Fox of France

Early the next morning, U.S. special envoy Andy Fred came to the "White Castle" estate and asked to see Louisiana Development Bank Chairman Louis Bonaparte, known as the invisible governor of Louisiana.

The carriage he was riding in circled around the winding mountain road before arriving at the gate of the manor. The carriage stopped there, and Andy Fred got out of the carriage, walked to the door, and handed a business card to the porter. After a while, the door opened, and a man dressed as a waiter told Andy Fred that Mr. Bonaparte was waiting for him in the drawing room.

Andy Fred followed the man into the manor, through the front garden with the fountain, then through the marble-floored hall, up the stairs, until he reached a small drawing room on the second floor. A young man was waiting for him inside.

"Hello, please sit down. I'm Louis Bonaparte, the president of the Louisiana Development Bank. I heard that you have a business to discuss with me." Louis knows what Americans, or people from the New World do He didn't like to go round and round things very much, so he said it directly.

"Well, you know, we've been at war with England recently. And England is your enemy..." said Andy Fred.

"No, Mr. Fred, you may have got a few things wrong." Louie shook his finger, confounding his words, "First of all, you may have got my identity wrong. My identity is the Louisiana Development Bank I am the chairman of the board. I am a businessman. What I care about is, and only increase the value of the company's wealth. This is what I have to do. Although some people may have said that because of my brother, they think I will intervene Politics. Well, that statement, is wrong most of the time. If there's anything about me that makes people feel like I'm meddling in politics, it's that they themselves don't understand the difference between making money and politics.

Also, even just considering politics, there are problems with your statement. First, we do not consider Britain to be our enemy. France and England are still at peace. Of course, we've had a bit of a bad day with the UK recently because of the trade issue. However, disputes between traders are common between any two countries. If, I mean if, tomorrow, the British change their attitude on trade issues and recognize and respect the principles of free trade and open doors, then we will be friendly neighbors to the letter. So you can't see us as enemies of the British on that basis.

Of course, we and the United States are out-and-out friendly neighbors. Therefore, we are also willing to achieve a win-win result for both parties through free trade. If you're coming to me about trade, you're in the right place. But if it is for other purposes, I think you may have the wrong person. "

"Ah, Monsieur Bonaparte, I did come to discuss trade issues," Andy Fred said hastily. "You know, our country is now being brutally invaded by the British. We need to buy arms, and we Two cruisers will be leased from the Louisiana Squadron."

"You want to lease two cruisers? This is not easy..." Louis said.

"We have already had a precedent of successful cooperation with your country." Andy Fred said, referring of course to the fact that the US government leased the "Free Trade" and "Common Market" from France.

"It's different." Louis shook his head, "When the lease was concluded, your country and Britain were still at peace, so it is completely in line with the principles of trade and war that our country leased these two warships to your country. Yes. But now it's different, now your country is at war with Great Britain. If it's just general arms trade, especially civilian arms trade, you know, Louisiana has a long border with your country. In this It is unavoidable that some smuggling and other things have occurred on the border. Therefore, if large-scale French-made civilian weapons flow into your country, I don't think it will cause much impact.

But warships are different from these things. It is impossible for warships to be smuggled in the past, and it is impossible for France to lease warships to countries that are at war. This is contrary to the French principle of maintaining peace. Well, at least, it is impossible for us to lease the warship to you directly. "Louis said, in order to prevent the American bumpkins from understanding, he deliberately said the word "directly" very strongly.

Facts have proved that there is nothing wrong with the intelligence of Americans. They can still understand such a simple meaning.

"Mr. Bonaparte, does this mean that if there is a change of hands through some people in the middle, this agreement can be reached?" Andy Fred asked quickly.

"I think this is a feasible solution." Louis replied, "At least, if you do this, there will be no legal problems."

"Thank you for your teaching," Andy Fred said sincerely. "Also, Mr. Bonaparte, who do you think is more convenient as an intermediary?"

Andy Fred didn't ask this because the Americans couldn't find a suitable middleman. Rather, in this process, it is obvious that there are many vacancies that can legally obtain income such as commissions. Of course, this benefit should be given to Louis, or to the Louisiana Development Bank. If you don't even know this basic principle, then this business will definitely not work.

"Oh, I think Santo Domingo would be nice, don't you think?" Louis replied.

Just a year ago, Santo Domingo had just completed the establishment of an independent country and officially became the "protectorate" of France. The governor Dusan Louverture also became the lifelong ruler.

Although Santo Domingo has become "independent", it is still a part of the French economic circle and accepts the "protection" of France, just like Bhutan in later generations accepts the "protection" of the third brother. It is not a problem at all that it proposes to lease the cruisers of the suzerain, and the French immediately agree. After Santo Domingo got the French cruiser, he immediately transferred the two cruisers to the Americans. It was because Santo Domingo didn't understand the norms of the international community and took advantage of the loopholes in the contract. Besides, in a black country, it's normal for something like this to happen, isn't it?

Of course, in this process, there will definitely be "middlemen making the difference", but if there is no "middleman making the difference", who will do it for you?

After the two parties have reached an agreement on issues of principle, the rest is the details. There is no need for high-level officials like Louis to discuss these matters. So the two casually talked a few more words, and Andy Fred got up and left.