At the Vienna Hotel, a touching side appeared, two unlucky people complained to each other, and the scene was sad and tearful when they heard it.

And then there was no then, and it didn't make any sense no matter how much Massimiliano wanted to help.

In order to restore the country over the years, Massimiliano not only exhausted his personal connections, but also owed a lot of favors. Today, his own influence on the Viennese government is infinitely close to zero.

In addition to being good-looking, Massimiliano, the Mexican emperor-in-exile, is an empty shelf. The only role is probably that the identity is high enough to help speak at critical moments, and I don't know if it can play a role.

With such a small help, Leopold II was still unwilling to give up. Either way, it's better to have someone to help you talk than no one to help.

No matter how low Massimiliano's political voice is, it is still an existence that can directly exert influence on Franz. The fact that we can get hundreds of thousands of restoration funds every year is the best proof of this.

However, people grow up, and although he is very touched and very willing to help Belgium, Massimiliano is no longer the boy he used to be.

"Leopold, I personally advise you not to get your hopes up too much. As far as I know, the Vienna government has run a deficit again this year.

If you really want to get money from Vienna, it's best to go through private sources. Although the interest on the funds that need to be paid is a little higher, it is not necessary to pay too much politically. ”

This is Massimiliano's true words, the aid, interest-free loans are too embarrassing. It was no longer the time of the European War, the importance of Belgium to the HRE Empire had been greatly reduced, and the Vienna government was not wronged.

If the number is small, perhaps it is still useful for Belgium to cry out for poverty and sell miserably. The problem is that Belgium now has a huge funding gap, and the stakes are huge.

Leopold II naturally wanted to know these questions, but there was no way to do it now. Ordinary international financing is not only high in interest rates, but also comes with a large number of political strings attached.

The most important thing is that the Belgian government has pledged everything that can be pledged in the previous loans, and now it can't take out enough collateral items, and it is purely guaranteed by the government's creditworthiness, and the financial consortium does not buy it at all.

Not only Vienna, but also all major financial markets in Europe, the Belgian government has borrowed money. At present, all the larger banks and financial companies in Europe are creditors of the Belgian government.

In order to raise enough funds, the Belgian government has done nothing less than to repeat mortgages and cheat and deceive.

It's a pity that the financial institutions are too shrewd and are not worried about the Belgian government's ability to repay, and each time they collect too much collateral and lend very little money.

Post-war reconstruction expenditures were far in excess of budget, and normal commercial channels were inaccessible, which led to Leopold II's trip to Vienna.

"Massimiliano, don't you know what those vampires are? With the current situation in Belgium, do you think it is possible to get a normal business loan? ”

Seeing Leopold II's helpless expression, Massimiliano nodded sympathetically. After all, he is also a person who has been an emperor, so he naturally knows what kind of goods the bank is.

"Borrow an umbrella on a sunny day, collect an umbrella on a rainy day". It's not a joke, when he was in the position of emperor of Mexico, Massimiliano was troubled.

On the surface, loans that seem to be very conscientious are only used to fool ordinary people, and the real interest rate has always been terrifyingly high.

So far, Massimiliano remembers the first time he got the loan. He took a silver mine in Mexico as collateral and got a seemingly generous loan.

On the surface, the annual rate is only 2.5%, but in fact, there are a lot of various handling fees, and the more pitted loans are still issued in installments, but the interest has to be calculated in full, and the real interest rate converted to the end is directly as high as 14.62%/year.

This is a conscience loan given by Napoleon III out of support for him and after personally communicating with the French consortium.

If there is no government intervention and the banks are left to their own devices, then the real usury is true. No one knows how much is the highest, but Massimiliano has borrowed a five-percent discount on the principal, with an interest rate of up to 46.9%, and a lot of international loans with all kinds of conditions attached.

Of course, Massimiliano is not a loss. Although the interest rate is a little higher, and the additional conditions are 100 million points more, this is a high-risk loan. With the fall of the Mexican Empire, these debts became rotten debts.

The aftermath was that when Massimiliano wanted to repatriate the country, no bank was willing to lend money to the government-in-exile. Even if he borrowed money in his own name, no bank would lend it.

The government's debt is not equal to the emperor's debt, and there is no joint and several liability between the two parties. Theoretically speaking, as a descendant of the Habsburg family, Massimiliano is still a high-quality customer in the eyes of the bank, and it is certainly no problem to borrow more than 1.8 million.

It's a pity that Franz let go of the financial world early, whoever dares to lend money to Massimiliano personally will not be able to get along with the Habsburgs.

Capital is profit-seeking and weak, and no bank is so strong as to compete with the Habsburgs for a little interest income.

So much so that the unwitting Massimiliano hit the wall again and again, thinking that he had become a down-and-out phoenix and was killed by the vampires.

After hesitating for a while, Massimiliano said slowly: "Leopold, on this issue, I can only help you convey that your country is in trouble.

In the end, it is the Vienna government that will make the decision, and you better not get your hopes up. This kind of thing my brother rarely mixes with. ”

Politics is so realistic, but everything that offends people is always the back of the cabinet, and Franz the Great, who really makes decisions, usually only appears when everyone is happy.

Based on Massimiliano's understanding of his brother, unless the Belgian government can come up with enough benefits in exchange, this kind of thing will probably not be passed.

"Thank you!"

"If the Vienna government can provide us with the assistance we need, then in the future, all international trade settlements in Belgium will be carried out by Aegis."

Leopold II gritted his teeth and said.

In a sense, this is a betrayal of national sovereignty, but Belgium has no better choice.

The funds for post-war reconstruction were insufficient, and the French could not get the reparations, so in order to raise funds, Belgium had mortgaged everything they could, and now they had so little bargaining chips left.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the Vienna government was preparing to make Aegis an international settlement currency, Leopold II would not have known that settlement currencies could also be traded.

After all, before that, most of the international trade settlements were done in gold, and sometimes in silver. Settlement with Aegis, which was when countries began to trade with the Holy Roman Empire.

The use of Aegis for trade settlement not only means that Belgium has given up gold and silver settlement, but also means that Belgium will peg its currency to Aegis, from the original simple gold standard country to a mixed Aegis and gold standard.

It's just that because the Aegis and gold are freely convertible and the value of the currency is relatively stable, the difference between this mixed standard and the pure gold standard is not large.

The fact that there is not much difference now does not mean that there will be no big gap in the future. Once Aegis and Gold were decoupled, the situation changed dramatically.

There is no doubt that no one is aware of these problems at the moment. Normal people dare not imagine the decoupling of Aegis and gold, and no one knows that the future economic development will be so fast that it will not be able to meet the actual demand as gold production.

If he had known this, Leopold II would never have made such a big deal out of it. After all, the negotiations have not officially begun, and the current conditions can only be regarded as sincerity, and the price that needs to be paid in the end will definitely be greater.

Massimiliano nodded, relieved. The battle for monetary hegemony between Aegis and the pound is no longer a day or two, and even he, an exiled emperor who is far away from politics, has heard of it.

Belgium's current statement is not only about economic interests, but more importantly about the political team.

As early as a few years ago, Britain and Austria had their own settlement systems, and they also won over European countries. It's just that the conditions at that time were not ripe enough, and even if there was a tendency, no country dared to announce that all the settlements would be made in a certain country's currency.

If Belgium stands up now, it will be the first country in the world to publicly announce that it will use Aegis for settlements. This alone will reap a great deal of favor from the Vienna government.

Such a thing, at present, Belgium, which is poor and white, dares to do it. The full adoption of Aegis for settlement not only politically disrupted the British government, but also excluded its own goods from the British market.

Whether it was for the sake of face or profit, it was impossible for the London government to accept Aegis as the settlement currency for Anglo-Belgian trade. You must know that the Anglo-Austrian trade is now dominated by gold settlement.

Even if the Vienna government wants to make Aegis the currency of international settlement, it is not so aggressive, and at the moment it is only planning to make Aegis the internal settlement currency of the European Continental Union.

Knowing that the consequences would be serious, Leopold II did it anyway. The reason is very cruel, and now only Britain and Austria have the strength to provide funds to Belgium.

Don't look at the Vienna government's financial constraints, that's also relative, squeeze the money and come out.

Moreover, just because the government has no money does not mean that it cannot come up with it. After more than a year of buffering, no matter how tight the financial market of the Holy Roman Empire is, it will not be impossible to withdraw tens of millions of funds.

The funds for post-war reconstruction are not spent in a day, and as long as there are 10,000 million and 8 million emergency relief, the remaining funds can be disbursed next month.

The situation in Europe has become clear, and Belgium cannot afford to continue to be half-hearted. If you run to hook up with the British for a loan right now, it will definitely be a sign of tiredness.

Having to be a horse boy anyway, Leopold II decided to take a gamble and grab the position of the number one horse boy. Although the number one horse boy needs to charge into battle, it is a little dangerous, but the benefits are very lucrative!

Prior to this, the Belgian government had also studied it carefully.

With the current trend of the Holy Roman Empire, as long as the Vienna government does not die, the position of the European hegemon has been stabilized, and the probability of replacing the British as the maritime hegemon is also very high.

Belgium is limited in size, and if they don't lean in on it immediately, they will lose their value if they are preempted by other countries.