Chapter 689: International Diplomatic Pressure
French businessmen were immediately ecstatic, waving franc notes and pushing aside foreign competitors.
Many British, Dutch and Italian businessmen looked sadly at the contract market. One month later, the sucrose futures price had been quoted at 2 francs 1 sous, and the quotation three months later had reached an astonishing 2 francs 3 Su!
Weigl’s eyes were like those who had been trapped in the desert for more than half a month and saw the source of water.
However, the guilders in his hand could not be used to buy water...
A person suddenly grabbed his arm and whispered in his ear:
"Why are you still standing here?"
Weigl turned his head, it was Van Scheck.
"But I didn't..."
The latter said in his ear: "You forgot, the Fa Chu Bank is downstairs!"
"?"
"France is on the gold standard."
"My mind is as big as pebbles!" Wiggleton was enlightened, turned around and ran downstairs, "Thank you so much "
The gold standard means that anyone can exchange franc notes for gold at the Bank of France at any time, and in turn, gold can be exchanged for francs at any time!
The counter of the Bank of France is still relatively empty, after all, most people have not yet reacted.
Weigel immediately converted more than 10,000 Dutch guilders in his hand into francs.
Although the Dutch guilder, as a currency, cannot be absolutely valuable - the official stipulation is that 1 Dutch guilder should contain 3.75 grams of gold, but in fact it is less than 3.7 grams - but Weigel can only It was treated as gold rather than converted into francs.
Fortunately, he could get a 2% subsidy by exchanging real gold for banknotes, which reduced his losses somewhat.
Subsequently, Weigel returned to the futures trading floor with great momentum, bypassed a group of foreign businessmen, and bought 4 contracts in one go.
Others quickly noticed the Dutchman, and then, suddenly realizing, they rushed downstairs like a tide.
The counter of the Reserve Bank of France also experienced the scene at the futures exchange yesterday - the counter was overwhelmed. Fortunately, there were many police officers maintaining order today, but there were no casualties.
As of 5 p.m. that day, when the futures exchange closed, the Reserve Bank of France had received a total of more than 8,000 ounces of gold, equivalent to approximately 900,000 francs.
This is because the French bank has closed its maintenance counter for 3 hours. Otherwise, it would be easy to break the one million mark.
Just half a month after the Paris Agricultural Products Futures Exchange opened for business, European countries began to feel the violent market turmoil caused by the skyrocketing price of sucrose.
So under the convocation of the United Kingdom, various countries sent representatives to gather in Frankfurt to participate in the "European Sugar Special Conference."
Without much greeting, the British representative, Lord Marquis, stood up, looked around at the crowd proudly, and said loudly:
"Obviously, France is primarily responsible for the sugar crisis!"
The conference hall suddenly fell silent. Some representatives looked at French representative Bailly, while others bowed their heads and remained silent.
Marquis continued:
“As we all know, the core reason for the sugar shortage was the outbreak of slave riots in the Caribbean, which caused a large number of plantations to reduce production or even stop harvesting.
"The first area where riots occurred was the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
"I have a lot of evidence to prove that the riots in other places in the Caribbean are all related to the abolitionist organization of Saint-Domingue. "He said, throwing several documents on the conference table angrily:
"These are the documents of the Frenchman Jacques Pierre Brissot in Saint-Domingue. Records of activities. We have reason to believe that it was he who led the abolition movement there.
“That damn Vincent Auger has always been under Brissot’s command!”
This is not because the British intelligence agency is so powerful, but mainly because there are more and more people in the Saint-Domingue abolitionist organization, and it will be difficult to ensure that confidential information is not leaked in the later stage.
“In addition, most of the weapons used by the niggas in the Caribbean are provided by France.
“I think the French government must pay attention to the situation in the Caribbean and the current situation. Serious sucrose shortage, give all countries an explanation! ”
The British are obviously fully prepared, and their purpose is to use international diplomatic pressure to get France, currently the largest sugar source in Europe, to make a commitment to proactively stabilize the price of sucrose.
The United Kingdom is the world's largest sugar consumer. At present, the price of sucrose has increased by 67% compared with the same period last year, and futures have increased by as much as 160% six months later!
Even though the British government has begun to implement measures such as tax exemptions for sugar merchants, sugar prices continue to skyrocket.
It is foreseeable that the British, especially the people at the bottom, will soon be unable to afford sweets.
And sugar is the British’s biggest daily pastime, and even their spiritual sustenance - no one drinks tea and coffee without sugar, black bread must be dipped in syrup, and porridge must be fried with sugar. Frost the fish.
It can be said that without sugar, British housewives cannot even cook.
With the current trend of rising sugar prices, the British people are going to riot!
Several of Britain's "old friends" - Prussia, Denmark, Portugal, etc. immediately joined in the uproar and condemned France for "destroying the international environment and trade pattern."
Bay waited until these guys were almost finished performing, then he slowly took out a stack of pamphlets and motioned to his assistants to distribute them to the delegates sitting here:
"Maybe Everyone has learned from other sources that the Duke of Leeds in England was the first culprit to incite the black riots in Saint-Domingue.
“You can look at these materials and it clearly shows how he came into contact with Auger and others. , and provided them with a huge sum of 300,000 pounds. Later, the Duke of Leeds also planned to take Booker's thugs to the United States. ”
He gestured around the conference table:
"If the United States also sends a representative here, he will tell everyone about the matter in detail."
Representatives from various countries opened the evidence provided by the French one after another. After just reading a few pages, they all looked strange. looked at Marquez.
This evidence is too detailed!
Just kidding, as a direct participant in the Duke of Leeds’ plan, Auger’s evidence is naturally very strong. Even the remittance channels for the 300,000 yuan are clearly written.
Bayi continued:
"As for Brissot, everyone knows that he is a fanatical abolitionist lunatic.
"It was after the Duke of Leeds started the black riots in Saint-Domingue that he was attracted and went to the Caribbean. . Oh, everyone can easily check the time he left Europe.
“Our country is also very troubled by this person. You know, his actions in Saint-Domingue caused losses of more than 50 million francs to our country every year!
“In this regard, I hope the British government can give our country an explanation! "
When Lord Marquis saw that all countries were glaring at him, especially Spain, his heart suddenly tightened.
Unexpectedly, the French were more prepared than themselves. Moreover, even though they knew that the French were confusing right and wrong, they could not defend themselves at all.
He suddenly thought of something and said loudly:
"No, France has not suffered any losses at all! On the contrary, you have made huge gains due to the situation in the Caribbean."
< br>(End of this chapter)