Chapter 746 Greed must have a limit
In 1908, Stanley Baldwin's father passed away. Since Baldwin's father served as a member of Congress during his lifetime, Baldwin took the opportunity to participate in the by-election and was successfully elected to inherit his father's seat. , entered the British House of Commons and started his political career.
During the World Wars, Baldwin served as Bonar Law's personal secretary, and in 1917 he was appointed Financial Secretary of the Treasury.
While serving as Financial Secretary, Baldwin advocated wealthy people to actively donate money to the British government to alleviate the British government's financial crisis.
This move caused an uproar in the UK at the time. The Times publicly asked Baldwin, a wealthy man, if he was willing to donate his property.
Baldwin took the initiative to hold a press conference and proved to reporters that he not only led by example, but also donated money equivalent to 20% of his entire net worth, which made him famous.
Baldwin not only contacted George, but also notified the canal company and requested a joint meeting to discuss how to solve the canal crisis.
Prior to this, the Suez Canal Company, Dolgorukov Shipping Company, and the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, which has closed down, had conducted many rounds of negotiations, but due to excessive differences, they had not been able to reach an agreement. .
As time goes by, the canal company and the shipping company have made higher and higher demands to make up for their losses. Now even if the two companies divide the oil on the ship, they can no longer make up for the losses of both parties.
Dasis is very hurt. I just want to do business honestly. Why is it so difficult?
In order to completely resolve the canal crisis, the British government and Russia sent people to participate in the joint meeting.
The British sent Foreign Secretary Curzon.
The Russian side sent Alexander.
Due to the intervention of Britain and Russia respectively, the representatives sent by the canal company and shipping company also increased their level accordingly.
Participating in the meeting on behalf of Dolgorukov Shipping Company was Mario's eldest son Sergei, the next head of the Dolgorukov family.
Representing the canal company at the meeting was William Rothschild.
William Rothschild had never attended a meeting before, and he was not even a member of the canal company's board of directors.
But this is normal. In Europe, the Rothschild family is everywhere.
William's uncle is L.W. Rothschild, another protagonist of the "Balfour Declaration".
After George learned about this situation, he took the initiative to ask Guchkov whether Rothschild had assets in Russia.
"Before the empire nationalized the railways, eighty percent of Russia's railways were controlled by Rothschild."
Guchkov's answer shocked George.
“Everyone hates the Hebrews, but we have to admit that the Hebrews are very smart. Before the outbreak of the world war, Rothschild’s assets in Russia were basically sold out.”
Guchkov smiled coldly, and he was also a victim.
When Rothschild sold off his assets, Guchkov also took over some of them.
"More than 50% of the bonds we issued in France were subscribed by Rothschild - the borrowings we received from Germany were also raised by Rothschild."
"When it comes to borrowings, I think we have Need to strengthen supervision of Deutsche Bank."
Guchkov showed George a more realistic Germany.
In his previous life, George had too many doubts about World War I and could not find the answers from history books.
As a witness in this life, George thought he had a deep enough understanding of the world war, but he did not expect that there would be surprises.
Following Guchkov's explanation, George now knew that Deutsche Bank was actually controlled by the Hebrew consortium headed by Rothschild.
So, it is the Hebrews who control German finance, and the Junker aristocracy who controls the German Wehrmacht.
George couldn't help but take a breath.
This structure seemed familiar to George.
Siberian Bank injected capital into Deutsche Bank to stabilize German finance.
Deutsche Bank issued new marks, Berlin bread once stabilized at around 160 marks, and the German economy gradually began to recover.
However, the good times did not last long. Starting from the spring of this year, prices in Germany have skyrocketed again. Now the price of bread has soared from 160 marks at the beginning of the year to 500,000 marks.
“Before this year, Germans’ salaries were paid monthly——”
Guchkov himself found it difficult to understand that the Hebrews had caused so much trouble to Germany and had so little influence on the Greeks. Did the Arabs themselves do any good?
“At the beginning of this year, Germans’ salaries began to be settled weekly, and now it is daily. It is estimated that it will soon be shortened to hourly settlement.”
George understood the weekly salary to avoid taxes.
Germans’ weekly wages are designed to keep up with rising prices.
“Is Germany still short of food?”
George really doesn’t know where the food exported from Russia to Germany has gone.
“Theoretically there is no shortage——”
Guchkov means a lot.
George suddenly realized that the Hebrews were seeking death again just like in another time and space.
This is not correct either. Where is the national character of the Hebrews? It will not change no matter what time it is.
The thing that the Hebrews were best at, apart from loan sharking, was hoarding.
Deutsche Bank, which is controlled by the Hebrew consortium, will definitely give priority to Hebrews when issuing loans.
The Hebrews who received loans would most likely not invest in industry honestly, but would instinctively choose to accumulate wealth faster, so the price of bread rose from 1.6 million to 500,000.
This is far from the end. It is estimated that in a few months, Deutsche Bank will issue a 100 trillion mark.
“The Germans are really tolerant!”
George couldn’t help but sigh.
"Germany is now like a boiling pot of oil. All it takes is a spark, BOOM——"
Guchkov is not optimistic about Germany's future.
George frowned, this is not okay.
George still expected Germany to charge into the battle, he couldn't just be played to death by the Hebrews.
From that day on, George read the newspaper every day, focusing on news related to beer.
With the intervention of Britain and Russia, negotiations between the canal company and the shipping company were finally effectively advanced.
The fundamental reason why the "Suez" ran aground is that the canal has not been dredged for a long time and can no longer meet shipping needs.
Getting the Suez away was easy.
But if we want to fundamentally solve the problem, we must dredge the canal.
The reason why the canal company is unwilling to dredge the canal is mainly from the perspective of economic interests. After all, dredging the canal will not only affect the canal company's income, but also require a large investment.
The directors of the canal company were unwilling to invest in the canal out of self-interest.
The plan proposed by the Dolgorukov family is to invest 1 billion rubles to widen the canal from the current less than 60 meters to 130 meters, and the depth from the current 6 meters increased to 15 meters.
To ensure the safety of the Dolgorukov family’s investment, Sergey requested the right to manage the canal.
After internal consultations, the canal company agreed to share management rights with the Dolgorukov family, but did not agree to transfer all management rights to Dolgorukov.
Sergey’s response is that if it is shared, then the capital contribution will be in proportion to the voting rights, 100 million rubles per vote.
The canal company rejected this plan, not wanting to lose all its say but also not wanting to contribute money.
"Then there's no need to talk -"
Sergey announced that the negotiations had broken down, so let's continue to block it.
Curzon and Alexander were dispatched urgently to do the work of the canal company and Alexander respectively.
It was already July 16, nearly 4 months since the canal was blocked, causing losses of more than 100 million pounds to the world.
The canal company lost more than 10 million francs in tolls.
On the 19th, negotiations resumed, and the canal company was only willing to give up 40% of the voting rights in exchange for investment from the Dolgorukov family.
It is just voting rights, not company equity.
Sergey believed that this plan was insincere and the negotiations broke down again.
On the 25th, the British troops stationed in the Canal Zone were attacked again. This time, two outposts were completely uprooted, and all the British troops in the outposts were killed.
News returned to London, and the canal company's high-handed behavior once again aroused widespread discussion.
Most of the proceeds from the canal belong to the canal company and have nothing to do with the British troops stationed in the canal zone, let alone the British people.
The British army’s pension is paid by the British government, but this part of the loss must be borne by all British people. Therefore, the canal company’s model makes the rich richer and the poor poorer.
On the 29th, The Times exclusively disclosed the negotiation process between the Canal Company and the Dolgorukov family. The Canal Company finally triggered public outrage across Europe.
From 1869 to the present, the Canal Company has earned more than 3 billion francs in revenue from the canal. Not only is the company unwilling to spend money to dredge the canal, it also sets up obstacles for companies willing to invest, exposing the greed and shamelessness of capital. Nothing left.
Seeing that the canal company's behavior was about to affect Britain's image, Curzon finally toughened his hand and asked the canal company to accept the conditions of the Dolgorukov family.
Curzon believed that the conditions proposed by the Dolgorukov family were very reasonable and took into account the interests of the shareholders of the canal company to the greatest extent, so the canal company almost got it.
William Rothschild was very unhappy and believed that Curzon did not protect the overseas interests of British enterprises to the greatest extent.
Curzon was admitted directly to the hospital and completely ignored the canal company.
On August 3, Alexander and Sergei returned to Constantinople, and the negotiations reached a deadlock again.
William Rothschild finally became anxious and took the initiative to contact Sergei and asked to continue negotiations.
Sergey said that the New Year is coming soon in Russia, so we should discuss anything next year.
New Year?
It’s only August, and there are still 4 months until the Chinese New Year!
This is also wrong. The Russian New Year is later than the Gregorian calendar, four and a half months later.
Sergey can wait, but the canal company cannot. How much does it cost to be blocked for a day?
On August 6, William Rothschild came to Constantinople to restart negotiations.
Sergey has a new plan.
The Canal Company clings to management rights because it is worried that handing over management rights to the Dolgorukov family will damage the interests of the Canal Company.
Sergey teamed up with American capital to invest in the Suez Canal, and management rights were shared by Britain, France, the United States and Russia.
At this time William Rothschild finally had nothing to say.
(End of this chapter)