"The Kingdom of France missed a great opportunity!"

This sentence quickly spread on the streets and alleys of Paris in mid-to-late April. Every Parisian who spreads this message always said it in a sarcastic tone as much as possible. They gave ruthless mockery to Mr. Mo San, the diplomatic envoy of the East Coast Republic of China who said this sentence.

Isn't it? A desolate and remote New World country established by the Tatars actually wanted to form an alliance with the Kingdom of France. It's ridiculous! How many people do they have? 30,000 or 50,000? How many cities are there? One or two? How many ships are there? Five or ten? How many troops are there? One thousand or two? They even boasted that they repeatedly severely damaged the Spanish Navy and Army troops and occupied several cities. This is the most shameless lie.

Although some well-informed merchants pointed out that the East Coast fleet seemed to have severely damaged part of the Spanish Mediterranean fleet in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the East Coast cotton cloth was very popular in many southern provinces and regions - this was the result of the two consecutive increases in the import tariffs of East Coast textiles in the Kingdom of France. It is conceivable how overflowing East Coast textiles were in the south before this. Therefore, such a country should not be so despised. But their remarks were quickly submerged in more gossips, and most people were not willing to believe these things beyond their imagination. The inexplicable sense of superiority prompted them to use the East Coast envoy's miserable appearance outside the Louvre as a joke after dinner.

Speaking of which, after Mo San separated from the nobleman named Talon, he began to look for ways in Paris. He first visited the Baron Toulouse's in-laws, a little nobleman from Paris, but unfortunately, the other person's status was not high, his social circle was limited, and his attitude was not very enthusiastic, so Mo San quickly stopped making a breakthrough from him.

After several days of ramming like a headless fly in Paris, Mo Sanxin, who was almost caught as a spy because he was wandering around, decided to go to the Louvre to try his luck. Maybe he could see Lord Mazaran in this way. But reality quickly gave him a cruel response. He did not know whether the diplomatic letter he submitted through the guards was slack or some reason. He was as if the slutty man had entered the sea without any news. Unwilling to fail, he wandered outside the Louvre for a few days, chatting with every noble or official entering and leaving the palace, but his poor French pronunciation caused it to be endless ridiculed. In the end, some noble guards even wanted to attack him in impatiently.

The disheartened Mo San understood that he would not make any progress in Paris. Maybe he would continue to wander outside the Louvre and one day he would be able to see the Queen Mother Anne or Cardinal Mazaran, but so what, there are Prince Conde and Prince Gaston who hold the power of this country. I don’t know where their temple doors are opened. Besides, continuing to stay outside the Louvre will only damage the image of the country. Although Mo San no longer cares about personal honors and disgraces, he still pays great attention to maintaining the image of the country. The Frenchman is so arrogant, so we don’t need to use a hot face to stick to the cold butt. We are from the East Coast. We can’t afford to lose that person!

Mo San, who made up his attention, left Paris, a city that made him feel very uncomfortable, and arrived in Lyon on May 15. After arriving in Lyon, he found Mario Doria who was still staying here, and then said to him directly: "Mario, do you want to go to the East Coast? I can send you an introduction letter. I can introduce you to the Minister of Trade of our country and to some officials of the Ministry of Finance, and will never let you go empty-handed."

Mario, who was flirting with the maid, immediately looked at Mo San with a smile when he heard this. After a long time, he smiled softly: "I knew you would be scared by those Parisians. They usually don't even take the people from other provinces seriously, let alone you? And Paris at this moment, whether it is the royal rank led by Mazaran, or the parliamentary rank led by the great nobles and merchants, they probably don't have time to greet you. They are still having a lot of fun at this time, and they don't even take care of the matter on the battlefield, let alone you."

"So you foresee the result before I set off?" Mo San sat down with a little depressed look. Then he grabbed a glass of red wine on the table and drank it all.

Mario's face twitched when he saw Mo San drinking his fine wine so much: "I guess you won't get much in Paris, so after I handled the family affairs, I'll wait for you here to see if you will come to me. As expected, God has sent you here again. So, do you need me to provide good news to comfort you?"

"Tell me." Mo San poured some red wine into his cup, and then continued to drink it all.

Mario's face twitched again, and then he said, "My family has been coordinated. At present, the Genoa government has allowed your country to issue war bonds of no more than 10 million bank lira (about 1.64 million yuan) in the financial market. The bond term is five years or ten years, and it is redeemed in one lump sum at an annual interest rate of 7.5%. Of course, whether or not the bond is issued issuance. How much bond is issued depends on the needs of your government, and we do not interfere with it."

"The interest rate of 7.5%, fortunately, is lower than the interest you lend to Spain. But why did I hear that the interest rate of the lifetime annuity bond of St. George's Trading Company in your country has dropped to 2%? Your country is seriously overcapacity, and now the world is looking for opportunities for cooperation. Our East Coast Republic will surely win in this war. You don't have to worry about the bonds on hand turning into waste paper. So why do you have to set such a high interest rate?" Mo San shook his head and said with some dissatisfaction: "The total interest rate of ten-year bonds has reached 7.5 million bank lira. This is too dark and I can't accept it."

"God, you must know that our family has provided guarantees for you to issue bonds. The interest rate of 7.5% is the best condition we can get. You are not satisfied." Mario slapped the plump buttocks of the maid beside her and signaled her to leave. Then he said to Mo San in an exaggerated tone: "You must know that we have provided you with such a huge guarantee before we even went to the East Coast for any inspection. This is a great risk. We have even won extremely low bond sales expenses for you and promised to subscribe to 30% of the war bonds issued by your country. In this way, the interest rate of 7.5% is quite appropriate."

"Don't tell me that your family did not propose any additional conditions, that would be surprising, because it did not match the character of the Genoese I knew." Mo San ignored Mario's eyes and continued to pour wine into the glass.

"Of course, we have prepared a package of cooperation plans." Mario restrained his exaggerated smile and said in a slightly formal tone: "The premise for the public issuance of bonds is that your country accepts some cooperation plans from our family, such as cooperating with factories, monopoly management rights of some commodities, and most important financial reforms."

"The first two are easy to understand. What is the financial reform?" Mo San picked up the wine glass and was about to drink it all. Hearing this, he immediately asked Mario vigilantly.

"The so-called financial reform is that your government authorizes us Genoese to open banks in your country, or to join hands with your country's merchants to start banks. As you know, your country lacks professional talents in the financial industry. Our Republic of Genoa can provide you with professional consultants, train bank staff, and even provide you with reserves and licenses for opening commercial clearing banks. You know, in Europe, international bulk trade is generally settled in commercial paper. I see that your business station is still using original cash settlement, which is too backward. In Italy, the Netherlands and North Germany, no wholesaler will carry a large amount of silver coins around. They usually use various bills issued by reputable banks to trade, but if your country's banks want to join this system, the first thing they need is to get recognition and recommendation from others..."

"So you plan to take this opportunity to control our country's financial sovereignty? No, I will not agree to this!" Mo San drank the wine in his glass again, and then said: "Allowing foreign capital to open factories will cause controversy in our country, let alone opening banks. IMHO, the possibility is not high unless it can bring great benefits to our country."

"Don't be so anxious to deny it, my dear Mo." Mario twitched his face and snatched the wine bottle. After pouring a small cup for himself, he said with peace of mind: "The energy of the Genoa banking world is beyond your imagination. We have a large number of branches in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and the Baltic Sea. We have even set up many business stations or bank branches in New Spain and Peru. We have accumulated a lot of connections over hundreds of years. If we want, we can of course turn these connections into commercial interests. In other words, as long as we get our help, your country's commodity exports will definitely increase greatly. Believe me, Mo, in your words, this is a win-win situation."
Chapter completed!