The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 203

In order to make money from Brazil, the first step is to borrow money from Brazil.

This is not difficult, the difficulty is how to leave no trace.

After all, hitting a country’s economy through financial means is a very discredited thing, and Alfonso still wants to hide behind the scenes as much as possible.

It just so happened that he had a few more suitable candidates in his hands, that is, those who used to be the Wal-Mart Commerce Company.

Has a business background and does not belong to Spain.

After the Franco-Prussian War, Wal-Mart’s original materials were requisitioned by the French government, and since they were purchased at market prices, it was not a loss.

It is that the subsequent operations have been greatly affected, and it has not opened for half a year.

But they are not without things to do, Wal-Mart has branches in big cities like London, Lyon, Barcelona and Vienna, not as successful as in Paris, it is still OK to pass the time.

The owner of Wal-Mart is Zana. As a successful businessman, he has a certain reputation even in the Americas.

But his assistant François, the little newsboy who was promoted by Alfonso and rescued by Nai Si, was not like that.

He went to Brazil without much attention, at least not with Alfonso.

It’s normal for a good employee to want to go solo when he matures, and it won’t arouse anyone’s suspicion.

For more than two years, with the help of multiple dimensions, there is no problem in letting François make his career prosperous, but building momentum and raising the company’s valuation and borrowing more money.

As soon as he thought of this, Alfonso immediately sent someone to look for him.

During this time of waiting, he was not idle. The news of Peru’s purchase of ironclad ships had already spread in South America.

While other countries were fine, Bolivia and Chile immediately felt a profound threat.

Now that the saltpeter war has not started, the three countries all have coastlines.

The existence of an ironclad ship is enough to break the fragile balance of power.

Moreover, if it is difficult to get started, it is good, but Spain has some cheap spot, which makes everyone have to be tempted.

After just a week of discussions, the two countries passed the proposal to buy ironclad ships, and now the special envoy has come to Madrid.

As with the previous sale of Castelfida, Spain quickly sold two ironclads to Bolivia and Chile.

Bolivia is relatively poor, and bought a light sailing ship with iron armor, called Aspiras, with a displacement of 3,500 tons and a price of 250,000 pounds.

Chile is relatively richer, buying a large ship equipped with a ram and a gun room in the waist.

Named Victoria, it displaces 7,250 tons and sells for £430,000.

Chile’s naval power is obviously far beyond that of Bolivia and Peru, but in the future saltpeter war, Chile will fight against two with one country.

Two-on-one is not impossible.

These ship sales cases have brought the relationship between the three countries closer to Spain.

Spain promised to send the ship as soon as possible, and at the invitation of the other party, the Spanish agricultural group then sent personnel to Bolivia and Chile to set up branches.

20 ironclad ships went to 3 ships, and the financial pressure was suddenly reduced a lot.

Some people even suggested that they should not sell ships anymore. It is not a bad thing to use 17 ironclads to maintain the face of Spain, a maritime empire.

Of course, this was rejected by Alfonso. Not to mention that Japan has a strong purchase intention, and many other powerful South American countries have not yet made a move.

Chile bought a boat, and Argentina, which is close at hand, must be deeply threatened. If Colombia is not reconciled to being behind others, maybe it will also come along.

Unfortunately, European countries are reluctant to buy them, otherwise this batch of ships will be better digested.

Among them, Portugal was afraid of the alliance with Britain, while Prussia was arrogant and wanted to build its own ships.

At the same time, with the outcome of the St. Petersburg negotiations, Prussia withdrew decisively from France.

In history, Prussia once threatened France and occupied nine northern provinces. France did not repay the indemnity for a day, and the Prussian army did not withdraw from France for a day.

But this time, the war reparations have been greatly reduced. The 400 million francs of indemnity can be repaid by France just by digging out the precious metals in the treasury, so it is meaningless to keep it.

After the Franco-Prussian peace, the people in the government looked at Gambetta again, and it was an eyesore.

This guy is too republican to be liked by most people.

In order to quickly remove him, the French provisional government immediately announced a nationwide referendum.

It is said that it is a referendum, but in fact, only the urban population of major cities participates in the vote.

After all, it is not the future, how can it be comprehensive.

There is not even a “referendum” at this time, and the French official name is “National Intention Survey”.

If the relationship is not too big, it is to abolish the emperor, and the parliament will solve it by itself, so there is no need to bother the people.

But holding such a grand event, although it is quite troublesome, can boost the depressed mood in France, which is not all bad.

Because the speech of the three emperors in Marseilles touched many people, the voice was very high.

Therefore, the Legislative Council specifically allowed him to run as a candidate again after being stripped of the throne.

Although the interim president, Gambetta, was not happy, he was not ready to do anything.

Because the Bonapartists currently do not have the upper hand in the government, and can even be said to be the weakest one, Nasan can’t keep the throne anyway.

The content of the referendum is very simple, divided into three: retaining the Bonaparte dynasty, establishing a republic, and establishing a new emperor.

The reason why a few candidates didn’t jump out and take the three-dozen arena was because two cheap relatives of Alfonso had already negotiated privately that one would be the king and the other would be the crown prince, so naturally it was impossible to compete on the same stage again.

Taking a step back, the Bourbon family is not a wild way like Bonaparte, but a noble blood noble, and Philip and the others are not willing to become another popular emperor.

So it’s fine for the people to just decide on the system…

… In fact, institutional issues cannot be decided either.

Don’t look at the French referendum being held in full swing, but Alfonso knows the result is already doomed, and he doesn’t even bother to care about the vote count.

The Orleanists and the Legitimists united, and immediately gained an absolute predominance in the government.

In particular, this St. Petersburg negotiation was carried out by people sent by the republic, but in the end, it got 400 million francs and conceded defeat.

This incident dealt a greater blow to the prestige of Gambetta and the Republicans.

If there is a tie between several forces in the government, the votes can still affect a lot of things.

But the gap between the strength and the weak is so huge that no matter how much you vote, it can’t change the outcome of the matter.

Electronic vote counting can be cheated in later generations, let alone manual operations today.

The French referendum will last at least a few months, and Alfonso’s attention is quickly diverted from it.