Chapter 365 The storm is coming
As the tulip trade becomes increasingly prosperous and more and more people participate, Amstel City opens up a market for retail traders, making it one of the busiest places in the city.
On June 18, 1034, retail investors found that the tulip bulbs that they used to sell with ease could no longer be sold, so they continued to lower the price. Unexpectedly, during lunch time, they heard that the large chamber of commerce would start shipping in large quantities.
Those chambers of commerce purchase products at wholesale prices, which are not profitable and are cheaper than the cost price of retail investors. People who believe that bulb prices are just technical adjustments purchase directly from them.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, retail investors changed from maintaining capital to not losing so much. Soon after, the chamber of commerce followed suit, and prices continued to fall.
Count Rank had no intention of negotiating with Frederick. He asked his followers to keep asking about the prices in the market, and he drew a trend chart. The red bars that kept descending represented the disappearance of a large amount of wealth out of thin air, which was shocking.
He took out a wax-sealed silver bottle from his pocket and placed it beside the table. He asked Frederick to help him put a piece in his mouth if he covered his chest later.
Frederick thought for a while and asked him tentatively: "Has your family invested in tulips?"
Earl Rank nodded with a dark face: "I bought a lot last month. Contract."
After that, he asked his entourage to bring a wooden box, which contained several contracts for delivery in three days.
Frederick saw that the prices of several tulip varieties on the price chart were almost halved. He shook his head and said, "Oh, just think of it as a fire at home."
Unexpectedly, Earl Ranke said in frustration: This The money was borrowed, 5,000 florins, as an unsecured credit loan. "
Frederick blinked, good guy, isn't this the business that Wesson Bank provides to the nobles of the Rhine League? These days, he also provides them with low-interest, limited-limit, unsecured loans, doing this. It’s just for winning people’s hearts.
“It doesn’t matter. He shook his head, "Only 5,000 gold coins, such a small amount of money..."
Earl Rank immediately asked nervously: "Don't you need to pay it back?" ”
Frederick smiled and shook his head: "If I cancel the debt now, someone will accuse you of betraying the royal family's interests for personal gain in the subsequent negotiations, so I should force you to pay back the money as soon as possible."
Said Lan It's a joke that the Gram family has less than 5,000 florins. They may not have that much liquidity, but they pick and choose unimportant collections from the warehouse and sell them back in minutes. This is the heritage of an old family.
Count Rank just muttered a few words "just like the Venetians" and stopped mentioning it. The Venetians used to describe the ruthless moneylenders or the play "Cut a Large Meat" edited by Frederick. It became popular after it was performed.
A small confrontation ended with Count Rank failing to achieve his goal. He planned that if Frederick would forgive his debts, he could offer an outrageous price during the negotiation, and then use the excuse of repaying the debt of favor. Reducing it to the original price seems to have given away a lot of benefits.
Before the dinner started, the prices of several tulip varieties invested by Earl Rank's family had halved, and the prices of other varieties had also dropped to 40 to 60% of the price this morning.
The Amstel city government issued an emergency decree prohibiting tulip trading between the time the sun sets and before it rises. At the same time, invitations were widely distributed to major chambers of commerce to participate in tonight's dance.
The Dawn Chamber of Commerce naturally got the post. When Shupaiya sent the invitation, Frederick asked him: "Have Mrs. Franken and her party made arrangements?"
Shupaya replied Said: "They have been arranged on Baron Adicon's warship and have left the port now as planned."
The impact of today's storm is extremely bad. Mrs. Franken, who was the first to cut prices, will definitely be dealt with, so Philip Te Lie arranged for her to run away with a bucket.
Of course, this is not free.
Frederick glanced at the invitation and asked Count Rank with great interest: "Are you interested in seeing how the gentlemen here deal with this crisis?"
Count Rank shook his head and said : "It's not easy for us to reveal our identity."
It's not that we don't want to go, but that we don't want to reveal our identity. That's simple.
Wear a wig, change clothes, put on makeup, and say that it is the scholar Albus Dumbledore invited by the Dawn Chamber of Commerce to identify the treasure. The young man next to him is the student Tom Riddle.
Lilu will also attend the ball tonight, and Frederick is eager to dress her up beautifully. However, she is famous for wearing clothes that are easy to move around, and there is no evening dress at all.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the auditorium of the city hall was very busy. In addition to the local chamber of commerce, there were many chambers of commerce from the Kingdom of Gaul, as well as many pagan merchants from the Kingdom of England, the Rhine League, and the dark lands of the north.
Shupaya and Lilu greeted the familiar chamber of commerce president together and got to know the new chamber of commerce.
Business involves connections, and daily accumulation is the most important.
At a table in the corner, Earl Rank seemed to be tasting wine casually, but in fact, his ears were slightly illuminated with white light, and the voices in the entire auditorium could be heard.
Before the official speech of the government official before the ball started, he said to Frederick: "The city government plans to purchase a large number of tulip bulbs tomorrow morning at a price that is 50% higher than yesterday to raise the price. Go back.”
His tone sounded very relaxed. If he could seize this opportunity and sell the tulip contract at home, he would not owe Frederick any money and could still make a fortune.
"It seems the effect is pretty good." Earl Rank continued, "Many businessmen are willing to follow the footsteps of the city government."
After he finished speaking, he found that Frederick frowned slightly. He frowned, seeming to be thinking about something.
Frederick was also listening to the conversation in the auditorium and said in a deep voice: "Something's wrong. You also know that Duke Wesson predicted the collapse of the tulip market in his just-published "The Nature and Research of Wealth." The news about the telegraph's communication speed should have reached here, but I haven't heard anyone mention it."
Earl Ranke also discovered this problem after he reminded him, and he quickly understood it after being in a high position all year round. , and said expressionlessly: "It may be that others think this prediction is nonsense and there is no need to pay attention to it, so they did not waste money and sent it back."
"There is another possibility that someone has blocked the message."
Frederick was too lazy to pay attention to the first possibility, pinched his chin and said: "No one can block the telegraph station, the telegraph station in Amstel With Duke Wesson’s shares and people, if something like this happens, it will be reported to Duke Wesson.”
“Who knows,” Earl Ranke smiled, “Maybe there is someone who doesn’t know about Duke Wesson. The telegraph station in Weissenburg City was blocked due to circumstances. It seems that Duke Weissen’s territory is not as stable as imagined.”
Frederick curled his lips, and his control over the territory was limited. Top-down and bottom-up efforts are exerted at the same time. Financial power, military power, and personnel power are all firmly in the hands. Government orders can be issued to the villages. There are no threats such as inheritance disputes, and there is no breeding ground for rebels. "It's impossible for something like this to happen in Wesson," he shook his head. "No one can silently control the telegraph station...probably..."
Frederick said that he got stuck in a very uncertain manner at the end. Earl Rank suddenly concentrated his energy. It seemed that there was a force hidden in Wesson State that could interfere with his governance. If it could be found and used, it would be good for the royal family.
Just now Frederick remembered that there are indeed people in the territory who can command the entire Wesson state "as if I were personally present" when a major incident occurs and he cannot handle it. This power was previously decided after the recovery of Constantbul It was given to me when I was traveling, but I didn't take it back when I came back because the war was coming.
He was sure that when he went back to investigate, he would be able to see relevant official documents on the second to last piece of paper in the last box of the half-meter-high file box.
The dance was about to begin, and there were more and more people in the auditorium. Shupaiya and Lilu also returned to the table to take a rest.
At this time, the waiter's roll call at the door attracted the attention of many people.
"President of the Sea Flame Chamber of Commerce?" Shupaiya was surprised, "Why does this person appear at this time?"
Many people have the same idea as him. In recent years, this chamber of commerce has become very popular in the tulip circle. , but the president has never appeared. Unexpectedly, he suddenly appeared today.
A woman who looked almost thirty years old soon walked in outside the door. She was wearing a green evening dress and a pearl hairnet. She had a round figure and sickly white skin.
A big local businessman at the table next to him whispered to the friends around him: "I heard that the city lord personally invited the chief commercial officer of their chamber of commerce this afternoon. I didn't expect the president to come in person."
Another businessman said: "They have a lot of goods. It is said that many of them are stocks from three years ago. They were tested and germinated last month."
At Frederick's table, everyone except Count Rank was stunned. They didn't expect that the president of the Sea Flame Chamber of Commerce was actually Altasha.
Altasia was defeated and captured in the Six-Day Defense War in 1026, and then worked as a servant for Frederick for a period of time, treating him like a winter melon, and later taught him some basic summoning skills.
After the Battle of the Elbe River 1027 years ago, Frederick obtained the southern part of Cod Island during negotiations, and Artashia's territory was in the northern part, and then went back to help mine the fire magic crystal there.
In recent years, Lilu has met with Baron Adikon several times when he went to Codfish Island. Shupaiya also met with her because of the matter of transporting fire magic crystals from Codfish Island to Weisen State. We have met several times and we all know each other.
“That’s it.”
Frederick understood that Altasha was not only the princess of the Green Island Kingdom, but also a member of the Witch Sisters, and Psyche had a very good relationship with this mysterious organization. It seemed that the two parties had joined forces, and Psyche was in Wesson State. The radio station used tricks to block the news. The Witch Sisters made a fortune in the tulip market, and maybe they would get a share of the final dividends.
So he whispered: "Stay as far away from things related to her as possible. If you do bad things with good intentions, it will be over."
But the development of the matter was beyond Felt's direction. With strong expectations, Altasha did not come here to engage in any plot of open and secret fighting in business war novels, but chose to scald someone else's money tree with boiling water: "Haven't you heard that Duke Wesson has long predicted that the price of tulips will be as high as It collapsed like a dilapidated house, so we cleared the goods at a low price."
The Lord of Amstel City was suddenly confused, and asked carefully and tentatively: "It is...which Duke Wesson is. ?”
Altasha said matter-of-factly: “It could be Duke Wesson, the one who rented a lot of swampland and reclaimed it as farmland.”
The city lord, the surrounding officials, the nobles of the Kingdom of Gaul, and the big businessmen suddenly broke out in cold sweat.
Count Ranke was involved in academic circles but not in business circles, so he didn’t know Frederick’s status in the hearts of businessmen. All of Frederick’s business-related speeches in the Wesson Daily News would be labeled by them one by one. The study of letters and the priests in the church do not study the scriptures so seriously.
Especially some time ago, Frederick published a declaration to fight for businessmen in the "White Stork Times", which further improved his status.
Duke Wesson said that Tulip is going to be doomed, so it is probably true.
When the city lord personally ran over to Shupaiya and Lilu to verify the matter, his feet were shaking and his words were not clear.
Shupaiya said calmly: "Duke Wesson said a few years ago that the tulip market has gone astray. It is not a normal commercial trade, and the price of the goods seriously exceeds its own value. Therefore, the Dawn Chamber of Commerce has never participated in the tulip trade. "
People who had dealt with Dawn Chamber of Commerce suddenly recalled that Shupaiya and Lilu had never touched tulip trading in these years, and they secretly laughed at it at the beginning.
As if someone had planned it, many people came to the auditorium at this time. They were all stewards of major chambers of commerce. After whispering a few words in the ear of their president, the president's face suddenly lost all color.
The news from Wesson is on point: Duke Wesson predicted in his book "The Nature and Research of Wealth" published on June 14 that the price of tulips will fall like a waterfall.
The merchants left immediately. The first one was followed by the second one. Soon everyone had to rush back to deal with the inventory in their hands. The door of the auditorium was blocked for a while. One unlucky guy even He fell down and was trampled on, breaking his ribs.
The dance could not be held, and in less than a quarter of an hour, only Frederick and others, who were not involved in the matter, and Artashia, who had already cleared out their inventory, were left in the auditorium.
Altasha did not come over to talk to Frederick and the others, but just nodded politely and left.
When the sun rose again, the situation was completely out of control.
The tulips in the hands of Count Rank were still worth about 8,000 florins on June 17th. On the evening of the 18th, they were only worth 4,000 florins. On the morning of the 19th, they could not be sold for 3,000 florins. Near the evening Finally, a chamber of commerce bought it for 250 florins.
The chamber of commerce immediately picked up the goods and loaded them on the ship, and went to sea overnight. Before the news could spread quickly, they rushed to the Piast Kingdom to make up for the losses.
There were many people who had the same idea as this Chamber of Commerce, so much so that in the following period, many Hussars' horses suffered from diarrhea after eating tulip bulbs.
The news of the collapse of tulip prices quickly spread through the radio. The first to be affected was the Kingdom of Gaul. Tulips began to be sold across the country, so much so that after drinking the wedding wine in Cologne, they were preparing to go to Wesson. All the members of the Gallic trade delegation crowded into the telegraph desk, and even little Louis was so frightened that he broke his tea cup.
The turmoil quickly spread to the Rhine League, the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Sardinia and other places. For a time, coffin shops and churches were overwhelmed, and the priests who presided over the funeral had to work overtime.
(End of this chapter)