Mediterranean hegemon

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"Travel?" Old Ciano was shocked. "With so many things going on in the country, you just ignore it and go travel? This is worse than being the foreign minister."

"Of course I can't travel alone, so I'm here to ask for your help..." Contini calmly shared his thoughts, "I was supposed to take Ada on a trip this summer. , but because the situation changed due to two financial battles, I couldn't take her out. This is of course a pity. Although she herself has no complaints, I can't be indifferent, I have to take her out...Second , drastic changes have taken place in the Far East, and the situation in China is completely different. This is an opportunity for me; thirdly, my departure during this period is a weak foreshadowing. More importantly, you have to help me handle the follow-up matters. ”

"What's up?"

"House, car, road..."

Old Ciano couldn't help but smile: "Are you kidding... You are much richer than me, and you still want me to buy you a house and a car? Aren't you cheating on me?"

"I will provide the money, but you have to create an atmosphere..." Contini blinked and showed a helpless smile, "After returning from the Far East, I want to get engaged to Ada! This matter must be done with great fanfare and must be The scene is created.”

"Yes! Engagement! Engagement!" Old Ciano clapped his hands excitedly, "This is a good idea, this is a good idea! Son, you are really good at it, you can think of such a trick!"

Contini sighed and shook his head, not knowing how to answer.

"Okay, okay... getting engaged doesn't mean beheading, so don't look so gloomy. I also like this child Ada, and she doesn't have any princess disease. I think it's good. You take her out to relax, and come back. I'll take care of it for you...you'll come back after the New Year, I guarantee your satisfaction!"

"It's too early. I have to go out for half a year. It will take 2 months to travel back and forth to the Far East. How can I have enough in 3 months? I plan to spend 6 months traveling around the world, first to the Far East, and then to the United States via the Pacific Ocean. At the beginning of next year, United Petroleum To go public, six months may not be enough for one trip.”

"Six months?" Old Ciano was stunned, "You don't care about the work of the United Group?"

So this is best!

"Since he has this idea, I think it is understandable. Let him serve as a diplomatic envoy and solve some major problems by the way." Mussolini suddenly remembered something, "In this way, let him bring two battleships and new After the heavy cruiser was launched to visit the Far East, a national envoy must have the appearance of a national envoy... He has done so many things for the country, there is nothing to thank him for, and he is not short of money, so I can only get it for him. The fleet supports the scene.”

Old Ciano expressed his gratitude again and again, and originally invited Rachel to visit him. Considering that Rachel was born in the middle class after all, Mussolini was worried that he would speak inappropriately and behave inappropriately, so he finally decided to let Old Ciano's wife Agnes Accompanying her on the trip, she is her future mother-in-law, and she is the wife of the Minister of Transportation. She is of aristocratic origin and has a very good image and temperament.

"You two young people are going to play and use me as a lightbulb? No, no, I will go and play by myself. I would rather go to Paris."

"Mother, you can't say this. You are traveling on behalf of the country, the Ciano family and the Minister of Transport..." Contini blinked and said, "Originally, I arranged for Monica to accompany Ada, but now she has grown up. When I got older, I didn’t like Monica hanging around in front of me... If she hadn’t worked so hard, they would have wanted me to replace her.”

Agnes laughed: "That's because Monica is so beautiful, and they are really worried about you..."

As a result, Italy's actual foreign trade structure has a surplus, and the capital account also has a surplus. The latter is only reflected in the accounts of the United Group. In fact, it is impossible not to have a surplus. Italy's traditional luxury goods exports have expanded with the improvement of the European and American economies. Italy's other industrial products are not exported much. However, considering that the income of Italian workers is only one-third of that of the United States and half of that of Britain and France. First, you can know the actual cost and competitiveness of Italian products. The real factor that restricts the Italian economy is raw materials, but with the Soviet Union here, the problem of raw materials is relatively easy to solve.

It is inherently difficult to attack the exchange rate of a country with both capital and foreign trade surpluses. The reason why we have to move this time is because Mussolini’s statement caused market chaos. After Contini’s strong intervention, this statement became more and more difficult. Fueled by rumors, the devaluation developed in another direction, and it depreciated significantly.

That's why the Jewish consortium saw this opportunity to take action. Just as the Baldwin government was ready to deal with the original supply problem, the two sides began to cooperate tacitly. According to original estimates, the United Group will definitely be unable to withstand the pressure of purchasing and stockpiling first and give up, and then a domino effect will occur, leading to the depreciation of the Italian lira exchange rate. This leaves room for trouble. Devaluation itself is unscientific and irrational, but people may make wrong reactions under the unconsciousness of the group.

Unexpectedly, they first suffered losses on the issue of crude oil. Faced with Contini's move to drain the lake water but continue to collect and store, the oil company backed down and lost a little money. Secondly, if the Italians were allowed to continue to buy and store, then Other supplies in Europe need to be met by Italy's reserves, which is tantamount to losing their own pricing power, which is more terrible than losing money.

The attack on foreign exchange also encountered trouble. Although it was very successful in the early stage, the funds from the borrowing were exchanged for foreign exchange and consumed Italy's inventory. However, because Contini strictly prohibited borrowing, there was no place to exchange lira. More importantly, Volpi handed over the foreign exchange rights to the Union Bank, which made it extremely difficult for the consortium to buy it. A central bank or other commercial bank was defeated with a few hundred thousand lira. How much money would it take to buy the president who was rich enough to rival a country?

No one could buy Contini, which meant that the road to more foreign exchange was blocked, so they could only continue to borrow. It was not easy to reach a loan of 3.5 billion lira from the Siena Bank. When they were about to cut off Contini's firewood, the guards came down from the sky and quickly did what persuasion could not do with guns. In the United States, perhaps no one dared to attack the consortium, but in Italy, the consortium could only crawl under the shadow of power temporarily. So this battle should not be fought in the end.

When they had spent all the lira, Contini still had more than 100 million US dollars of free foreign exchange in his hands. Although the cost of this last round of reinforcements was not cheap, it supported the whole situation.

As the three-month period was getting closer, the consortium could only exchange the foreign exchange in their hands for lira to prepare to repay the loan. At this time, Contini raised the exchange rate. Although a mere 1% did not matter to the people, for the consortium with a loan of 18 billion lira, 1% meant a loss of nearly 200 million lira.

The carefully planned Jewish consortium knew that Contini was playing tricks on them, but they had no way to do anything, because the term of the loan had expired. If they did not use foreign exchange to exchange for lira and repay, the other industries and shares they mortgaged would be at risk of default and liquidation. At that time, it would not only hurt the immediate interests, but also affect the entire industry itself. Therefore, they knew that the appreciation at this time was playing rogue, and they could only swallow their anger and accept the 5% loss. In fact, their losses were far more than 5%. They also lost a lot of interest during the 3-month loan period, but compared with other failed speculations, this loss of only 8-9% was really a drizzle.

Contini certainly could not make money. This 5% price difference had to make up for his emergency sale of stocks, additional loans and other maintenance costs. The newly added loan costs and emergency purchase of reserves alone were not small. It can only be said that the two sides were just tied.

But by September, the entire market finally returned to calm, the crude oil market continued to fluctuate in a range, and the price of the lira briefly climbed to a high of 94 liras to 1 pound, and then continued to return to the starting point of 100 liras to 1 pound. This 6% increase also taught the ordinary Italian middle class not to join in the fun, as it would not make money. If you want to get rich, you can only work honestly.

Although there was no significant economic gain, after these two battles, the status and importance of Union Bank rose. Not only did the stock price rise further to US$2.65, but it also became the first bank in Italy. More importantly, after returning the US$1.2 billion foreign exchange loan from the Ministry of Finance, Union Bank's own foreign exchange reserves reached US$600 million, far exceeding other major banks, which provided convenience for Union Bank to carry out cross-border exchange and capital business.

Using this foreign exchange, Contini quietly bought back the stocks he sold and completed part of the position transfer. During his sale of $40 million worth of stocks, the U.S. stock market did not experience much fluctuation, which strengthened Contini's confidence that the turmoil caused by the reduction of holdings in two years would not be too big. Although the process of selling and buying back consumed funds, he attached more importance to the improvement of market acceptance capacity.

More importantly, politics further consolidated Contini's position. Originally, people did not think that the president had any special ability, and the United Group was just lucky, but after the two battles in crude oil and foreign exchange, especially after the "arresting people" incident, the business community's view of the president changed. This is a ruthless and determined dictator, and he knows more about the economy than Mussolini. More importantly, the president is only 24 years old! Younger than the second generation of most industrial oligarchs, this means that this rising political giant and economic oligarch will rule Italy for many years in the future. Aren't people rushing to curry favor with him?

After being released, the senior executives of Siena Bank did not dare to complain. Instead, they immediately went to the United Group to apologize, saying that they were blinded by greed at the time, which made Volpi feel bad. He even spoke well of the banking industry, but people only remembered the fear that came out of nowhere, but forgot that they were struggling to maintain it.

Contini had to apologize to Volpi. After all, he was a minister of the same generation as his father. He was already aggressive in his work, and it would be bad to be more aggressive in his dealings with others. With the intervention of old Ciano, Count Volpi happily accepted the New York "local specialties" brought by Vivian (readers must know what this is)...