Chapter 323: I Want to Meet some Powerful Friends in Europe

"Hills, wait for your stick when you return to London."

August couldn't help but gloat over his misfortune. He realized that his words and actions were too out of control. He quickly adjusted his state, pulled the corner of his clothes and sat down again.

"I'm sorry, I was a little out of control just now, and you laughed at me."

"It's hard for anyone to stay calm in front of a market worth hundreds of millions of dollars."

Liang Yao also expressed his understanding of August's loss of control. Not to mention August, even if his master James in Paris found a business project worth hundreds of millions of dollars, he would not be able to help but lose control.

"What do you want? Just ask."

August is not Hills who grew up in a greenhouse. He is a mature and shrewd businessman. He knows that Liang Yao is willing to cooperate with him, and there must be requirements and conditions.

There are indeed requirements, and there are quite a few, but Liang Yao believes that the Rothschild family will agree to his request because they are greedy enough and will not let go of a business cooperation project worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Before the death of the patriarch of the Rothschild family, Mayer, in 1812, his five sons went to different cities to manage the Rothschild family's local industries, known as the Rothschild Five Tigers.

The eldest son, Amselo, stayed in Frankfurt, the birthplace of the Rothschild family, the second son, Salomon, went to Vienna, the third son, Nathan, went to London, the fourth son, Karl, went to Naples, and the youngest son, James, went to Paris.

The five continued to expand and strengthen the Rothschild family's industries in these five cities, and the Rothschild family built the most powerful financial empire on the European continent with the power of one family.

Known as the sixth power in Europe, it is regarded by the public as the sixth power after Britain, France, Prussia, Austria and Russia.

This statement is a bit exaggerated. The Rothschild family is not as exaggerated as the public thinks. No matter how rich and powerful the Rothschild family is, it is also dependent on the private capital of the major powers.

How can private power compete with these powerful state machines?

However, it is true that the Rothschild family can use the huge capital in its hands to influence the success or failure of a war, thereby indirectly affecting the national destiny of a major power.

During the Seventh Anti-French War, Mayer used his financial network in Europe to raise millions of pounds of military expenses for General Wellington of the Anti-French Alliance.

After the war, the Prussian government fell into a financial crisis, and the Rothschild family raised another 5 million pounds to help the Prussian government overcome the crisis.

In order to thank the Rothschild family for their help, Friedrich William III specially awarded the Rothschild family with honors and titles.

Therefore, four of Mayer's five sons have titles in Europe, and the European aristocracy also recognizes the Rothschild family as aristocrats.

Of course, the Rothschild family also funded the revolution. For example, the youngest son James even secretly funded the revolutionaries in Spain.

Among Mayer's five sons, the best one is undoubtedly the third son Nathan in London, followed by the youngest son James in Paris and the eldest son Amselo who stayed in Frankfurt.

These three are also the backbone of the Rothschild family in the future.

August is the young James who serves in Paris.

"I want to meet some powerful friends in Europe." Liang Yao made his first request.

"I think powerful friends in Europe are also happy to meet you, the American gold tycoon." August agreed to Liang Yao's first request very happily.

"You have a good influence in several nearby states and a wide network of contacts. I hope you can lobby the bigwigs in each state to support Mr. Fillmore's re-election." Then, Liang Yao made his second request.

"No problem, I'll take care of it. I know a little about the relationship between the political situation in the United States and the political situation in California. A president who is friendly to California will also help increase California's kerosene production."

Liang Yao's second request August agreed without much hesitation.

The Democratic Party and the Whig Party are now in a mess. Both parties have no clear governance philosophy. Whether it is the president of the Whig Party or the Democratic Party, it will not have much impact on the interests of the Rothschild family in the United States.

Moreover, at this time, the main focus of the old Rothschild family is in Europe, and America is a chicken rib that is tasteless to eat and a pity to abandon for them.

Otherwise, old Mayer would not have sent even one of his children and grandchildren to America. They are also European nobles, and they also despise the group of old-fashioned people in America from the bottom of their hearts.

"I want to work with the Rothschild family to develop the kerosene sales market in Europe." This is Liang Yao's third request.

He wants to develop his own sales network in cooperation with the Rothschild family.

In the future, he will sell more than just kerosene in Europe.

Moreover, relying too much on the Rothschild family's sales channels will not be good for him in the long run.

He still needs to have his own sales network to feel at ease, otherwise he will be easily controlled by others.

"I can't make the decision on this. I need to go to Paris to ask Sir James for instructions." August said that this request was beyond his authority.

"The fourth request is that I want to acquire the British Armstrong Company and need your help." Liang Yao said.

At present, California's military industry has begun to take shape, and guns and cannons can be produced, especially the self-produced Walter m1851 rifle, which is at the leading level in the world.

However, cannon casting was the weak point of the Sacramento Arsenal, which could also be said to be America's weak point in artillery.

America's light weapons are relatively good in Europe, but its performance in heavy weapons is somewhat unsatisfactory.

Of course, this does not mean that the cannon made by the United States is not good, but it just does not meet Liang Yao's psychological expectations.

The Sacramento Arsenal was founded by Liang Yao to dig into the corner of the United States. The level of the Sacramento Arsenal actually represents the level of the military industry in the United States.

Liang Yao had assigned the Sacramento Arsenal the task of developing an advanced breech-loading rifled cannon very early on. However, the R&D team at the Sacramento Arsenal had been tinkering for more than two years and had yet to produce a breech-loading rifled cannon that met Liang Yao's expectations.

Liang Yao has rifled cannons, but they are all front-loaded rifled cannons. That's it. There are also many rifled cannons that are rifled in the barrel of the Napoleon cannon.

Before the expedition to Japan, the dozens of artillery pieces provided to him by the Army Department were basically rifled Napoleon cannons from follow-up vehicles.

This is also a traditional skill of the American army. The first standard rifled gun of the American army was rifled in the barrel of the original Springfield m1842.

The rifled version of the Napoleon cannon can be used as a transitional weapon like the rifled version of the Springfield m1842, but it is obviously insufficient to face the future civil war.

Liang Yao also wants to build warships, advanced warships, and weapon systems are an indispensable part of them. Liang Yao hopes that the warships built by the San Francisco Shipyard in the future will be able to use advanced breech-loading rifled guns.

Without a powerful weapon system, a warship is nothing more than a toothless tiger, no matter how advanced its hull or its design is.

Since there is no way to build it yourself, it would be a shortcut to directly acquire the Amstel Arsenal and take advantage of their technology and production lines.

If some British gun-making technology and military engineering talents can be integrated, it may be possible to develop a breech-loading rifled gun in advance.

The expression on August's face froze for a moment. He had heard what kind of company Amster was. It was an old British military company!

Liang Yao's last two requests can be said to be more outrageous than the last. If it weren't for the sake of kerosene, August would have just thrown away his sleeves and left like Hills.

"Although the Armsted Company is a new company only established in 1847, it has developed very rapidly. The new artillery recently developed is very popular with the British government." August looked very embarrassed.

"The founder of the company, Armstrong, and his family are local celebrities in Newcastle. Armstrong himself is also a member of the Royal Society. The Rothschild family is unable to do anything about this."

This matter is indeed difficult to handle. Although Armstrong's company is not very large at present, it is a military-industrial enterprise, and it is still a military enterprise that the British Empire focuses on. Armstrong himself is also a member of the British upper class.

Whether it is through conventional share acquisition or poaching, it will not work.

If the acquisition were to take place, the British government would definitely block it.

The British are not fools and will not just watch Americans acquire his high-quality military enterprises.

As for poaching the technical talents of Armstrong Company, Armstrong himself is the best technical talent of Armstrong Company. Even if they are not short of money in the UK, what is even more annoying is that they are not short of honors and there is no lack of space to display their talents.

Although Amsterdam is not a high-class aristocrat with a square meter flag, it is also a celebrity with a square meter flag. It is unrealistic for such people to be poached for their own use.

"That's what the Rothschild family should worry about. As long as you can agree to these four requests of mine, we can work together in the kerosene business." Liang Yao said unhurriedly.

Liang Yao is the only kerosene producer in the world, which gives Liang Yao enough confidence.

As long as the Rothschild family wants to make this money, they must obediently agree to his conditions and requirements, even if the conditions and requirements are very harsh.

When he acquired the Nicaragua Shipping Company, the requirements and conditions put forward by the Rothschild family and the Bahrain family were also very harsh.

August fell into thinking and pondered for a long time. August said: "You just want to get advanced artillery technology. If we can get you the design drawings of Armstrong's artillery or even experimental artillery, yes Doesn’t it count as meeting your fourth request?”

"Not counting." Liang Yao immediately shook his head and said, "By acquiring Armstrong Company, I can not only get a full set of technical drawings and development results, but also the company's excellent gun engineers and production lines."

Since August said this, it means that the old Luo family is still very powerful in Europe at this time, and the things they can obtain are not just technical drawings and experimental artillery.

If he relents and agrees at this time, he will definitely suffer a loss. Now is not the time to give up when things are good.

"Do you think this is okay? We will still provide you with the artillery design drawings and experimental cannons of Armstrong Company. Can we find a way to get the artillery engineers and artillery production lines from France for you?" August said.

Liang Yao hesitated for a long time, and finally agreed reluctantly, as if he had suffered a big loss.

Anyway, France was tricked by James not once or twice. They asked them to dig some gun engineers from France and build a cannon production line. France just suffered a small loss from James.

As for what a big loss is, the French bond crisis in 1818 was a big loss.

In 1818, James tricked the French nobles who were not very smart into shorting French bonds, making French bonds almost become toilet paper in Europe overnight.

The plummeting of French bonds made Louis XVIII anxious and wanted to go to the guillotine to calm down.

Finally, James seized the opportunity and asked the agent in the court to tell Louis XVIII that as a French citizen, he had an obligation to save French bonds, and he came out to rescue the market in a righteous and high-profile manner.

James's move was extraordinary and immediately stopped the situation of French bonds plummeting in Europe.

This self-directed and self-acted good show not only made James a hero that attracted attention from all over France, but even Louis XVIII was grateful to James.

James also took advantage of the fact that his reputation and influence reached the peak in France, and quickly integrated and annexed the French financial market, completely controlling the financial lifeline of France. Even the Bank of France had James' shares.

Of course, this operation was just a routine operation for the old Luo family. The five Luo tigers basically used similar means to get involved in and control the economy of their countries.

Their practices during this period could not be said to be illegal, at most they could only be said to be immoral.

After all, during this period, even Britain had few laws regarding the financial market, let alone financial supervision, not to mention that the Rothschild Five Tigers were transnational and had very strong backers.

Even if governments knew about it, they were helpless against the Rothschild Five Tigers who were stirring up trouble in the financial market.

However, the Rothschild family and many unethical Jewish businessmen in Europe had various unethical business practices, which caused their descendants and compatriots to suffer tragic revenge in Europe decades later.

It was during that unprecedented catastrophe in human history that the Rothschild family fell from the altar and became weak, especially the eldest son Amshelot, who stayed in Germany where he made his fortune, and his descendants were almost extinct, and there was no sixth great power in the world since then.