Chapter 608: Aftermath

Chapter 609 Aftermath

South East London.

A black carriage stopped outside the King's private castle, Windsor Castle. Little Peter got out of the carriage with a stern expression, looked up at the gray-white castle in front of him, and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Now he must obtain the support of His Majesty the King, otherwise it will be difficult to survive this crisis.

Yes, the London Gas street lighting thing has turned into a serious political crisis.

Little Peter initially thought he only lost hundreds of thousands of pounds, but he soon learned that a large number of companies in London had closed down, thousands of workers were unemployed, and violent clashes broke out in the City Hall.

Until then, he still didn't realize the seriousness of the matter.

As a result, a run broke out last Thursday at London's Manor Investment Bank and Lloyds Bank - these two banks had provided huge loans to subcontractors for the gas street lighting project, and there is a high probability that the money will not be recovered.

Londoners who received the news were worried that the two banks would go bankrupt, just like a large number of companies that had gone bankrupt recently, so they frantically rushed to the banks to withdraw money.

After only two days, Mano Investment Bank couldn't stand it any longer and announced that it would temporarily suspend withdrawal operations. But this triggered even greater panic among depositors - it seemed that the bank was really out of money! The number of people who came to rush suddenly doubled several times.

This is the leverage effect of finance. A bank with a capital of millions of pounds will go bankrupt due to bad debts of less than 100,000 pounds, causing the entire capital chain to break.

Soon, the run began to spread to other banks - all banks that had financial dealings with the gas street light project became the target of public suspicion - and Little Pete finally couldn't sit still.

Although the Whigs had not yet taken advantage of this incident to launch an attack, Peter knew very well that they were looking for an opportunity to deal a fatal blow to themselves.

In fact, according to the current situation, banks will soon have widespread problems. By then, even if the opposition party does nothing, they will have to get out of No. 10 Downing Street.

Sir Stewart, dressed in black attire, came out of the castle to greet him. When little Pete saw his handsome face, he suddenly felt a lot more at ease.

"His Majesty the King is waiting for you." Sir Stewart bowed to his side and gestured, "Please follow me."

After entering the gate of the castle and walking along the corridor, Sir Stewart took advantage of the entourage behind him not to notice, reached out and held Little Pete's hand, squeezed it twice softly, and whispered: "Don't be nervous, I have already asked your Majesty I mentioned this, and his reaction was quite calm. He has been paying attention to things in North America recently, but don't mention Ireland...

"Oh, His Majesty's condition is stable recently. You can chat with him for a while."

Little Pete held his hand with his backhand, placed it on his forehead and rubbed it, and the feeling of peace of mind became even stronger.

He raised his eyes to look at Sir Stewart, his eyes full of dependence and gratitude. The latter nodded slightly to him.

Neither of them said anything more, but they both understood what the other meant.

Yes, they are a secret couple.

Little Peter was able to gain the respect of George III in the first place, and it was also inseparable from the strong support of Stuart as the king's secretary.

Not long after, Stewart pushed open the door of the king's office and said into the room: "Your Majesty, Mr. Pitt is here."

"Oh, come in." A hoarse voice came from behind the table.

Little Pete looked up and saw George III sitting on a chair, wearing a "hospital gown" made of white thick linen. His face was covered with stubble, and there were strangulation marks on his face and neck. He looked quite tired. It looked like it had just been treated.

He hurriedly stepped forward and bowed: "Your Majesty."

King George III waved his hand and motioned to the chair on the left: "Sit down. Are you here about the London Gas street lights?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"So, what are your plans?"

"Now some banks have been affected, so it will be a bit tricky..." Little Peter then told the story of the bank run.

George III sighed: "Therefore, there must be a fund to deal with depositors, and the first bankrupt bank must not appear."

As long as the banks can hold on, within a month or two at most, people will regain confidence in the banks and the runs will stop.

But if a bank fails, panic will spread quickly, increasing the number of runs, and who knows how many more banks will fail later.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Little Peter nodded, "At least 700,000 pounds."

"Have you thought of a way?" The king knew that the prime minister was not asking for money from him, because he didn't have much money either.

Little Peter hesitated and said: "Mr. Henry Hope is the Dutch banker. Vienna has issued a wanted order for him. And he is still in London.

"If we hand him over to His Majesty Leopold II, it will be a great boost to the relations between the two countries."

George III touched the beard on his chin and said calmly: "As for things that are beneficial to diplomacy, just go ahead and do it. But I remember that he previously spent a sum of money to implement his plan, and the remaining property was enough for 70 Ten thousand pounds?”

"It should not be enough. But the Dutch investor who came with him, Vankiewicz, was also involved in that trade plan. We can treat him as an accomplice."

George III nodded slightly: "After you have the funds, how are you going to solve other problems?"

"Last week we found the body of the owner of the Commercial Credit Bank." Little Pitt said, "He committed suicide and left a suicide note saying that he wanted to expand the bank's business through the gas streetlight project, but encountered technical difficulties, which prevented the project from being delivered.

"After he exhausted the funds he raised, he was no longer able to maintain the project, so he chose to commit suicide."

George III sneered: "Oh, do you believe it?"

"I..." Little Pitt pondered for a moment, looked at the king and said, "We should choose to believe it. "

If the British government agrees with the statement in the suicide note, then first of all, the mastermind behind the whole thing will be arrested first. Although he is dead, the public's emotions at least have an outlet. This is far better than letting the criminal go unpunished. In that case, someone will still bring up the case more than ten years later.

Secondly, the defrauded funds have also been settled - they were all used by Godmid on the street light project. Although the cost is inexplicably high, this gap does not need to be filled.

Seeing the king nod, Little Pitt breathed a sigh of relief and continued: "The government will prosecute London Mayor Herbert and officials involved in gas street lights..."

George III interrupted him and said: "No need to do this, Herbert was just deceived by the swindlers, just like everyone in the world makes mistakes. Just remove him from office. "

Little Pete immediately understood the king's intention.

The fact that the project was given to Lightning Company almost certainly meant that Herbert received bribes. If corruption is discovered later, the public will be even more angry about the gas streetlight project.