The Fox of France

Chapter 422: Finding a Scapegoat

Although Napoleon was set up by the boss and made a bit of a fool of himself, overall, Napoleon's reputation actually gained a bit. In the past, most people thought of Napoleon as nothing more than a scientific enthusiast. But after this incident, public opinion generally regarded Napoleon as a genuine scientist—although he sometimes makes mistakes. As for how the common people see it? Most of the time, ordinary folks don't have their own opinions; whatever the public opinion is, that's what they think.

Of course, as a result, Napoleon's support rate also further increased. Naturally, you see, His Majesty Napoleon understands military affairs, law, politics, economics, and science; he understands everything. He truly is a monarch who knows everything, simply a philosopher king.

After that, there was a period of peaceful good times. During this time, Joseph once wanted to continue causing trouble for Napoleon and give him more paper-reviewing tasks. However, this time Napoleon adopted Lucien's suggestion and used a weak and embarrassing method to counterattack. He went to his mother and complained that he was already busy, and Joseph had dumped so many things on him that he didn't even have time to go out on dates with Miss Lora.

Letizia had always been indifferent to the matters between her sons because she felt they were too complicated for her to understand. But this time, Letizia decided to intervene in Joseph's affairs. After all, this was related to having grandchildren.

So Joseph was successfully repelled. Napoleon's days immediately improved, except for Letizia occasionally urging him to get married. But Napoleon always wanted to delay as much as possible because he found that as long as he used dating as an excuse, he could push a lot of things onto Joseph and Lucien.

Of course, as a form of resistance, Joseph and Lucien naturally joined the party of urging Napoleon to get married as soon as possible.

Good times are always short-lived. In the end, Napoleon had to yield to the pressure and Rome had one more empress.

As Napoleon had expected, once he got married, his mother immediately returned to retirement, and then many things couldn't be pushed away again.

So as soon as the honeymoon ended, Napoleon became busy again.

For example, today, at the family meeting, Joseph handed over a report to Napoleon.

This report was about the economic situation in France. Over the years, the French stock market has always been bullish. To be precise, since Napoleon became First Consul, the French stock market has been booming. Although there have been some minor fluctuations, overall, the stock market situation has been very good. Therefore, the prices of various French stocks have been steadily rising, and now the stock prices have reached a quite high level.

On the other hand, on the economic fundamentals, the situation is not as good as before. Take the railway for example; the emergence of railways has indeed greatly increased productivity, but also precisely because railways make money, railway investment has been increasing crazily in France and even across the European continent, and the market has been very enthusiastic about railways.

One result of this enthusiasm is that more and more railways are being built. Initially, railways were only built where needed, then it became repeating the construction where needed, and then it became shouting to build railways wherever possible. For example, from Paris to "New Rome," a distance of only tens of kilometers, now has three railways. And from Paris to Marseille, there are even two railways, and a third one is under construction.

However, neither France nor other European countries need so many railways at all, nor is there so much to transport by railway. So there has been a serious overcapacity in railway transportation.

Because of the overcapacity in railway transportation, most railways have not many trains running on them. On average, the capacity utilization of railways across the entire European continent is only a little over twenty percent, and in France, this proportion is even lower, even less than ten percent.

Most railway companies' plans are based on achieving a capacity utilization of more than fifty percent. So in the current situation, these companies basically have no profit margin. They are still alive mainly relying on bank loans and telling stories in the stock market.

"Joseph, why are you showing me these?" Napoleon asked.

Sitting on the sofa opposite his desk, Joseph crossed his legs and said, "Napoleon, your reputation has increased a bit recently, which can be useful now, right? Well, the wheat is ripe, it's time to harvest."

Napoleon understood Joseph's meaning. In fact, the overheating of the railway was partly due to Joseph's credit. With the overheating of railway construction, the Lorraine steel factory sold a large amount of steel products and made a lot of money. And the banking system of the military-industrial complex also made a lot of money from this railway frenzy.

The railway frenzy also brought a lot of foreign capital investment, and these investments were all for making quick money. So they naturally paid more attention to stock prices in the stock market rather than the actual operation of the companies. Therefore, the Roman Bank (including a group of banks belonging to the military-industrial complex such as Bonaventure Bank) seized this opportunity to slowly transfer many junk railway debts to those foreign banks. In this process, those foreign banks seemed to have made a lot of money too.

"What do you mean by bursting this bubble to reap profits?" Napoleon said, "This can cause a lot of hatred. How do you plan to do it?"

"First, let the French Railway Company reduce fares," Joseph said.

The French Railway Company is naturally the darling of the military-industrial complex. It has the best and most profitable railways in France. Of course, in recent times, especially after the railway construction boom developed into an overheated stage, even the French Railway Company has been losing money. But this is not a problem because while the French Railway Company is losing money, its parent companies, the Lorraine Steel and the Roman Bank, have made so much money. So overall, they still make more money, so the operation of the French Railway Company is naturally no problem at all.

But other railway companies are different, especially those railway companies that rely on foreign funds to speculate and make money. If they don't falsify their accounts, their financial statements are almost unreadable.

In the past year, these companies had thought about reducing prices to compete. But they were quickly warned because once a railway company reduces prices, it is equivalent to admitting that they have difficulty making profits, which will immediately cause changes in the stock market, and then—these companies are now surviving on bank loans and telling stories in the stock market.

But the French Railway Company is not worried about this. If they reduce prices, the entire railway bubble will burst. Then they can harvest those railways that are unable to pay their debts.

Napoleon shook his head and said, "I disagree with this approach. This is too crude. It will make people feel that we are the culprits, although we are indeed the culprits, we cannot let others know that we are the culprits. We must find another way, we must find a scapegoat."

"What kind of scapegoat do you want? This scapegoat must have a certain weight, at least a certain weight in this market. His actions are enough to burst the bubble. And a too small thing cannot cover up a bigger thing, just like an elephant cannot

hide behind a mouse," Joseph said.

"No, my dear brother, an elephant cannot hide behind a mouse, but an elephant can hide behind eyelids. As long as the eyelids close, everything in the world is obscured. The media is the eyelids of the world, and this eyelid is under our control," Lucien said, "We can completely push the blame onto the British or anyone else."

"Pushing it onto the British will cause unnecessary trouble at least for now," Napoleon said.

"Then push it onto the Americans?" Lucien suggested again.

"There's no need. There's no need to quarrel with the Americans now," Napoleon vetoed Lucien's suggestion again.

"Then push it onto the Jews," Joseph said, "Firstly, the Jews have no country. Pushing it onto them will not cause any diplomatic trouble. Secondly, some Jews are very wealthy, and their power is enough to burst this bubble, and they will benefit from this process. So, find a Jewish banker and let him do this. Rothschild, for example, will they be willing?"

"Is there any need to ask if they are willing? We have already decided to let the Jews take the blame, will they not agree?" Napoleon said, "Moreover, since ancient times, do you need their consent to put the blame on someone's head? You, you are too young, too naive..."

Lucien remained silent, but Joseph spoke up, "Napoleon, don't be so crude. You have to know how to lure, not just always threaten. Bursting this bubble, Rothschild can also benefit to some extent and make some money. As for taking the blame, it's all the Jews who will bear it, not just his family. Moreover, we can also protect them and, incidentally, show our adherence to the Civil Code. So, you see, isn't this something that can be discussed properly? Well, Rothschild also has one or two railways in his hands. He can reduce the prices of these railways first, and then our French Railway Company can immediately follow suit. Then this matter will be settled, right? And letting him know in advance that railway stocks are going to collapse, the benefits are still enough to tempt him. As for other Jews, what does it have to do with Rothschild?"