Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1195: Chapter 1101: Futures Trading Really Does Make Money Fast

England, South Wales, Swansea Coal Mine.

In the mine shaft over 170 meters deep underground, old David, on all fours, desperately banged on the air-door in front of the passage while shouting, “Jamie! Open the door quickly, Jamie!”

The air-door was used in the mine to prevent excessive accumulation of methane and carbon dioxide. A child would wait behind the door at all times to open and close it for the coal pushers.

However, there was no response from the other side of the door.

In the pitch-black tunnel, old David turned to encourage his companions behind him, “Don’t worry, the kid is just asleep.”

He had no idea that they were already in a desperate situation.

Jamie’s family hadn’t eaten sugar cakes or had tea with sugar for a week, and due to a lack of sufficient sugar intake, he simply couldn’t withstand the heavy work for 17 hours every day.

Half an hour ago, he had already fainted.

And his frail body was stuck at the corner of the tunnel, perfectly blocking the air-door.

It was not until near the end of the shift, around 8 in the evening, that the mine manager realized four people were missing during roll call and hurriedly ordered a search of the mine.

Two hours later, old David and Jamie were finally rescued.

However, David’s two companions had already turned into corpses—David, after crouching in the tunnel for more than an hour, finally became exhausted, and the coal cart weighing over a hundred kilograms slid backward, crushing the two men following behind.

In Manchester at Evans Textile Factory, Julia hung up the flying shuttle on the frame, only to suddenly hear Thomas proposing to her.

She turned around in surprise, but saw a large patch of vibrant red.

It wasn’t the flowers Thomas had given her, but her own blood—lost in a daze, she leaned against the high-speed automatic loom, and her arm was immediately caught in the gears.

Outside London, Mrs. Rich’s seven-year-old eldest son was barely alive. He fell while cleaning the rooftop yesterday afternoon.

The little boy on the bed struggled to reach for his mother’s clothes and weakly said, “Mom, can I have a sugar cake?”

Mrs. Rich kept wiping her tears, but could only shake her head.

The sugar at home had to be reserved for her husband, otherwise he might be fired from the factory due to lack of strength at any time, and then the other two children at home would starve to death…

Sugar is the “fuel” for the British, and even the government-subsidized fuel currently costs 3 shillings 8 pence per pound, and is still continuously rising.

The sugar consumption of ordinary families has dropped to a third of last year’s.

In less than a month, chaos broke out in London.

Near the sugar shop on Whitechapel Street, three police officers blew their whistles forcefully while waving batons at the surging crowd, but the people acted as if crazy, broke the shop’s door against the batons, and then fled with clothes filled with sugar.

In front of St. James’s Palace, a parade of over a thousand people appeared, demanding the government control sugar prices.

Hmm, these people were organized by the factory owners. Although the lives of British workers are worthless, consistently weak workers would severely affect production efficiency.

Meanwhile, in the Palace of Versailles, Joseph was tasting green tea while Godan, sitting on the sofa opposite him, was reporting the bounty from this clearing: “As per your instructions, by yesterday afternoon, 3,000 tons of sugar had been sold off, with a floating profit of 16 million francs. Currently, 1,900 tons of sugar remain.”

Previously, Joseph had squeezed out more than 20 million francs from the French finances to buy up very cheap sugar in London.

Now the sugar price had reached his psychological target, so he began to sell.

He was also doing this to appropriately control the price from becoming too outrageous, otherwise it might provoke protests from allies like Italy and Spain.

Even so, his profit margin was as high as 117%. When all the sugar in hand is sold, he should net over 25 million francs.

This was still because he entered the market earlier due to his strategy of targeting short sellers; otherwise, the profit would be higher.

However, entering early also had its advantages; he successfully completed most of the contracts he bought—at that time British short sellers hadn’t yet collapsed.

As for speculative capitals like the Rothschild who entered afterward, though they got cheaper chips, probably only about 60% of Joseph’s buying price, many of them didn’t manage to settle due to British cheating, hence could only get some damages.

After Godan finished reporting, Joseph instructed him on some sugar price control matters, and the latter left.

After lunch, Eman brought the Crown Prince’s private accountant, and placed a stack of bills in front of him.

The accountant, even though accustomed to handling large sums of money, was constantly swallowing his saliva and took each bill in turn to explain: “Your Highness, this is the profit share from the Countess of Provence, sent by her envoy, totaling 390,000 francs…

“This one is from the Duke De Brousse… total of 400,000 francs…

“Also Count Magimel’s… total of 220,000 francs…

“Baroness Montel’s… total of 260,000 francs…”

Joseph raised his hand to interrupt him, “Just tell me the total.”

“Oh, yes, Your Highness,” the accountant quickly pulled out a statement and glanced at it, “a total of 8,724,000 francs.”

Joseph smiled and nodded, “Deposit all into the Bank of France Reserve first.”

These funds were the agreed rewards when he revealed the “business opportunity” to the Countess of Provence beforehand.

Yes, he only informed three people, but other participants who got wind of the info definitely wouldn’t dare neglect handing over shares to the Crown Prince.

In fact, even Queen Mary, who entered earliest in the sugar market, gained 780,000 francs, and she had been eagerly wanting to use this money to build a Notre Dame in Santo Domingo these days.

Eman signaled to the servants carrying small wooden boxes behind him: “Your Highness, these are compensatory gifts from the Countess of Provence, Duke De Brousse, and others. They fear your reproach and dare not come by themselves.”

Yes, these three were still trembling due to leaking the profitable information.

Joseph glanced at the red and blue jewels in the boxes and generously waved his hand, “Go and tell them, I’ve forgiven them.”

He was speaking when a servant announced outside the door, “Your Highness, Mr. Lavallette is here.”

“Please let him in.”

The accountant and servants bearing gifts withdrew, Lavallette came forward and saluted, “Your Highness, news has just arrived from London, recently riots have occurred in Paris, Birmingham, and other places due to rising sugar prices.

“Lieutenant Potier sent back a report stating that the United Irishmen Association intends to join the disturbance.”

Joseph immediately shook his head, “This would do nothing but land their people in jail.”

“Yes, Your Highness, I will order him to stop the Irish.”

Joseph suddenly squinted his eyes, “Participating in riots is meaningless, but they can do something else.

“For instance, spread rumors, attributing the cause of rising sugar prices to the British government.

“Even, taking this opportunity, to raise wheat prices. We can cooperate from the international market…”

Currently, Britain is facing imported inflation due to high sugar prices; if combined with soaring grain prices, the livelihoods of the masses at the bottom will certainly become more precarious, leading to more serious riots.