Chapter 2326 Peter Mnnchen (Eight)

At the reception in Antwerp, Georgiana met the second son of the Count named Joseph de Villemont. His grandfather Asenath participated in the American War and inherited a fortune from his relatives. It was a vineyard near the Marne, which was said to be the first French champagne producing area.

Although the Germans loved beer, the nobles still loved champagne. Before the outbreak of the Revolution, Joseph's father met a German winemaker who left his homeland and came to France to learn the champagne wine trade, but the winemaker married the daughter of the Count, Charlotte de Villemont, the mother of Joseph and his brother.

In theory, they should take their father's surname, but the German winemaker was just a civilian, and the Count had only one daughter. According to the tradition of the old times, the nobles were not allowed to do business. With the hard work of the young winemaker, the scale and planting area of ​​the winery continued to expand. When the two sons came of age, Joseph was responsible for sales, and George and his father were responsible for the management of the wine cellar until the outbreak of the Revolution.

Joseph could speak fluent English, German and French. Through the connections he had accumulated before, he sent his parents to England, and he and George stayed in Antwerp to continue doing business. Because Napoleon stipulated that exiles must return to their country before the month of Vincennes, George went back, and Joseph continued to stay in Belgium.

When he traveled back and forth to England, he heard about the situation of French prisoners there. He also visited the prison. The prisoners were divided into two types, those who lived well and those who lived poorly. Dieppe was good at ivory carvings. Some prisoners used leftover cow bones to carve exquisite works of art, which were exchanged for money by the jailers. These people could have clean single rooms, hot water, and clean clothes in prison, which was almost the same as a small hotel. Those who lived poorly not only had none of these, but sometimes they were driven to abandoned ships to make room for other prisoners.

They were all fishermen, but they were treated as prisoners of war. Georgiana remembered that the French envoy had lodged a severe protest against this.

A considerable number of these prisoners of war were captured from Egypt and other battlefields. The nobles in the Middle Ages could also be released after paying a ransom. Any problem that could be solved with money was not a problem. However, the problem is that what France lacks now is money, especially after losing Saint-Domingue, a colony that accounts for one-third of the total foreign trade, which is almost equivalent to England losing India.

For some people, waging war is just a means of profiteering. The most direct expression of government credit is public debt. During the Hundred Years' War between England and France, the credibility of the kings of England and France was not very good. In 1672, the "Happy King" Charles II, who returned to his country, also issued a deferred payment decree. Not only did he not return the interest temporarily, but he also did not change the principal lent by the banker, and a lawsuit was filed for this.

This kind of debt is often a short-term loan borrowed by the king privately, with various privileges as collateral, such as the Peruzzi Bank's monopoly on wool sales in Britain. After arriving in Britain, William III of the Netherlands learned from the experience of the Netherlands and raised funds by issuing public debt.

Public debt is different from private loans. Public debt is issued to the public in the name of the government. If the debt is defaulted, it will not only damage the dignity of the country. In order to prove that you can change money, you must use a tax as a guarantee to guarantee that you will repay the debt and interest.

During the reign of Louis XIV, France was the most powerful country in Europe. Even if Britain and the Netherlands joined forces, they were at a disadvantage. After Britain was involved in the war against France in 1689, it had to pay a large amount of money to the Netherlands, which led to a large outflow of gold and silver coins minted in the country and a shortage of silver. Therefore, bankers led by Patterson suggested to the king to learn from the experience of the Netherlands to establish a central bank. That is, in 1689, because James II sneaked out of London when no one was prepared, threw the king's seal into the Thames, and attempted to flee to France, but was captured by fishermen in Kent. William did not want James to become a "martyr", so he deliberately let him escape on December 23, 1688.

James left the kingdom without convening Parliament. William II convened a "customary meeting" and made James' daughter Mary the queen. She ruled jointly with William III. Soon after, the Salem incident occurred.

At that time, Isaac Newton had become a celebrity because of Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation, but his fame did not bring him economic income. At this time, Newton's friend Charles Montagu, who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer, wrote to tell him that the position of the Supervisor of the Royal Mint was vacant and King William III had agreed to appoint Newton to the position.

Newton also has a nickname "the last alchemist". In fact, in addition to universal gravitation and Newton's laws of motion, Newton also discovered the law of cooling. When an object with a temperature higher than the surrounding environment transfers heat to the surrounding medium and gradually cools down, the heat lost from a unit area per unit time is proportional to the temperature difference. This proportionality coefficient is called the heat transfer coefficient.

The law was generally recognized to have been published in 1701. Silver is a very soft metal. Good quality silver coins can be cut off a little, which looks like they are worn. People in the mint used to do this. Even though it is just a corner, it is quite considerable when accumulated.

At that time, William Landis, the chancellor of the exchequer, advocated doing so, reducing the silver content in the coins. The recast silver coins depreciated by 20%. The same silver could be used to cast more coins, which was equivalent to defaulting on part of the debt.

The quality of silver coins is not only determined by the silver content but also by the craftsmanship. But how can an illiterate farmer understand what calculus is?

The result of the cabinet debate was that the silver content of the recast silver coins remained unchanged, and the government borne all the costs of the recast silver coins. Locke's friend Newton was responsible for this work. In the process of coinage, Newton's theory accumulated a lot of data, and copied the records of the quality and quantity of silver coins from 1659 to 1691. He also continuously improved the technology of machine operation, melting speed, metal purity, etc., and finally the new coins minted met the design requirements in terms of accuracy, purity and pattern.

The price of the pound in Amsterdam rebounded, and British government bonds were quickly subscribed. The French government bonds issued in 1802 had a higher interest rate than British government bonds, but no one bought them, which shows how bad France's credit rating is.

In addition to using tobacco taxes as "collateral", if the new franc has a high gold content, good quality and exquisite craftsmanship, it can also improve the confidence of international buyers. The Bank of France can also win this credit war like the Bank of England, and financing will no longer need to go through the Netherlands.

If Dutch merchants are the top merchant group, then the powerful navy of the Kingdom of England defends this trade order.

Leviathan is made up of more than one "rule of the game", but there is a basic law that remains unchanged, that is, people who "participate in it" will not feel unfair.

For example, in the prison, those who are capable of making ivory carvings have a good life, while those who are not capable have a bad life. This is the result of free competition - survival of the fittest.

"Without free competition, there is no business prosperity, but in a market economy where the fittest survive, polarization is inevitable." That is to say, freedom and equality cannot coexist.

There is a movie called "The Shawshank Redemption", in which one of the protagonists is a banker who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife. He had a bad life at first, but he would make false accounts for the prison guards and accumulate a lot of wealth for them. Then the banker not only obtained the protection of the prison guards and did not need to be harassed by other prisoners, but also could make requests to the prison guards, repair the library, or drink a cold beer after a day of work.

But this also led to the fact that when it was proved that he was innocent, the warden was unwilling to seek justice for him because he needed the banker to continue to serve him for free.

Hobbes said in Leviathan that the laws of a country are like the rules of a game. In fact, the "rules of the game" that make up Leviathan are more than just laws. If a group of people play cards at a table, one person always wins and one person always loses. The winner certainly thinks the game is interesting, but the loser doesn't want to play anymore. At this time, the winner will accuse the loser of breaking the rules of the game, because the game originally stipulates that 4 people play, and if the loser leaves, there will be one person missing, and the game can't be played. Unless the loser finds someone to replace him, the winner will not let him go. At this time, does the person who wants to quit still think that the rules of the game are fair?

Suppose the loser does it, he finds a hapless guy to replace himself, and the rules of the game are still the same, but the winner finds that he can't always win as before, and the fun of the game is halved.

The root cause is that the new player does not play cards according to "his heart", but unless the winner brings back the loser who left, the person who replaced him will not change his way of playing cards.

At this time, the winner can either change the rules or continue to play in such a boring way. Once the rules are changed, the people who originally agreed to participate may also choose to quit.

In the past, one person won the most and the others shared a little. Under the new rules, the big winner will eat the small winner. Who will do this?

Whoever has more participants in the new game and is popular is the sovereign.

Today is roulette, tomorrow is Texas Hold'em, and the day after tomorrow is Pai Gow.

The goal of people's respect for others is power, because when a person sees others being respected, he will think that this person has power, and then it will be easier to obey him, which will make his power stronger.

This is the birth of Leviathan, or to use Hobbes' original words - this is the birth of God.

As Voldemort said, greatness leads to resentment, and resentment breeds jealousy. Leviathan represents the original sin of jealousy, and in Hebrew mythology, it means "something entangled", so Leviathan is also called "entangled snake", which is much more terrifying than the basilisk.

A kind of black oil is also squeezed out of coffee. Anyway, it is difficult to get away from being related to the Middle East. Will it kill you if you don't drink coffee? Isn't there chicory as a substitute?

She used a hammer to hit the steaks wrapped in pepper and salt. The "dong dong dong" sounded very rhythmic. Although she could use magic to do it, she felt happy doing it.

After hitting the steaks, she looked at the sky. It was already dark. It was almost time to fry them, right?

"He didn't say I had to wait for him." She muttered to herself, and wrapped the steaks with egg liquid and bread crumbs and fried them in the oil pan. With a "zila" sound, the oil splashed everywhere, and she subconsciously took a step back.

"Wow!"

"Ah!" She jumped up in fright and turned to look at the person who scared her. He was still wearing the court clothes of the First Consul, and his sword was not untied. He looked... not suitable for a place like the kitchen.

"What are you doing in here! Get out!" She pushed him hard. "There is a smell of oil smoke in there."

But he opened his arms and hugged her tightly.

"I know you would rather not have me in your life, but please don't take away the short happiness you gave me." He whispered, "I am the happiest person in the world now."

She lost her ability to think for a moment, and she wanted to say something to tease him.

"This is what I want to do most on this tour."

She stood stupidly, time flowed in silence, and the steak in the pot was still sizzling.

"Do you need my help?" He let go of his arms and rolled up his sleeves.

"Are there any guests today?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"Then take out the tableware." She said listlessly. "If you don't want to smell the fumes, take the tableware to the restaurant."

"Eating in the kitchen?" he asked.

"Is it weird, sir?" she sneered.

He smiled and turned to get the plate.

At this time, she took a look at the fried steak in the pot. Unfortunately, magic could not conjure food, nor could it "rejuvenate" it, but she still picked it up before it was fried.

Food cannot be wasted, especially now that many people are not full. Although fresh and juicy food tastes better, the older it is, the older it is.