"Your Excellency, Sir Davis, Mr. Johnson, and Baron Anderson request a meeting with you."
The embassy assistant walked into the backyard of the embassy and reported to Williams.
"How long have they been here?"
"About ten minutes."
The assistant replied: "According to your instructions, if we receive requests for meetings from the three consortiums, Lloyds Bank, Kimbas Group, and Barclays Bank, we will find reasons to send them away as much as possible.
It’s just that this time they seem to have something urgent to discuss with you, and they have been staying in front of the embassy and are unwilling to leave.”
"What a bunch of annoying guys, they are like flies, they are annoying!"
Williams is clearly tired of dealing with these financial wolves, and his words are laced with deep disgust.
"Tell them that I am not feeling well today. If there is anything important, let them discuss it with Mr. Torres, the counselor of the embassy."
"Three gentlemen asked me to tell you that they are here to discuss with you how to deal with the industrial investment issues held by the Empire in the Republic of Brazil. If you can help them solve their difficulties, the three consortiums are willing to jointly fund the project in Oxford, London.
A villa in the center of the street has been purchased and transferred to you."
"Every time these bastards come to the legation, nothing good happens."
After listening to the assistant's explanation, Williams' tone changed slightly, and the expression on his face was not as excited and bored as before.
"Tell them to let them rest in the living room first, and I will go see them immediately after I change into formal clothes."
"Okay, Your Excellency."......
Lloyds Bank, Kimbas Group, and Barclays Bank are three emerging capital consortiums. Around the 1850s, the founders of the three consortiums took advantage of the opportunity for the British government to sign a trade agreement with the Brazilian Empire to bring their shares to the London Stock Market.
Raising tens of thousands of pounds of funds, they entered the commodity market of the Brazilian Empire. Then, relying on the extra-legal jurisdiction and business privileges possessed by British businessmen, the founders of the three consortiums respectively opened up situations in the fields of mining, finance and other fields, and gradually expanded their operations.
The scope expanded from Rio de Janeiro to other parts of the Brazilian Empire.
The division of South America and the turbulent international environment have caused serious damage to the economic development of South American countries. However, with the support of the British Empire's global maritime military power and political hegemony, banks such as Lloyds Bank and Kimbas Group
, the three ordinary British businessmen of Barclays Bank are like a fish in water, and they wantonly use the privileges in their hands to seek attractive economic benefits for themselves in countries in Latin America where white people are dominant.
Because of the British intervention, since Latin America got rid of Spanish colonial rule in the 1810s, almost every war and conflict has had a British influence.
In these conflicts, what the British businessmen and capital groups valued was not the land itself, but the land itself.
It is a natural resource and industrial market that contains huge economic benefits.
After 1850, with the expansion of American capital, British capital investment in South America increased significantly.
Prior to this, the United Kingdom positioned Latin America as a purely commodity export destination, not a capital export destination.
Britain's great interest in Latin America, as in Asia and Africa, was to find product markets for its local industrial enterprises.
However, by the mid-19th century, the second industrial revolution entered its outbreak period. British domestic capital increased several times in a few decades. The discovery of gold in California and South Africa saturated the traditional financial market.
In order to obtain higher profits, the United Kingdom had to invest increased capital in the extraction and export of mineral raw materials and basic products in Latin America, in order to ensure the transportation and distribution of products.
British capital began to develop necessary transportation lines (railways, roads and ports), as well as various service facilities.
At the same time, the British financial consortium's loans to Latin American governments also doubled.
After obtaining the loans, Latin American governments use the loans to pay for various expenses, including military and non-military expenses.
Due to Britain's financial and economic penetration into Latin America, especially Brazil,
This greatly increased the dependence of Brazil and other Latin American countries on British capital.
However, the indigenous countries in Latin America are different from the Han State. In the Han State, the Han government was able to borrow imported foreign capital to develop a self-reliant industrial economy through overall control, while other indigenous countries in Latin America could only create a situation of being debt-bound.
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This situation continues to worsen, and the serious consequence is that neither the government nor private individuals are able to repay foreign debts. Then, in order to ensure the safety of early loan investments, British capital can only take the risk of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries and directly participating in the politics and economic operations of indigenous countries in Latin America.
, then, in order to maximize their capital interests and allow the economy of the country that accepts foreign debt to develop in accordance with their interests, they will always use all influence to make the country's policies based on the wishes of powerful individuals by exerting pressure and bribes.
interests to adjust.
The British capitalists and the local comprador merchant oligarchs both wanted to implement conservative national policies and thereby maintain the privileges of financiers and comprador merchants.
In this way, they will mobilize their political and military minions to overthrow the nationalist government or the government to oppose the oligarchs and carry out social transformation.
Sometimes, they also push countries that depend on them into international conflicts that are beneficial to them.
Whenever a country rose up against their control, they would ask the hegemonic British government to send an expeditionary force to intervene in the disobedient country.
All this is done in the name of defending "civilization" (the civilization of monopoly imperialism) and opposing "barbarism" (all words and deeds that doubt the leadership of the British capital consortium, financiers and business oligarchs).
In 1865, the United Kingdom came forward to mediate the conflicts between Brazil and Argentina and instigated the two countries to form a coalition to suppress the Paraguayan government for this purpose.
In 1879, the British Expeditionary Fleet directly sent troops to intervene in the Argentine War for the same purpose.
However, the British were too barbaric and greedy in their economic colonial methods, which would not last long.
While British capital plundering and investment increased the semi-colonial status of Latin America,
It also made the conflicts between the indigenous countries in Latin America and the British increasingly acute.
The collusion between the British and the Chilean comprador class aroused serious dissatisfaction among the middle and lower classes in Chile. In 1886, with the political will of the middle and lower classes as the leading factor, he advocated the expulsion of British capital, the implementation of saltpeter, and the nationalization of mineral resources. Balmaceda was elected as the new president.
He served as president for one term and, after one year in office, received the allegiance of an officer in the Chilean Army.
The election of Balmaceda as President of Chile was a heavy blow to the power of the British capital consortium. Many Chilean comprador businessmen who were dependent on British capital were suppressed by the presidential faction and the army faction. The situation of British capital in Chile became increasingly difficult.
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Similar to Chile, the British capital consortium is also in an uncomfortable situation in the Republic of Brazil. The Brazilian government has invested most of the capital obtained through loans into the expansion of military power. Infrastructure construction projects that should have been led by the Brazilian republican government
It was assigned to businessmen in Britain, the United States and other countries for contracting.
Military expenditures surged, local forces in the country grew, and local security deteriorated. Although the Republic of Brazil imitated the policies of the Han State to attract foreign capital to develop its own economy, the Republic of Brazil, which had unstable domestic and foreign situations, did not have the same strict policies as the Han State.
security situation.
Due to poor basic transportation and deteriorating public security, the physical industries invested by the British consortium are not only unable to use road transportation to transport raw materials to other areas, but also face the risk of raw materials being plundered.
It was under this severe test that the three capital consortiums, Lloyds Bank, Kimbas Group, and Barclays Bank, which had suffered economic losses for several years, could not wait to request a meeting with Williams, the British Minister to the Republic of Brazil.
"What? Do you want to suspend economic support to the Republic of Brazil and withdraw the financial loans promised to the government of the Republic of Brazil?"
Williams walked into the living room and said in disbelief after hearing the requests from the three consortiums.
"Yes, Your Excellency, you heard it right. The three consortiums of Lloyds Bank, Kimbas Group and Barclays Bank are preparing to suspend the loan plan and no longer continue to provide financial support to the government of the Republic of Brazil."
Old Ed Bank manager Davis confirmed.
"Why are you doing this?"
"Providing loans to the government of the Republic of Brazil can no longer bring due economic benefits to the consortium. As a businessman, when there are signs of losses in the commercial projects we handle, it is the most rational choice to suspend the cooperation plan and stop losses in time."
"Okay, this is your freedom, I have no right to interfere."
Williams received the benefits promised by the three consortiums and had no intention of seeking benefits for the Brazilian Republican government. However, due to the professional habits of a diplomat, he was still curious: "The mines and mining sites in the central and southern regions of Minas Gerais."
Several railways that pass through the Belo Horizonte transfer station are very high-quality economic industries. Why did you suddenly change your mind and would rather give up these high-quality industries and terminate the loan agreement?"
"Railway and mining areas are indeed very high-quality economic industries, but now these industries cannot bring the expected economic benefits to the consortium."
A well-dressed middle-aged white man with a so-called gentlemanly demeanor on his face replied: "Your Excellency should be aware of the current predicament of the Brazilian Republic. More than 100,000 Brazilian troops have entered Paraguay for three months, but they have not yet achieved a decisive victory.
Asunción is still in the hands of the Paraguayans, and as the Han army enters Paraguay to fight, the situation of the Paraguayan war will also undergo drastic changes. Based on the analysis of the combat experience between Han and other South American countries, the Kimbas Consortium 30
The remaining shareholders did not believe that the Republic of Brazil could defeat the Han army and win the Paraguay War.
Therefore, in order to prevent the bad consequences of the defeat of the Republic of Brazil, the Quimbasi Consortium decided to suspend this loan transaction plan and abandon its plans for commercial expansion in the Republic of Brazil in the next few years."
"Barclays also plans to shrink its business presence in the Republic of Brazil and terminate its loan transaction agreement with the government of the Republic of Brazil."
"The security of the Republic of Brazil is protected by the Imperial Government. Even if the Republic of Brazil fails in the war, the Imperial Government has the ability to stop the Han invasion of the Republic of Brazil itself.
The worries of the three of you are a bit unnecessary."
Williams frowned and explained.
"Any unexpected situation may occur during the war. No one can predict the worst outcome after the war. For the safety of investment funds, it is best to suspend the loan plan and shrink the business layout in the Republic of Brazil.
The safest way to deal with it.”
"I hope your worries are unnecessary, otherwise the situation in South America may change dramatically."
“We also hope that the worst outcome will not occur.”…………