Following Jas Rothschild up to the second floor, Alphonse Rothschild was unaware that the loyal steward serving the Rothschild Clan was about to take their place in prison.
With suspicions in mind, Alphonse and Jas Rothschild entered the study one after the other.
"Sit down!" Jas Rothschild commanded Alphonse.
"Yes!" Alphonse obeyed his father and sat down on the sofa.
As soon as Alphonse sat down, he heard the weary voice of Jas Rothschild: "From today on, you will take over full managent of the France Branch for !"
The sudden appointnt by Jas Rothschild gave Alphonse a big fright.
At this mont, he was not yet the great banker who, twenty-one years later, single-handedly led the Bank of France to make reparations to Prussia.
Now, he had just taken over part of the bank’s fund allocations between vineyards and part of its bond investnt rights.
Even this small portion of power had already made Alphonse de Rothschild feel what it ant to be overwheld.
Not to ntion the entire business of the Rothschild Bank, the previously gained lessons worried Alphonse that he might not be able to handle the job well.
"Father, I..." Alphonse de Rothschild was at a loss, and he swallowed hard before saying, "I think I still have a lot to learn!"
"Then manage while you learn!" Baron Jas Rothschild responded.
"Father, why so soon to hand over the bank to ?" Alphonse de Rothschild asked, "What exactly happened?"
"Alphonse..." Jas Rothschild sighed and shook his head, saying, "Soone has to be responsible for the failure, and you’re still young!"
"Father... what conditions did you agree with the President?" Alphonse de Rothschild’s voice trembled.
Jas Rothschild’s eyes revealed a hint of heartache. He raised three fingers and said with a quivering voice, "Thirty million francs, plus our recent losses, the France Rothschild Bank is losing almost fifty million francs!"
"Fifty million francs!" Alphonse de Rothschild suddenly felt the world spinning.
Fifty million francs was by no ans a small figure, equating to almost 200,000 British Pounds.
This was equivalent to the Rothschild Bank earning nothing between 1845 and 1848.
These three years were the most profitable for Rothschild’s Bank of France, especially during the early rail speculation from 1845 to 1847, which doubled the assets of the France Branch.
"Not only that!" Jas Rothschild said with a bitter smile, "We also need to stabilize the Austrian and Southern German national bonds in our hands..."
"That’s another significant expenditure!" Alphonse de Rothschild replied.
"Indeed!" Baron Jas Rothschild nodded in response.
Nearly 60 million francs in losses had to be accounted for by soone, and the substantial loss made Baron Jas Rothschild a target for the complaints from the stockholders of the Rothschild Clan.
Having experienced the betrayal by Lionel Rothschild, Jas Rothschild was not about to trust so-called family unconditionally.
No matter how close blood relatives were, in the end, they were still "outsiders." Only his son was the executor of his will.
Thinking of this, Jas Rothschild glanced at his son.
"Father, how do you plan to deal with those shareholders? Just resigning would hardly quell their anger!" Alphonse de Rothschild calmly analyzed, knowing that his father was destined to take responsibility for the failure. So of the Rothschild Clan mbers had long been poised to take his place.
"Ignore the small and dium family shares within; as long as we calm Leonel and his group, the rest will not be significant!" Jas Rothschild’s tone noticeably intensified when ntioning Lionel Rothschild.
Alphonse de Rothschild also noticed his father’s change in emotion when ntioning his cousin Lionel Rothschild. He hurriedly asked, "Father, is cousin he..."
"Don’t call that bastard cousin. I don’t have such a nephew, and you don’t have such a cousin!" The accumulated gloom in his chest exploded in an instant, Jas Rothschild said gruffly.
The betrayal by Lionel Rothschild caused Jas Rothschild’s mood to fluctuate intensely. Given that Jas Rothschild was already over sixty, the intense emotional contrast made him cough involuntarily: "Cough... Cough..."
Seeing this, Alphonse de Rothschild quickly ca to Jas Rothschild and gently patted his back.
When Jas Rothschild stopped coughing, Alphonse de Rothschild asked, "Father, what else happened during my imprisonnt?"
Jas Rothschild told Alphonse de Rothschild about the various events during his imprisonnt and about the letter he saw from Lionel Rothschild to Jero Bonaparte.
Alphonse de Rothschild’s face turned pale, he, like Jas Rothschild, never imagined that a family mber would choose betrayal, especially a cousin with such high status and power.
"Lionel, what exactly does he want to do!" Alphonse de Rothschild said through clenched teeth.
"He might want us to no longer ddle with the Bank of England." Jas Rothschild sighed, a hint of relief in his eyes, "A young eagle always wants to fly into the sky on its own. Perhaps I’ve bound them too much!"
"If it weren’t for you, Father, he wouldn’t have beco the helmsman of Britain. Not only did you raise him to that position, not only did he not thank you, he even struck you when you were down!" Alphonse de Rothschild said indignantly.
"Alphonse!" Jas Rothschild wasn’t as resentful as Alphonse. He responded calmly, "Lionel has already shown through his actions that he is a qualified helmsman of the British branch, so the issue of support doesn’t exist. Now, we still need them to help us in the family board of directors!"
"Father, that guy Lionel just betrayed you! Will he still help us?" Alphonse de Rothschild clearly didn’t believe Lionel Rothschild would still help them.
"He will!" Jas Rothschild declared firmly, "My nephew rely wants the autonomy of the British Bank. Fine, I can give him that power! Not only that, I will give the sa power to Frankfurt, Vienna, and Naples too!"
Jas Rothschild’s words shocked Alphonse de Rothschild, and he quickly tried to dissuade him, "Father, doing so you will lose control over the entire Rothschild Bank!"
Looking at his son who lacked a broader view, Jas Rothschild’s eyes revealed a hint of disappointnt. He was still too young.
"Alphonse, I ask you! With almost 50 million in losses, what capability do we have to manage other Rothschild banks? We even need to face the shareholders of the French Branch! Rather than holding an empty title as Leader, it’s better to honestly manage the resources we have!" Jas Rothschild explained to Alphonse de Rothschild, "I will transfer so of the British stocks to Lionel in exchange for his help to get us through this crisis!"
Due to the Rothschild family system, so core mbers of the Rothschild family hold shares in each other’s banks. This thod was created by Jas Rothschild’s father, Mayer Rothschild, the founder of Rothschild Bank, aiming for branches to rely on each other.
Of course, Mayer Rothschild’s idea was ideal, but in reality, banks holding each other’s shares may not necessarily beco a reliable support during hard tis, and might instead strike when one is down.
It’s all the consequence of power struggles!
By cashing out so of the shares of the British Rothschild branch to cover part of the shortfall, and then using the support of Lionel and others to suppress opposition from mbers of the French Rothschild branch.
Jas Rothschild will shoulder all the problems himself, volunteering to resign from the position of bank chairman, then have his son inherit the chairmanship.
An empty-titled Jas Rothschild would no longer have the capacity to interfere in the bank’s operations, which is undoubtedly the best solution for the major branches.
"This ti we underestimated Jero Bonaparte!" Jas Rothschild candidly acknowledged his failure and began adjusting the company’s operations, "Alphonse, the future goal for the company is not only focused on dostic railways, we should look further afield!"
"Further afield?" Alphonse de Rothschild was sowhat puzzled.
"Yes!" Jas Rothschild nodded, as he got up and walked to his desk, pulling out a stack of letters from the drawer and handing them to Alphonse de Rothschild, "Take a look!"
Alphonse de Rothschild opened the letters, the content was sowhat related to California.
"Gold?" After reading the letter, Alphonse de Rothschild said to Jas Rothschild.
"That’s right! California has discovered a large amount of gold! Our survey team in the New Continent has found a gold mine!" Jas Rothschild nodded and said to Alphonse.
"Father, we should act imdiately!" Alphonse de Rothschild said eagerly.
Reviews
All reviews (0)