On the last day of January 1870, the British Foreign Minister suddenly and urgently summoned the Prussian and French ambassadors in London. During the meeting, the British Foreign Minister expressed his deep concern about the situation and his willingness to make diplomatic adjustments to avoid the occurrence of war.
What surprised the French even more was that this time the leader of the mediation team was actually the British Crown Prince Edward!
Being able to have the crown prince personally come forward to make diplomatic adjustments is simply an extraordinary treatment. As soon as the news came out, the entire European political arena was in an uproar.
Critics who were originally pessimistic have changed their tune. They all agree that this is Britain's best effort for European peace! Once Britain engages in tripartite negotiations, the situation will naturally ease and war can certainly be avoided.
The French ambassador immediately telegraphed the news to the Palace of Versailles. After Napoleon III heard it, he drank three glasses of strong wine in excitement. The French Emperor was certainly not afraid of war. For him, war was as simple as eating a sandwich.
Even the French Emperor was a person who loved war, which can be seen from the wars he provoked after he ascended the throne.
What Napoleon III really hated was Britain's policy of continental checks and balances. In the eyes of Napoleon III, defeating little Prussia was easy. But Britain's policy of checks and balances, which supported the third and challenged the second, was really It made him sick and disgusted.
It is foreseeable that if there is a fierce war between Prussia and France, then the comprehensive national strength of the two countries will greatly retreat, and Britain can sit back and enjoy the results, watching the distance between the second place and itself getting farther and farther.
In the final analysis, the United Kingdom just does not want to give France a chance to equal its strength. They want to control the world forever, and they want to always leave the second place far behind.
Just to prevent the British conspiracy from succeeding, Napoleon III did not want to start this war.
But I never expected that Britain would actually change its national policy and send the crown prince to mediate. Could it be that all the proud British cows have changed their nature? The King of France was a little confused.
Even if you don't understand, you have to think about it. You can't govern a country in a daze. All France's intelligence agencies have been mobilized. Politicians in Paris are connecting with each other and intensely analyzing the situation at hand.
Did the coordination group led by Crown Prince Edward deliver pie? Or is it a trap? If this problem is not clarified, the Emperor's happiness will not last for a few days at all.
A huge amount of intelligence funds were invested, but almost all the French intelligence agencies were mobilized to spy on this secret. Unexpectedly, the final breakthrough in intelligence came from the Netherlands!
As we all know, the first stock exchange in human history was established in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the era when the Netherlands dominated the sea, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange was indeed the financial center of Europe.
Of course, his glory has now been taken away by the Financial City of London, England, but his glory is still there. This earliest stock exchange in mankind still has extremely terrifying human resources!
They are inextricably linked to the City of London, and they can learn about London's latest financial market insider information.
The genius French intelligence officers unexpectedly found a breakthrough here!
Those financial veterans in Amsterdam actually gave France a shocking news. It turned out that Prussia had been negotiating with the Financial City since last year in an attempt to finance war bonds.
Everyone knows that war costs money, and the country also costs money to invest in major projects, but what should we do if we don’t have money? If you don't have money, you can only borrow. There is actually no big difference between living in a country and living in a small family.
The Tsar wanted to abolish serfdom, and he also wanted to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, so he had no choice but to borrow money from all over the world, especially the City of London. No matter how high the bond interest was, they had to grit their teeth and borrow.
This is called a national bond. Of course, you can borrow money for wars. For example, the war between Prussia and Denmark, and the war with Austria, all secretly raised high-interest funds from the City of London.
The underwriting of this kind of war bonds is very complicated and secretive, and it is related to the diplomacy between countries, the checks and balances between financial groups, the national strategies of each country, and other factors.
If you want this kind of underwriting to succeed, in addition to passing the above conditions, more importantly, you must also pay enough interest to investors. These businessmen must carefully calculate your repayment ability.
Businessmen need to calculate how likely you are to win the war. If your government falls because of the war, then your ability to accept these national debts will be questioned, let alone the interest. Will Prussia be able to pay it back? It’s hard to say what the principal amount is.
The bosses within the Dutch Stock Exchange gave Napoleon III shocking news. Last year, Prussia had secretly negotiated the acceptance business of war bonds with the financial oligarchs of the Bank of England and the City of London.
Prussia is initially preparing to issue 70 million pounds of war bonds in the City of London. The financing of 70 million is enough for Prussia to fight a medium-intensity war. This money is Prussia's war funds against France.
Everything was carried out in top secret, and France had no idea that such a deal was being discussed!
But today, France finally knew that this deal was not only being discussed, but just half a month ago, the City of London changed its attitude. They made a pessimistic judgment about Prussia and finally rejected the deal.
Those financial oligarchs seemed very unfavorable to the war between Prussia and France. They believed that Prussia had no possibility of victory in this war, and even a draw would be difficult.
Since it is bound to fail, why do we still do this loss-making business? That's 70 million pounds of war bonds! Although the British royal family is behind the scenes and has given some small words, businessmen are businessmen. They have their own independent thinking, and their business will never be controlled by the royal family.
In the end, he still refused. There was no chance of 70 million pounds, and it was impossible to borrow 50 million pounds. In the end, even the minimum limit of 30 million pounds was not borrowed.
At this time, everyone in France finally figured out what was going on. It turned out that Britain really had not changed its gender. The coordination group he set up now was trying its best to avoid war. That was because he had predicted that Prussia would not be able to carry out such a war. war!
They found that Prussia's current national strength was not enough to support this war unless it could obtain large amounts of financing from the Financial City.
With the current comparison of strength, once a war breaks out, it will not only be difficult for Prussia to win, but there will not even be much chance of a draw.
This will not play a role as a check and balance on the European continent. This war will not weaken France's national power at all. Instead, it will give France an excuse to eat the big fat!
Such an outcome is naturally not what the British want. Since the war cannot achieve the goal of bringing down France, they can only change their strategy and try their best to prevent the war from happening.
:. :chapter;
