Where financial questions are asked and answered
Chapter 51: London Perspectives
London, Cheapside, Friday the fourteenth August. Tenth day.
Charles Bingley was not really happy.
He wasn't sure he would, one day, be happy again.
Because his happiness was bound to have a certain person at his side and his own foolishness had destroyed the one relationship he now knew was really important to him. The one he would his whole life regret not having sustained or nurtured or protected.
But then, not being happy, had brought him that irresistible necessity to do something with his time. Doing nothing would only had pushed him into madness. He had to find another purpose in life.
In fact, he knew now that he had always had a purpose in life and that he could have followed that purpose for quite a few years.
Now he knew and he would do what he was good at even if he had not, at his side, the only woman he had truly loved.
He sighed and took a sip of Gardiner's excellent Port wine.
He shook himself and went back to the meeting.
"Why should we accept?"
"What reason could you give not to accept," countered Charles who was taking great pleasure in these negotiations.
Speaking with a purpose in mind was far better than idle chat and gossip.
Here was he, Charles Bingley, and he had in front of him the twenty-four richest men in the British Empire. And it was he who set the pace.
It was exhilarating.
"Militarily," he went on, "We're defeated and soon the sharks will come from France to rip our economy apart. They have done it in Italy and in Austria. You can bet that they will try it here also."
He shook his head.
"Unless you resolve to join us."
He let his words, once more, ground themselves in their minds.
"d'Arcy..."
"Why should we trust this d'Arcy," asked one of them. "Why would it be different with him than with those others sharks."
"Because he brings money..."
"We don't know if that sum even exists..."
"If he wants one hundred thousand pounds, he has the whole southern part of England to pillage to get it," said Mr. Gardiner. "The fascinating thing is his willingness to become a share holder of said company. With him aligned with us, we have a real guarantee that this business runs no risk of being confiscated..."
"It could happen nevertheless..."
"Indeed, it could happen nevertheless, but without him and this joint stock company it will happen, no matter what we try. So we have a real possibility to be with the winners against a certainty to be with the losers. There's a real advantage there, isn't it?"
"Indeed," said Blackwell, a man who possessed more than thirty factories where workers were weaving night and day on looms in awful work conditions. But he had already accepted to put his factories into the common stock. He was just haggling on his shares' worth. "And they all know it. They have not the courage to accept what's unavoidable. I've done it, I've put all my factories in this joint venture because there's no more choice, gentlemen! If I don't do it, I'll loose them all. That's no longer the problem here. The problem is linked with remuneration! Since we will earn less for each share, we should have more shares..."
Charles looked at the brown haired fat man and smiled.
He ignored if he was manipulating the meeting to his own advantage on purpose but he was doing it in the best possible way. Perhaps he was just simply greedy.
"You just countered your own argument, Sir," said Charles. "As you pointed out, outside of the Company..." It was the name they used to refer to the monster they were about to create. "...Your factories are worth nothing. And for nothing I do believe that you'll get a more-than-handsome compensation..."
Blackwell could only groan.
"I bring 32 factories with more than a thousand looms and I will get only five—seven percent of the shares. While d'Arcy with only one hundred thousand pounds gets fifteen percent, where's the justice there?"
"Let's say we insure his protection by giving him a blocking minority. He insisted on that peculiar point. But we could give him less if we decide that the blocking minority is under fifteen percent."
Caldwell, a ship owner who owned shares in Canadian mines shook his head.
"Never. If the blocking minority is under fifteen percent we'll never get decisions made. I already said that for me twenty-five percent is the absolute minimum for such a thing. And I don't give a damn how many shares d'Arcy owns. He's an outsider he'll do as Gardiner advises him and, for me, that's enough to guarantee an intelligent management... And if he really can finance the Company with one hundred thousand pounds cash flow, it's worth even more."
He looked around him.
"Have you been at the bank of England today?" He looked at every one of his future partners.
"No? You should have! The block is cordoned by Horse Guards and chariots are being loaded with very heavy little trunks..."
A chorus of outcries swelled in the room.
"Yes, you guess right. They are moving the gold! Tomorrow this country's money will no longer have a gold backup. You know as I do what that means!"
They all agreed.
They knew.
It was the turning point of the negotiations.
"Well, that went well, Charles... We convinced them easily..."
"No real problem there, they wanted to be convinced. Between losing a little power and losing everything, the choice was simple."
"So what have we got?"
Charles looked at his new mentor.
"A very interesting situation, Sir. We could, if we accept all those who want to become stock holder, have more than half of England's economy under our sole control."
He shook his head.
"I'm unable to imagine how to do it. How can it be done?" he shook his head. "I mean nobody has ever ruled over so many factories, hangars and ships. We just do not have the manpower to manage such a mass..."
Mr. Gardiner came to his side and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Yes we have, and as I see it we have even too much manpower for each specialized task. We will have to put some people out of their current jobs and get them to learn something else. It's especially true for our accounting agents. We have way too many and we need to concentrate them at one location. We will have to select who stays with us at their old job and who will have to learn something new..."
"What about your accounting clerk. You said he was one of the best..."
"That's true and that's why I won't give him the job. I'll give him the job of executive accounting manager. He'll control all the accounting of all our new branches. His will be the responsibility to find out who's trying to cheat us... Because there will be those who will try. Just because they will believe we are unable to look everywhere..."
"But we are unable to look everywhere..;"
"Yet! But that will change and it will change soon..."
A smile erupted on his face.
"And meanwhile, we don't really need to look everywhere. We need to give the impression that we are able to look everywhere."
He took a book out of a bookcase.
"And that will help us to give that impression!"
Charles looked at the book and Mr. Gardiner handed it to him.
"That's the great secret your father learned me, Charles. That's the book of human weaknesses..."
Charles opened the book and he saw that it was a list. Sort of...
There were names, lots of names and behind each name there was a little paragraph describing the man.
He searched under Bingley. And found himself and his father.
Mr. Gardiner smiled at the immediate reflex.
"You should look under G and Gardiner. There you would learn a few things about me..."
Charles looked up.
"You're in there?"
"Indeed I am. I did it for your father and he did it for me. You must know your weaknesses in order to overcome them. No secret there. I have sent him a copy of my files on him till the end of his life. He did the same for me! In a certain sense we never really broke our relationship. We just decided to work on parallel tracks."
Charles didn't look under 'G' and he closed the book as if it had the power to bite him.
"Who's in there?"
"Everybody of importance in the world of business, Charles. Knowing certain things about certain persons gives you the opportunity never to make the mistake of underestimating a partner or working with a crook."
His smile came back.
"Or if you decide to work with a crook to take the necessary precautions..."
"And father had the same?"
"I'm sure of it... I don't know what happened to it but he did have it while we worked together and the files he would send me later about me or other persons proved that he continued with it... You should perhaps look in his library. We were very careful to give it a humble aspect! It exists probably somewhere on a shelf in your Town House. That's where I put mine."
Mr. Gardiner tapped on the book.
"And some of the people who are described in these pages now work for us, Charles and some of these will try to rob us as they robbed their old employers. It's in their natures. And next month we will find one, the month after two more and then most of the thieves will stop thieving for the time being. Giving us the time to build the necessary structure to have a real control over that mammoth of a company..."
"And meanwhile?"
"Meanwhile we do with what we've got, Charles. No choice there..."
A light knock at the door revealed Jonas' desire to enter.
"Come in Jonas," said Mr. Gardiner who was just standing up to go to the windows where an on-going clatter has raised his attention. "What's happening outside?"
"We have visitors, Sir.." said Jonas while coming in and bowing before a man in uniform.
A man in the Uniform of a French general.
The general bowed and handed his cape and hat to Jonas.
"General Duroc," said he in perfect English which had nothing to do with the few sentences he had uttered while with d'Arcy at the Palace. "I'm here to inform you that, beginning this very morning, London is now under the responsibility of the French Army. The English troops have retreated toward Scotland and are accompanying the English Royal Family to Glasgow. The Proconsul has asked me to provide you with this information and has advised me to ask for your advice." He smiled. "I'm here and I listen!"
An hour later general Duroc was gone as were the two dozen men who had escorted him.
"Do you believe he will listen?"
"I'm sure he'll do," answered Mr. Gardiner. "He was not here just to obey his boss. He was really wanting advice. And I do believe our advice was worthwhile."
"He'll have fewer problems with no troops in town than with troops. Hopefully their only presence at the town borders will insure security enough..."
Mr. Gardiner nodded. Duroc's looming presence at the suburbs of the town should be enough to maintain a degree of peace.
"But we will need more than peace, Charles, we will need to feed London and to feed London we will have to use most of our ships to get the supplies needed."
He let a smile creep on his lips.
"Our first real job, Charles. We will soon see if we are as good as we believe..."
"Let's hope that we are, Sir. If we are not, there will be nasty riots these next days..."
The rest of the day they gave orders and launched everything to get London supplied.
They were just at Mr. Gardiner's House to collect documents and to receive some of their new staff members when Jonas knocked at the door.
"Yes?"
He opened the door and looked at Mr. Gardiner.
"Sir we have an unexpected guest. The deputy Mayor wants to speak with you..."
He exchanged a glance with Charles. What now?
"Let him in, Jonas, I suppose he's as busy as we are and that time is of the essence here..."
A few seconds later, a harassed deputy mayor entered Mr. Gardiner's study.
He was rather young and was famous for doing the work while Sir John Eamer, the Lord Mayor, was courting His Highness the Prince Regent.
"Sorry to intrude, gentlemen, I'm sure you have plenty of work without me interrupting but I needed to meet you. Urgently..."
Mr. Gardiner and Charles both bowed.
The deputy was neither Gentry nor Aristocracy but he was the man who knew everything about London and its surroundings and as such was a man to be taken seriously.
"Where's Sir John?"
"With His Highness, en route to Glasgow!"
Charles and Mr. Gardiner exchanged glances.
They had heard the rumors but nothing official had yet been published.
"And you're not with them?" asked Charles.
He shook his head.
"My job's here, in London. I owe my time and my efforts to the people. Sir John's doing his job at His Highness' side."
He sighed.
"But as it is I need your help..."
"What for?"
"There are rumors that you are family with the French Expeditionary Corps' Leader..."
"Not yet," answered Mr. Gardiner. "But it will happen on Sunday..."
"Let's hope it's enough" said the young man just before looking his guest in the eyes. "Because as it is, we have a big problem. And we need his help to overcome it." He looked at his guest. "I really believe that he is our last chance."
He inhaled as if to give himself the courage to speak.
"It seems that the last vessels of His Majesty's Fleet that tried to leave London this very morning have been ambushed just outside the Thames' mouth. They were all sunk..."
Charles and Mr. Gardiner looked at each other.
It was bad news for the Navy but one more or one less, what importance did it have... That part of the campaign was lost for a very long time.
The deputy Lord Mayor looked at them with anguish in his eyes.
"I see you don't know what's really happened. Three of these twenty vessels were packed with the Gold of the Bank of England. The Empire's Gold is now at the bottom of the Channel out of reach of even the most greedy rascal in the world."
This news struck both businessmen like hammer. They just understood why d'Arcy had insisted on the use of Francs as the legal currency of the Company. Nothing to do with patriotism. He was just covering his investments. He knew all the time what was going to happen.
The deputy Mayor nodded for some time.
"Now you understand. As it seems there's no longer a gold counterpart available for the Pound Sterling. Our currency just lost its worth."
He sat without being invited to and that alone revealed his despair.
"I don't know what to do. I need advise and I need it sooner rather than later because if the people learn about that disaster, there will be riots we will be unable to suppress..."
Both gentlemen couldn't resist the urge to look at the boxes Duroc's men had brought only a few hours earlier. At that time they had looked at them with surprise and disbelief.
Why would d'Arcy want them to buy buildings suitable for the installation of a Bank and immediately afterwards to create a new Bank?
And what use for all these new fancy banknotes with English writings but French currency? They were sure that nobody would ever accept them in exchange for their good, solid and trusted English currency...
Now they were no longer so sure...
Next chapter: Pemberley Pre Nuptials