, and say, "Your Majesty!"

Jerome Bonaparte stroked his chin, revealing an interested smile, and said, "Mr. Rodolphe! If my memory serves me right, you and Count Algou have been friends for many years, right?"

"That’s right!" Rodolphe Kappaphiler nodded and responded quietly to Jerome Bonaparte.

"Since you are good friends, why have you been following them, unwilling to leave Count Algou’s home?" Jerome Bonaparte rebuked Rodolphe Kappaphiler coldly, "You’re well-known in Paris, yet now you’re resorting to the tactics of the lower echelons!"

"I..." Rodolphe Kappaphiler smiled bitterly to himself. In truth, he did not want to do this either, but the situation had developed beyond his control, so he could only bravely respond to Jerome Bonaparte: "Actually, we just came to comfort Count Algou, to prevent any mishap!"

"Just checking in?" Though Jerome Bonaparte did not believe Rodolphe Kappaphiler’s excuse, he pretended to accept it.

After all, Jerome Bonaparte couldn’t truly arrest them all.

The principle of not punishing a crowd also applied to the bankers.

However, occasionally scaring them could be attempted.

"That’s right! We just came to visit Count Algou! Now that Count Algou is fine, we can leave with peace of mind!" Since the Emperor provided them an exit, Rodolphe Kappaphiler naturally took it.

"Good! I shall cautiously believe you acted out of concern for your superior, friend, in a moment of impulse!" Jerome Bonaparte raised his voice, "Now that you have seen Count Algou is safe, you can leave with assurance, can you not?"

As soon as Jerome Bonaparte finished speaking, the bankers in the hall expressed that having seen Count Algou unharmed, they could leave reassured!

Subsequently, the bankers left Count Algou’s residence.

On site, only Jerome Bonaparte, Count Algou, and two squads of police remained.

"Your Majesty, we..." The chief of police bravely approached Jerome Bonaparte.

"Almost forgot about you!" Jerome Bonaparte smiled at the chief, "Go back and tell your commissioner not to be blinded by wealth! Behind the money might be a trap with no bottom!"

"Yes! Yes! I will relay Your Majesty’s words to the commissioner!" The chief nodded and bowed in response.

"You may go back now!" Jerome Bonaparte gestured to the chief.

The two chiefs and over twenty officers, feeling reprieved, hurriedly left Count Algou’s residence.

After the irrelevant people left, Jerome Bonaparte asked Algou, "Mr. Algus, would you like to chat?"

"Your Majesty, please come in!" Count Algou invited Jerome Bonaparte into the room and instructed a servant to prepare dinner, "If you do not find it disdainful..."

"Just in time, I would like to see how dinner at your house differs from that at the Tuileries Palace!" Jerome Bonaparte still smilingly said to Count Algou.

"I’m afraid it is far from your dinner at the Tuileries Palace!" Count Algou whispered.

"Not necessarily!" Jerome Bonaparte shrugged.

Actually, Jerome Bonaparte usually prepared two sets of menus at the Tuileries Palace, one for the important ministers’ visits, which included a wide variety of dishes, and another simpler one for himself, which was not as rich as the ones prepared for guests.

However, it won out in nutritional balance.

Under the guidance of Count Algou, Jerome Bonaparte entered the mansion.

"Your Majesty, please take a seat!" Count Algou gestured for Jerome Bonaparte to sit down, then walked over to the desk by himself, took out two pieces of flint and a piece of oil-soaked parchment from a drawer.

The sparks generated by rubbing the flint together ignited the parchment, and Count Algou opened the kerosene lamp chimney placed on the desk, lit the lamp wick, then closed the chimney again and brought the kerosene lamp before Jerome Bonaparte.

"Your Majesty, the light here is a bit dim! Please forgive me!" Count Algou apologized again.

"It’s nothing!" Jerome Bonaparte waved his hand, then looked half-jokingly at the kerosene lamp in Count Algou’s hand and said, "I did not expect you, a dignified director of the Bank of France, to use something that ordinary families use!"

"Your Majesty, when I was still a child, my father often used my grandfather as an example, admonishing me to be thrifty!" Count Algou replied as he sat opposite Jerome Bonaparte.

"Oh? Mr. Algou, does this mean your grandfather was a very frugal man?" Jerome Bonaparte asked in surprise as he looked at Count Algou.

"Your Majesty, my grandfather was just an ordinary wine merchant who followed the army!" Count Algou explained to Jerome Bonaparte: "It was only in my father’s generation that our family entered the banking industry, you could say the banking development was inseparable from my father!"

"I see!" Jerome Bonaparte nodded and said, "It seems like your family’s history is somewhat similar to that of the Rothschild Baron Family!"

"There are some similarities!" Count Algou nodded, then turned the conversation to Jerome Bonaparte and asked, "Your Majesty, you specifically came here, I’m afraid it’s not to ask about my family history, is it?"

Jerome Bonaparte naturally understood what Count Algou meant, he nodded and replied to Count Algou, "Mane has already told me everything! I don’t want to pursue right or wrong any further, but I hope you can support the empire in its times of difficulty!"

"Thank you for your magnanimity! I will provide some gold to the Bank of France as reserves!" Count Algou expressed his gratitude for Jerome Bonaparte’s generosity.

The matter of Count Algou privately ordering his subordinate bank to exchange British Pound bonds for gold, causing a panic, was considered resolved in Jerome Bonaparte’s view.

Then, Jerome Bonaparte asked Count Algou about his view on the bankers gathered in the hall earlier.

"They hoped I would stand up against you!" Count Algou candidly said to Jerome Bonaparte.

"Then why didn’t you stand up? If I were in your position, I would definitely lead them to force the government to make concessions!" Jerome Bonaparte said with interest to Count Algou.

In fact, he was quite looking forward to Count Algou leading the bankers to oppose him, as it would give him another reason to extort them fiercely.

Count Algou responded flatly, "I am just an average person slightly luckier than others and have no intention of being used by them as a pawn! Moreover, just relying on the strength of the Bank of France can’t shake a stable government, those guys seem to have long forgotten the horror of revolution!"

For Count Algou, who had experienced two revolutions (1830 and 1848), the destruction brought by revolutions far outweighed the benefits they could gain.

Any farsighted banker wouldn’t dare claim they would survive the next revolution; doing everything possible to maintain the stability of the current system is the best outcome.

No matter how displeased Count Algou was with Jerome Bonaparte, after the displeasure, he still had to rack his brain trying to ensure the empire’s survival.

Revolution is like a blind box, you never know whether the next regime will be good or bad.

"Then Mr. Algou, who among them do you think can stand by my side, and who are the die-hards?" Jerome Bonaparte asked Count Algou.

"Your Majesty, no one is a die-hard!" Count Algou replied to Jerome Bonaparte, "They are only protecting their interests! Once they think they have no choice but to endure this blow, they will grit their teeth and stand on the victor’s side!"

"Conservative financial policies cannot preserve their interests! Instead, they will harm France’s entire economy!" Jerome Bonaparte emphasized.

"Your Majesty, your method is merely postponing the economy! Once the war ends, many factories will be on the verge of bankruptcy!" Count Algou said to Jerome Bonaparte.

Count Algou was not wrong; what Jerome Bonaparte was doing was merely prolonging the crisis, using Keynesianism not to solve capitalism’s economic crisis but to postpone it.

In the meantime, it inevitably would lead to the risk of mounting debts, massively raising basic infrastructure and munitions subsidiary industries amount to tying the French people to the war machine, just like Hitler after WWII.

However, unlike Hitler, Jerome Bonaparte had better luck; the upcoming Second Industrial Revolution would give debt-ridden France a chance to breathe.

And the Kingdom of Prussia would become the sacrificial offering for France to alleviate its debt.

Indeed! The Crimean War wasn’t the end of France’s military adventure but the beginning of a venture.

However, most French people today have not realized this, and elite politicians like Count Algou have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

If he knew the mad plan brewing in Jerome Bonaparte’s mind, he would undoubtedly do everything to pull this madman down.

"There’s no denying it! Large-scale credit does indeed equate to eating future resources, but we must persevere!" Jerome Bonaparte shrugged helplessly and said, "From the moment we set foot on the battlefield of Crimea, we had no retreat! Either the empire perishes in the Paris riots triggered by failure or wins a respite through successive victories. Mr. Algou, if it were you, what would you choose?"