Greece to roman road

In front of the fence on the second floor of the Athens Exchange, Constantine looked down at the crowded crowd in front of the stock trading seats representing the Andros Machinery Factory in the trading hall and breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems that the investment market is very optimistic about the development prospects of Andros Machinery Factory. The shares of Andros Machinery Factory are favored and sought after by investors. Congratulations to Mr. Andros for successfully listing the company's operations" Chairman of the Trading Committee of the Athens Exchange , Georges said with a smile on his face to Andros, who was also looking eagerly at the lively scene downstairs.

“In the past two decades, with the development of Greek industry, Greece’s economy has made great progress. This reality is reflected in the stock market, that is, participants who were previously engaged in securities investment, many people have made a lot of money, and in the money Stimulated by the epidemic, stock investment has changed from a niche market that was unknown and only circulated among a few people to a conventional financial management method," Georges explained to Constantine in a proud tone.

"Now that the war is over, the great Greek army, under the command of the wise and wise Crown Prince Constantine" said this, the flattering smile on George's face became a little richer, his face flushed, and he praised excitedly: " There is no doubt that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince once again led the Greek army to achieve fruitful results and taught the stupid and arrogant Bulgarian barbarians a lesson."

"I personally think that your achievements from the Bulgarians, Your Highness, are not inferior to those of the former "Butcher of Bulgaria" Basil the Great."

Georges' tone was sincere and sincere, and he paid high respect to Constantine with full of reverence, completely ignoring the high-level Greek government officials and Greek business elites who came to participate in the meeting.

Everyone laughed when they heard Georges' disgusting flattery.

Although during this period, as the de facto supreme commander of the Greek army, Constantine had received countless praises and praises, he still felt a little embarrassed by Georges's unabashed flattery.

After all, Prime Minister Venizelos also came to participate in the meeting today, but Georges had no intention of mentioning it. It seemed that after the victory of the war, all the credit went to Crown Prince Constantine.

However, he wanted to express respect for himself and could not refute him, so he had to interrupt him to prevent him from saying more flattery: "Okay, Chairman Georges, you have gone too far. The war can be won. It’s the result of everyone’s joint efforts.”

Seeing that everyone present was paying attention to himself, Georges changed the topic: "Greece has once again achieved a brilliant victory, and the Greek capital market is also about to enter a new stage, stimulated by this super good news. , based on my many years of stock trading experience, the stock market will usher in a rapid rise in a short period of time.”

"If everyone has surplus funds, in order to maintain and increase value, there is a need for investment. We should learn to use money to make money."

Hearing this, Georges immediately changed the subject, turned into a profiteer, and advertised the stock exchange he managed. Constantine was not only amused.

According to industry management, for every transaction completed on the stock exchange, a certain percentage of commission will be taken as remuneration, which is also the main source of income for the exchange.

Due to the upcoming economic conference, the dozens of people gathered on the second floor are either senior government officials or Greek business elites. They are all rich and wealthy people. Their high income makes them really have investment needs. The best candidate for stock investment, Georges, the chairman of the stock exchange, naturally seized this opportunity to advertise his exchange.

The Athens Exchange was founded in 1882 and has been around for decades (1913).

Its establishment and development process is somewhat similar to that of Wall Street in New York, USA. Both exchanges were formed spontaneously without official support.

Georges, the current chairman of the exchange, was one of the earliest stock traders in Greece.

It was Georges himself who was keenly aware of the huge benefits contained in national debt. When he learned that the Greek government intended to issue national debt to the people in order to raise war funds, he actively lobbied Venizelos and Constantine to obtain official approval. License, allowing Greek exchanges to trade government bonds.

It was Georges's move that allowed government bonds issued by the Greek government to be traded in real time on the exchange. Those who bought the bonds wanted to exchange them for cash for various reasons.

The treasury bonds in their hands can be turned into cash according to the actual price on the exchange without waiting for the treasury bonds to mature.

Since the issuance of treasury bonds is the first time in Greece and there is no precedent to follow, many people do not trust the government and are worried that the money they spent to purchase treasury bonds will not be cashed when due, which adds many difficulties to the issuance of treasury bonds.

The Athens Exchange's inclusion of treasury bonds in the trading scope has dispelled people's concerns. As long as necessary, treasury bond investors can sell their investment in treasury bonds at the exchange for cash at any time.

In order to quickly issue national debt, Constantine and Venizelos had no choice but to agree to the exchange's requirements.

Greece's first national debt issuance was based on the national debt circulating on the Athens Exchange.

Prior to this, the government tried almost every means to sell national debt and barely obtained 60 million drachmas.

After allowing the trading of national debt on the Athens Exchange, in just one month, the amount of Greek national debt reached 500 million drachmas!

It was also during the national debt incident that the Athens Exchange played a huge role in financing, which attracted the attention of Constantine and Venizelos, and they began to pay attention to the Greek capital market.

Hundreds of millions of drachmas were raised in just two or three months, which greatly relieved the tight financial pressure of the Greek government and provided favorable financial guarantees for the victory of the Greek army. The powerful energy bursting out of the Greek capital market, Let the Greek political establishment raise eyebrows.

After all, with this national debt issuance as an example, Greek government financing will become a norm in the future.

Georges' words praising Constantine and repeatedly mentioning Greece's victory were actually reminding everyone present that the Greek government was able to successfully issue national debt during the war, and the credit and contribution of the Athens Exchange should not be forgotten.

Constantine and Prime Minister Venizelos looked at each other. There was a tacit understanding between the two of them, and they both obviously saw Georges' intentions.

Thinking of how worried he was during the war in order to raise war funds, but Georges didn't say a word, Venizelos, who was unhappy, deliberately hit Georges and said coldly: "Mr. Georges, as a stock exchange Chairman, I’m afraid he made a windfall on the national debt.”

While speaking, he waved the Athens Times in his hand.

"Many treasury bond buyers have suffered heavy losses due to false rumors, and the impact has been very bad. They have gathered in Parliament Square to protest in the past few days, calling on the government to severely punish the scammers and seek justice for them."

"They all claimed that managers of the Athens Exchange colluded with each other to encourage them to sell government bonds at low prices."

The headlines on the front pages of newspapers clearly stated that traitors were using national debt to spread false news, suppress the price of national debt, and make ill-gotten gains.

Seeing the newspaper in the hands of Prime Minister Venizelos, Georges, as an important participant, could not know the truth of the incident, and he immediately felt guilty.

Whether it is Constantine or Venizelos, as the leaders of Greece, they naturally understand the truth about the national debt incident.

Everything has advantages and disadvantages, and this characteristic is vividly reflected in the capital market.

The Greek government used the capital market to raise a huge amount of money in a short period of time. However, due to time constraints, the government itself had no experience in managing the securities market, which naturally created a huge loophole for capital to take advantage of.

After government bonds entered the Athens Exchange and became commodities that could be freely circulated and traded, capital soon showed its bloodthirsty and ugly side: Greece soon had widespread rumors that the Greek army had lost on the front line and soon Possible defeat.

At this time, Greece was at war with Bulgaria. Such rumors caused widespread panic in Greek society. The messages became more and more outrageous. Many people who did not know the truth believed them to be true and believed that the Greek army was defeated.

Greek national debt is issued with the credit of the government. Once the Greek army is defeated, the Greek government itself has spent huge expenses during the war. Coupled with the compensation for the defeat, it will definitely go bankrupt.

The treasury bonds issued by Greece will also become a piece of waste paper because the government has no money and cannot pay the principal and interest to treasury bond investors as agreed upon maturity.

As a result, under the influence of rumors, the value of government bonds plummeted in just a few days after they entered the exchange.

At the lowest moment, the Greek government's one-year government bonds fell to 60% of their face value.

Panic spread like a plague among treasury bond investors, and everyone rushed to sell their treasury bonds, hoping to quickly exchange them for cash to recoup some of their losses before the treasury bonds completely turned into worthless waste paper.

Paradoxically, during this period, there were always funds on the exchange to purchase treasury bonds at low prices. No matter how much people sold, the funds to purchase treasury bonds were accepted by all comers.

Now that the Greek army has returned home, the rumors have naturally collapsed. The Greek army has won a great victory. The government has received war compensation from Bulgaria. Its credit has soared, and there is no need to worry about the repayment of the national debt.

Treasury bond investors who belatedly regretted it, especially those who sold at 60% of the lowest price. Coupled with the interest that the government should pay after the bond matured, they almost lost the money they spent on purchasing the bond in just a few dozen days. half.

The panic among treasury bond investors quickly spread to other areas of the stock exchange, and the stock market reacted equally strongly. After all, once the Greek army was defeated, it would be a heavy blow to the Greek economy, and companies would be operating miserably. reflected in stock prices.

The plummeting of national debt was like the first domino to fall. The stocks of major Greek companies also began to plummet, and the entire exchange was filled with lamentations.

Seeing that the war was victorious, the domestic financial market was about to collapse due to rumors, and social order was about to be turbulent. The royal family and the government mobilized the media to declare to the society that the war was going smoothly and quell the rumors.

In order to enhance its persuasion, the government's Ministry of Finance had no choice but to urgently collect money and go to the exchange in person to purchase government bonds at a "high price" based on the original face price of the government bonds, thereby raising the price of government bonds and preventing panic from destroying the government bonds.

In the process of handling this incident, Constantine, who was in a hurry, truly realized the meaning of the saying that capital is a double-edged sword!

Many people originally worried about the safety of their children after they were drafted into the army, so they spent a lot of money to buy national debt to support the government that was in financial difficulties. Now they are being used to exploit their patriotism and defraud a large sum of money. Naturally, they cannot accept it. This result.

Those who purchased government bonds at low prices almost doubled their profits in a short period of time!

In recent days, investors who have suffered heavy losses have come to the Government Parliament Square to hold demonstrations and sit-in protests, demanding that the government severely punish traitors and liars.

The truth is very simple: Exchange personnel colluded internally and externally to maliciously spread rumors for profit, suppress the price of government bonds, and purchase government bonds from investors at low prices.

After spreading the rumors, they sold a large amount of government bonds in a short period of time, causing the price of government bonds to fall sharply. This seemed to "confirm" the accuracy of the rumors and triggered panic among investors.

As a result, more people joined the ranks of selling government bonds, causing the price of government bonds to fall further.

After this incident was exposed by newspapers, it aroused extreme indignation among the Greek people. People commented that this incident would not only cause domestic financial chaos during the war, but also make a fortune for the country.

Georges is the chairman of the Athens Exchange. It is impossible for him to be unaware of the national debt incident. Without his permission, it is completely impossible to succeed.

Both Constantine, Venizelos, and Georges themselves knew this very well.

But as a veteran in the securities market, Georges is used to lies and deception. He has seen all the storms and waves. He is already familiar with it. He pretended to be calm and defended: "Your Excellency, driven by huge profits, the securities trading market is filled with countless frauds." Dirty lies, every day.”

"In the final analysis, national debt is also an investment." Georges shrugged unnecessarily. "Investment is risky, so you need to be cautious when entering the market."

"People shouldn't expect to make a fortune in a field they don't understand. It's a fool's errand."

Seeing that Georges didn't care about the national debt at all, Constantine interjected: "Isn't this typical insider trading? It's against the law, Mr. Georges?"

Exchange staff have special status, and as a rule, they are not allowed to participate in securities transactions.

The national debt incident also caused great controversy and resentment within the military. A large part of those who bought national debt decided to buy national debt because they had family members serving in the military. As a result, they were not only teased, but also lost a fortune. Big money.

These soldiers, and their families, cannot emotionally accept such fooling.

After the war, a large number of soldiers complained to Constantine and demanded that traitors and fraudsters be punished.

As the de facto commander of the Greek army, Constantine could not ignore the strong appeals of the officers and soldiers.

After all, a monarch's majesty and authority come from his invincible army.

"That's why our meeting is held this time." After saying this, Constantine glanced at Georges, took the lead in pushing open the door of the office, and led everyone into the venue.