Chapter 2388 "The Magician's Apprentice" (Part 1)

   In 1797 Goethe published a collection of poems called Fantasia, which describes a story in sonnets written in German.

There was a magician's apprentice, he took advantage of the old wizard's absence, and he was clever enough to show his magic power, but he only knew the spell that started the magic, but he didn't know how to end it. The end result was that the flood overflowed everywhere, and finally the old wizard was Back to clean up the mess.

   Also in 1797, the "xyz incident" occurred between France and the United States. Due to this incident, the relations between the two countries quickly turned bad and even reached a state of quasi-war. In fact, in 1796, the United States and France had a bad relationship because of the "Jay Treaty". At that time, Britain and France were still at war, and the "Jay Treaty" was a friendly and commercial treaty signed by Britain and the United States. Then France announced the suspension of its relationship with the United States. All diplomatic relations.

  After the xyz incident, the United States signed a peace treaty with Tunisia to eliminate Berber pirates. The USS Constitution was launched in the same year, with the intention of no longer paying the "annual contribution" as in the past. Established in Mississippi in 1798, it announced the severance of trade relations with France in July, and then signed a trade treaty with Sweden, which was negotiated by John Adams Jr., son of John Adams.

"The Lion of the North" Gustav II waged the Thirty Years' War, but to bankers and traders, Sweden was more famous not for the king's exploits, nor for the classical furnishings of the court, but for The birth of the world's first central bank. Due to the extreme shortage of food in Sweden, local farmers will mix the bark into the flour to prolong the shelf life of the bread. But Sweden's economy is not without merit. In the case of agriculture not as good as that of the United States and France, Sweden is largely dependent on fishing and copper and iron mining, in which copper is used as currency and iron is an important commodity for export trade.

King Carl Gustaf the X wanted to realize Gustav II's dream of commercializing Sweden, and entrusted him with the task of establishing a bank after a foreign businessman described the Dutch banking system with hype. The man was Palm Church, and unlike the banker who was good at investing in mortgages, he was a master at innovation. When Germany's economy was devastated by the Thirty Years' War, the price of copper was also greatly depressed, causing the collapse of the Swedish Circle, which used copper as its currency.

The other is a more practical problem. Compared to countries that already use gold and silver to mint pocket metal-like currencies, copper is too heavy. The innovation originally conceived by Palmschurch is to store a huge amount of gold in the Stockholm bank gold bank. Swedish round metal sheet, and then provide paper receipts as proof of payment.

In short, it is something that can be understood as paper currency. After the end of the American War, Continental currency has become almost the same as waste paper. Alexander Hamilton came up with a method called "revolving door", that is, to stop using Continental currency as currency. The federal government established the National Currency Union, abolished the currency issuance rights of the states, replaced the severely depreciated continental currency with a new federal currency, and replaced the original state and county public debts with new, longer-term unified national debt.

   But the Riksbank has copper as reserves anyway, so what’s in Hamilton’s bank? The dollar is actually not paper, but cotton and linen. During the time when the United States and France were at odds and Britain and the United States were friendly, Jefferson asked Rufus King, the American ambassador to the United Kingdom, to talk about the British debt and border issues before the war. It's unclear what exactly that was, but it wasn't long before Hope Bank started in Amsterdam to raise money for Hamilton's bond issue in Europe.

John Adams once served as an ambassador to Holland during the American War, and it was he who made Holland stand with France against England, so the British regarded him as the second most evil figure after Washington, and sent him during his mission to Europe. The assassins pursued him, and his son's arrival in Europe coincided with a period of de-escalation between the two countries, which is why John Adams Jr. met and married the daughter of the U.S. ambassador to England during his brief stay in London. .

  Louisa has a irascible personality and suffers from illness all the year round. No one knows why John Adams Jr. has a crush on her.

Anyway, John Adams once said: I must study war and politics so that my son will have the opportunity to study mathematics, philosophy, natural history, shipbuilding, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order for his children to learn painting, poetry, music , architecture, sculpture, weaving.

   As for John Adams Jr.'s son, if he really goes to study art, it is not foreseeable whether he can become the President of the United States like his grandfather. It was also from this beginning that an indissoluble bond was formed between the national debt issued by the US federal government and the repayment of currency.

   When the bill was passed in the United States at that time, the US Congress failed to pass it four times. Jefferson believed that it was against the US Constitution and was centralized, but it was forcibly passed by Washington.

   Acceptance of the US dollar made of cotton and linen as a currency also requires a vote in the British Parliament. This is not a bank note or a voucher, but a credit currency. The US dollar was not linked to gold until the Bretton Woods system. Just like a newly minted franc, it can be exchanged for gold and silver, and the franc itself contains gold and silver.

   But the UK is also issuing banknotes, people already accept that paper is money, hey, why not do that?

   Then I saw that the Danish krone was printed, the right to issue the Danish krone is not in the Danish central bank, and there is no central bank in Denmark.

  There are many ways of defaulting on debts. When Newton was the director of the mint, the United Kingdom planned to reduce the silver content at that time, but Locke called it back with "the sacrosanct of private property". Printing money can also flush out deficits, but everyone in the 21st century knows the consequences.

  Hamilton himself had integrity, he never thought of using his position in the government for personal gain, and he never gave his friends inside information.

  The federal government prohibits Treasury officials from engaging in speculation in any federal securities, but former Treasury Secretary Doerr would rather resign and engage in speculation of all kinds.

Among Doerr's creditors was Henry Knox, the "incumbent" U.S. Secretary of War, and Doerr and his associates were primarily speculating in shares of the Bank of the United States, which was issued at $100 per share, September 1791. The price was as high as $185 a share before the monthly drop.

The escape of Louis XVI happened in June 1791, and the news reached the United States in about September, when the stock of the Bank of the United States fell to $130, then rose back to about $170, and then there was the Whiskey Rebellion in the West. , As we all know, the liquor tax is the main source of tax revenue in the United States, coupled with the conflict of the Native Americans in the Northwest, the stock price of the Bank of the United States has been fluctuating. At the end of 1791, it was rumored that the Bank of the United States was going to acquire the Bank of New York. At that time, the capital of the United States was Philadelphia, but New York also had a precedent for being the capital. If the rumors were true, the stock price of the Bank of New York would soar, and Doerr began to buy the shares of the Bank of New York. He is shorting it again. Anyway, whether it rises or falls, he will make a profit without losing money.

At present, apart from pig iron and shipbuilding, there are very few manufacturing industries in the United States that can be called craftsmen. , lawyers, priests and "brokers".

  The owner of the shop is a bakery owner like Jacob. His start-up capital was still borrowed from the bank by Scamander using silver bird and snake eggs as collateral.

It reminded her of the document she had seen on Severus' desk, which was given to him by a friend of Lucius, who gave it to Severus, presumably meaning that the thriving American real estate market would Bring a violent upheaval, and many people will be homeless.

   For some people, the house is home, but in the eyes of bankers, it is just collateral. Maybe there are some bankers, just like the table Georgiana stayed at before, drinking and chatting.

   They need loans to make money flow and earn interest, but they can't lend to people for no reason. Jacob is starting a business, but it's too risky.

   But everyone needs a home, and every family should have a house, a big yard, a dog, and two children.

   This idea is the American Dream.

  Queenie's idea is very simple, find a man with a good heart and know how to cherish her to marry and start a family. For those who want what they want, like the steel tycoon Carl, he doesn't know how to cherish, let alone like Jack.

   He bought the Heart of the Ocean, but he also got insurance, and the insurance company will compensate for the loss, and he never tried to find Ross at all. Soon he married another woman and moved on with his life.

   She remembered what Jack said to others at the beginning of the movie when he was playing cards.

  When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.

  Unless you buy a Donti-style insurance, as long as you live to the end, you can get all the insurance money.

  Maybe what Ross wants is not "true love", but "cherishing", let alone the blue diamond that Louis XVI once owned.

  Pomona wanted to enjoy that feeling of being cherished, even for a brief time in his life.

  It's a pity that she's not Arianna, nor Lily Potter, if it's not a dream, she should be just a kind witch, short and fat, very popular with children.

  How much she wanted to just sink into the bathtub and sleep forever.

   But she still sat up, just like Scarlett, the heroine of Gone with the Wind, said, after all, tomorrow is a new day.

   (end of this chapter)