Chapter 884 Return to South Germany
Half an hour later, Lucivid sent the French Foreign Minister out of the palace with a panic look.
When Talleyran's carriage disappeared from sight, he patted his trembling legs hard and turned around and walked quickly towards King Carl Eugen's bedroom.
Talleyrand just now told him that France suffered serious damage to the financial order due to this gold run, with losses of more than 67 million francs.
If the French government had not borrowed high-interest loans from Italian states to fill the gap, France's finances might have collapsed now.
France has found out that all this was the British behind the scenes, and the reason why the British were able to launch a financial war against France was because countries such as Württemberg provided them with a large amount of franc banknotes.
Lucivid had only seen in newspapers that France withstood the news of attacks on gold reserves, but did not expect that France would suffer such great losses.
He did not doubt the loss figures mentioned by Talleyrand. After all, this incident was known to all over Europe, which shows how serious the situation was.
In fact, if he raised doubts, Talleyrand would generously invite him to the French Reserve Bank to verify - the loss accounts were naturally done long ago and there was no leakage.
Soon, a group of ministers from Württemberg gathered in the king's bedroom, all with their heads down with serious expressions.
Prince Lucivid looked at the king who was tortured by illness and continued carefully:
"Your Majesty, the French government's claim for compensation is-
"First, terminate the previous loan agreement immediately. Our country repays all loans of 10 million francs within one month and pays a penalty of 5 million francs.
"Secondly, compensation for France's losses of 19 million francs in the gold run. This amount is calculated based on the loan ratio provided by the countries of South Germany to the British.
"Third, our country must make up for the credit loss of the Bank of the Legal Bank. It includes compensation of 5 million francs and public apology."
When the ministers in the room heard this, they all took a breath.
All compensations totaled nearly 40 million francs, exceeding the total fiscal revenue of Württemberg in one and a half years.
They can't afford to sell this...
As for the debt-beating?
They even dared not think about it.
The French army was less than a hundred kilometers away. If Württemberg did not pay any money, Massena would take the army to take it himself.
After a while, the Minister of the Interior said, "Your Majesty, maybe we should ask for help from Your Majesty the Emperor..."
Lucivid sighed: "Vienna has just made a general mobilization and is defending Mantua with all its might, and has no time to take care of us."
The Minister of War Marquis Held whispered: "I heard that Bavaria asked the emperor for help not long ago, but he could not get a response..."
Bavaria is the western gateway of Austria, and its importance is far beyond the comparison of the small marginal countries on Württemberg.
There was another unbearable silence.
Foreign Minister Zmyerman suddenly remembered something and said with some uncertainty: "Your Majesty, I heard that the French Foreign Minister loves money very much. As long as he can satisfy him, he may get some advice from him."
King Carl Eugen coughed and raised his hand to his younger brother, saying, "Lucivid, you go to see Mr. Talleyrand in private, Oh, bring twenty thousand Florins with you..."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The next morning.
In an exquisite villa not far from the Palace of Stuttgart, Talleyran glanced at the gold coins in the wooden box and signaled the servant to move it down. He looked at Lucivid and suddenly became more kind in his eyes:
"Your Highness the Crown Prince, if you can show that your prince is satisfied, there is no possibility of turning the world around."
"Tell me quickly what to do, for God's sake!" Talleyran smiled and handed him a glass of wine:
"You know, our country is fighting a war with Austria. If your country can completely cut off from evil Austria, your Highness should be very happy."
Lucivid asked carefully, "What are you talking about cutting?"
"For example, declare Württemberg's escape from the Holy Roman Empire."
Lucivid immediately shocked and waved his hands repeatedly, "This? How can this work? Vienna will not spare us..."
Talleyrand immediately pulled his face down: "Since you don't want to, I can't do anything."
After Lucivid was busy begging and promised to increase the "consultation fee" of 10,000 Florin, Talleyrand said reluctantly:
"Okay, let me think about it again. Well, you must at least have a cutting attitude.
"For example, expel the troops of the Shenluo Empire."
The so-called "Shenluo Empire Army" was sent to various states by Austria in the name of the emperor.
Although the number of these armies is not large, it reflects the empire's orthodoxy towards the states.
Currently, there are more than 400 Imperial Army troops in Württemberg.
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Lucivid struggled for a while and finally chose the latter among 40 million francs and driving away the imperial garrison.
Austria is just fighting, so you can use this to make an excuse, which may not necessarily anger Austria.
"Okay, I will suggest your Majesty to let the Imperial Army leave." He looked at Talleyrand expectantly, "So do you think about the compensation?"
"Transporting the Imperial Army is far worse than withdrawing from Shinra. You have to do something else." Talleyran pondered, "Well, I thought of it. Maybe you can start the restart of the 'Sena-Rhine Trade System'."
Since the start of the French-Austria war, the Senna-Rhine Agreement has naturally been unable to be implemented.
One of the motives for Austria's war at the beginning was to abolish the trade agreement.
Now that the war on the front line of the Rhine has basically ended, Joseph does not want to give up the huge market in South Germany.
Of course, Austria will definitely try hard to prevent France from returning here, but military failures have made it less say in this area than before.
In addition, the South German countries violated the loan agreement and took the initiative to give a handle, which gave France an excellent opportunity to take action.
As for these small countries that will be subject to trade sanctions from Austria after signing a trade agreement with France, that is their own business.
In fact, Joseph was sure that Austria's dependence on the South German market was basically just doing things and the business that should be done must be done as usual.
Of course, when Austria recovers later, it is possible to use its army to threaten the South German countries to withdraw from the agreement.
However, by then, the threatened states had a high probability of forming an economic bond with France, and were unwilling to accept Austria's instructions.
By then, they will have only one choice.
That is to ask France to send troops to protect itself.
France must have no choice but to protect its commercial rights.
We can even pull the entire state under the "Sena-Rhine Trade System" to resist Austria's unreasonable trampling on the right to free trade!
No matter what the war ended up fighting, the countries of Austria and Germany will continue to tear apart.
(This chapter ends)