In Paris, in a luxury club that is not open to the public, several major oligarchs from the French financial industry gathered together.

An old man with kind eyebrows asked with a smile: "I heard that little guy Nino is in trouble. How is it now? Have you completed the task?"

If you are not a familiar person, no one knows that this kind-hearted and beautiful old man is the biggest vampire in the French financial industry.

What is most fearful is that no matter what the situation is, he always has a smile on his face, including killing people.

"Okay, Old Duke put away your face. Everyone is an old acquaintance. Who doesn't know who! You are acting every day, so we are annoyed when we watch it."

The person who spoke was Dumas, and because of the interests, the two often had conflicts.

Contradictions are contradictions, but this does not affect everyone's cooperation to make money. For the Panama Canal project, everyone is sitting up again.

In order to avoid the escalation of conflict, Bells, the host of this party, decisively got to the point: "The two are important, so let's talk about the canal project first!

Everyone knows that the Suez Canal project that originally thought it would lose money had recovered all its investments less than seven years after it was launched.

Nowadays, investors can provide generous returns every year, and the returns will also grow with the development of overseas trade. If nothing unexpected happens, the returns will continue for hundreds of years.

Of course, this is an exception. This special terrain of the Mediterranean is not available anywhere, and it is almost impossible to copy the Suez Canal success.

The Panama Canal should be the closest to the Suez Canal. Once the distance between the east and west Pacific Oceans is opened, it will be closer, and the benefits can be imagined."

Old Duke shook his head: "It's not that simple. The Panama Canal is different from the Suez Canal. We don't get support in politics.

Austrians do not want to see the canal open, the British do not want the canal open, and even the Paris government may not support the Panama Canal open.

You should be clear about the reasons for this. The most benefit of the Suez Canal navigation is the Mediterranean countries. Both France and Austria are beneficiaries. For the sake of strategy, the two countries need to push the project under the pressure of the British.

What about the Panama Canal? The biggest beneficiary is the United States of America, followed by the Republic of Colombia, and other American countries have gained some of it.

But we and Britain and Austria have gained too little, and France has almost no income except the canal itself.

The Austrian Central America region is not large in area, and railway construction can meet transportation needs. Without this demand, otherwise they would dig it themselves, and canals can also be dug in the Nicaragua region.

Not to mention British Canada, typically with vast land and sparse population, there are not so many goods that need to be transported at all.

In the eyes of politicians, such cheap projects are better than not to start.

As for the canal's gains, I'm sorry, I don't think the Panama Canal can catch up with the Suez Canal.

Judging from the economic situation in the Americas, perhaps the number of ships passing through each year is not as high as that of our family of ships passing through the Suez Canal.

If the economies of the American countries develop later, they may still be profitable. If the current situation is currently in place, the loss of this project will be almost 100%.

This is a fact. There are indeed hidden interests behind the Panama Canal, but hidden interests cannot be obtained by the government.

Compared with high investment, it is just charging navigation fees. In this era, opening the Panama Canal did a big loss, otherwise the original time and space would have been delayed until before World War I.

Without the participation of the government, we will face stabbing other countries. It would be strange if the Panama Canal can be successfully navigated.

Bells smiled slightly: "Whether the Panama Canal is profitable or not, can it be made in navigation? What does it have to do with us?

As long as the outside world thinks that this project has great potential, just like the Suez Canal now, it is enough to make a lot of money.

I made a preliminary estimate that if this project is operated, it can leverage more than 10,200 francs of capital. If peripheral returns are added, this number will be even larger.

We only need to bite a piece of meat from it. Whether the canal plan succeeds or fails, then let God decide."

Everyone calculated how much profit they could make. There was no doubt that this was a shocking scam. However, this was also the most basic operation of capital. If a beautiful dream was not compiled, how could investors be willing to get into the trap?

For financial capital, they never care about the success or failure of the project. As long as they can operate and go public, they can get rich returns. Long-term operation has never been a problem they need to consider.

Old Duke nodded: "What you said makes sense. We are not God. How do you know if the Panama Canal Project will be successful?

What I think is to get the canal development rights as soon as possible and then operate and go public.

If possible, it is best to bring English-Australia Capital together. Only by making the cake bigger can we get the most delicious portion.

Especially in Austria, someone must lobby for the Vienna government and at least delay their intervention."

Bells: "This is also the reason why I invite everyone here. Such a large project requires too many coordination relationships. Everyone must work hard to complete it."

Obviously, this is not as simple as it seems. Just a Panama Canal project is not worthy of the joint efforts of so many bigwigs in the French financial industry.

As long as you brag about the cowhide, it is not a canal project. It will also involve marine transportation, processing and manufacturing, and banking...

Perhaps when this project is in operation, there will be a new bull market; when the project is over, it will be when the stock market crash breaks out.

...

There are still many smart people. Morgan, who is far away in New York, quickly discovered something was wrong with his keen sense of smell in the financial market.

The Panama Canal does not require the participation of the United States at all. Even if they participate, they can do nothing except provide money.

There are many internal conflicts between UZhong and the federal government is weak, so it is impossible to mobilize the true strength of this country. Moreover, there are also alliance countries eyeing each other, so they dare not act rashly.

If they really face Austria, the federal government can do nothing except protest. Without the government's intervention, what can these consortiums do? Could they organize mercenaries to defend the Panama region?

It’s not that Morgan underestimated himself, the power of the consortium is indeed great, but it depends on what it is. If they organize mercenaries to confront a powerful force head-on, they will probably die miserably.

Not only the United States, but also Spain is not much better. It seems that Spain is quite powerful in the Caribbean, but in fact the colonies in this region have long been spyed by the Union countries.

On the one hand, they were afraid of the strength of Britain, France and Austria, and were worried about being hostile to European countries; on the other hand, they were restrained with the United States and were easily able to be taken advantage of by the enemy.

Even if the Panama Canal has a lot of interests, the Spaniards will not be able to offend Austria now and cause big trouble for themselves.

Not to mention anything else, the Philippines in the Nanyang region is just under Austria's nose. The Spanish were able to protect this land because of the good diplomatic relations between the two sides, rather than the so-called military strength.

Since the two pairs of friends are not strong, the French have to pull them up, the problem is very obvious.

The truth was inferred, but Morgan and France were determined to cooperate. The money delivered to the door would be useless. As for whoever cheated whom in the end, they had to rely on their own means.

You should know that the Morgan Consortium was able to develop to this point, and it was only because of the cheating of the British. Even the British could cheat, but there was naturally no pressure to cheat the French.

...

At the Vienna Palace, Franz hesitated when he looked at the information in his hand. He didn't know whether he should cooperate with the operations of these consortiums.

He seemed to have no reason to refuse simply from the point of view of interests. The benefits promised by the French were still very generous.

But after doing it, he broke his bottom line. Although the Imperial Power Consortium is also engaged in financial business, it has never played a shocking scam.

After hesitation for a while, Franz made a decision: "Tell the people below that they can cooperate with the French, but the Panama Canal cannot be listed in Austria. If they participate in that step, they will decide for themselves."

If the money delivered to the door is not profitable, the Panama Canal Company will not be profitable. As long as the Panama Canal Company is not listed in Austria, even if it has an impact, the consequences will be too serious.

If an investor goes to buy stocks, he deserves to be sheep.

The Austrian Securities Regulatory Commission is still very strict. Unless it is endorsed by the government, it will not be able to pass the listing review at all.

Franz does not think that the Vienna government will endorse the Panama Canal. The top government officials are very clear that unless Austria changes its national policy, the project will not be successful at all.

The French attempted to enter the Austrian consortium, but the most important thing was to prevent Vienna from sabotaging it. He had never thought about listing in Austria.

The reason is very simple. According to the latest securities law of the Vienna government, companies listed in Austria have strict performance requirements. Unless they are approved by the government, other companies must make profits of more than 100,000 SHIELD for three consecutive years.

No matter how the Panama Canal project is played, capitalists cannot produce financial statements for three consecutive years before the canal is opened.

Of course, the benefits are not that easy to get. There must be additional conditions, and it is impossible to get money for free. What needs to be done needs further negotiations to determine, which is not what Franz cares about.

The efforts are proportional to the benefits. This plan was planned by the French, so they will naturally take the big shot. Other participants must share the spoils according to the size of their contributions.

This is just a preliminary distribution intention, and how much profit can be obtained in the end is actually based on means. Capital is bloody and competition is everywhere.
Chapter completed!