Surviving as a Writer in the British Empire - Surviving as a Writer in the British Empire chapter 33

Bearings Scandal(2)

William Ridderdale, the governor of the Central Bank of the British Empire, whose stock trading was suddenly blocked, felt unfair.

“No, did I do this for my own self-interest, just to get a few weeks of stock?!”

“However, Mr. Governor, there is a controversy that when Anthony Gibbs & Sons, the family company of former Governor Henry Hucks Gibbs, formed the consortium, it privately operated the organizational power of the Bank of England… . . .”

“Then, I am the governor! Did you just have to turn a blind eye to a situation that could lead to a food crisis in the British Empire!?”

From noble mtl dot com

To the extent of appearing directly at the London Securities Commission, arguing directly with the commissioners, and complaining of injustice.

62 this year alone.

At an age where even in England, where there is no concept of a 60th birthday, he could be judged to be long enough, Ridderdale had to experience first-hand what high blood pressure was.

Objectively, the decision he made was not particularly problematic.

First of all, it was difficult to see Barings Bank as simply an investment bank.

It was closely related to the British government to the extent that it was even called ‘the Queen’s Bank’, and it is a very important link responsible for food security on the mainland of the British Empire, an island nation.

The problem is, that food security was shaking.

In 1890, the food supply disruption triggered by the Argentine coup d’état caused Barings Bank’s performance to plummet.

In addition, the food that the British Empire had to import was cut in half in an instant due to a series of wheat failures.

So it was true that Barings Bank was to blame for this.

But what in the world were Ridderdale and the Bank of England supposed to do in this situation?

Shouldn’t Barings have gone bankrupt or not, trusting only in the spontaneous order of the sacred and inviolable ‘invisible hand’?

The economic panic from London due to the stock market crash spread to the United States? If this continues, will we all starve to death?

In the first place, his ‘invisible hand’. Wasn’t that bullsh*t that you just made an excuse for not wanting to be on welfare?

What the hell is the point of using a knife to refute the logic of the Reds to stab an ally?

Rather, thanks to the funding from Anthony Gibbs & Sons, a private company, we were able to fill the hole as much as possible, and in the end, we were able to save the national tax as much as possible by succeeding in the rescue.

It’s like a stitch in time saves nine, rather than blocking with a hoe.

he could speak out. He said that what he did was praised if it deserved it, but it was never something that deserved criticism.

however.

The person who proudly raised his middle finger this time was too big.

—The Bank of England’s bailout of Barings Bank is tantamount to paying for Barings’ reckless management with taxpayers’ money. The Bank of England should not have made such an irresponsible investment plan, but had to find a way to import food in a different direction, just like ＜Vincent Villiers＞ did.

Alfred Marshall.

A professor of political economy at Cambridge, responsible for the intelligence of the British Empire, and a slayer of the labor theory of value.

The economist, who was revered as the ‘Saint George’ of the economics world who subdued the dragon called Marx’s economics with his bare hands, shook the UK with an editorial he submitted to the liberal economic journal ＜The Economist＞.

—Of course, I never think that our respected central bank governor and former governor of the British Empire did this to privately profit Barings Bank with the same wickedness as Gregory Villiers.

─However, the people’s blood tax is being used to make up for the loss caused by the lazy investment of Barings Bank, which was hung only in Argentina! It can never be said to be a desirable direction! All the more so if the benefits go to a private company like Gibbs & Sons!!

Not only the reporter of The Economist, who wrote a follow-up article to his strong argument, but also the British citizens who saw it. In particular, President Leaderdale and former President Gibbs were perplexed.

What was Alfred Marshall’s usual argument?

Let’s say that he is a giant in the British economics world, but what was written on the nameplate of his professor’s office?

[Cool head and warm heart.]

He was the one who always used the invisible hand as an excuse to criticize the government for leaving the market economy to autonomy and to call for a real-life economy and poverty relief.

However, he was criticizing the government in reverse for saving a bank that was about to go bankrupt.

Shocked by this, Bank of England employees rushed to Marshall’s office to placate him.

and······.

“Professor, why are you doing this?”

“If Barrings had failed, the price of bread in London would have skyrocketed. If you know that, why are you doing this!”

“I don’t know.”

“professor!!”

“If the bank didn’t want to go bankrupt, it should have done better! Why should Barings screw up the investment and pay for it with taxpayers’ money? Wasn’t that the proud ‘personal choice’ you were talking about?”

“No, but taxpayers’ money is rarely used, and Gibbs & Sons’ investment is more important…”

“Oh, is that so? So Gibbs and Sons must have been Gregory Villiers!”

At those words, the officers’ faces turned pale.

It was a flash of intuition that if I said the wrong thing, I would get involved in something strange.

In this situation where it is literally impossible to guard, the Bank of England had no choice but to be helpless under the onslaught of the academic world led by Alfred Marshall.

Even over time, it gradually gained support from figures on the left, such as George Bernard Shaw.

“Professor Marshall is right. Why did the Bank of England talk so much about the ‘invisible hand’ and be lazy about welfare, so why did they extend their hands so generously when companies went bankrupt?”

“Gibbs & Sons, which became the majority shareholder of Bearings Bank, is a private company run by the former president’s family members! Wasn’t this the result of Leaderdale being taken over by Gibbs, who was trying to privatize Barings like Gregory Villiers in ＜Vincent Villiers＞?”

“Former President Gibbs, please explain!! Did you really instigate the coup in Argentina? Is it true that he threatened the table of the people for personal gain!?”

“Hey, does that make sense!! If I had that kind of ability, I would be the king, so why would I have stayed as the president of a single bank!!”

Each one was filled with fires. But this was just the beginning…

The next day, former governor Henry Gibbs saw the front page of the yellow press, ‘Former governor Gibbs confesses to coup conspiracy!’

“President, if we continue like this, we will use dumping.”

“If we do something wrong, we could end up with the stigma that this recession is all our fault!”

“No, why is it because of us? What the hell have I done!”

Again, William Ridderdale was genuinely resentful.

Argentine coup d’état and subsequent food price hikes. And the economic downturn that followed, of course, was unexpected, neither he nor anyone else in Britain expected.

Even Barings Bank did.

If the person who traveled from the future was not a web novel writer but an economist or an international political scientist, it would be logical to explain that Barings Bank has been recklessly engaging in unfair trade in Argentina and that there has been a spread of anti-government public opinion as a result. could have explained it.

In addition, he could have added a point cynically, saying, ‘This is why Anglo-Saxon pirates are ignorant.’

However, since it was a novelist who came over, this complex and mixed issue has been degenerated into a subject matter for interest, and because of useless details, it only stabbed the core halfway and made the parties involved difficult.

This too was just an unfortunate accident intertwined with the times.

In any case, they had no choice but to be beaten without saying anything.

In fact, the answer that came out in ＜Vincent Villiers＞ was because it seemed plausible on the outside.

‘Damn it, Hanslo Jean. What the hell does he have a grudge against me?

If that’s the case, wouldn’t that mean we were there together?

In an instant, his cheekbones softened. Hanslo Jin······ Scary child!

The misunderstanding only deepens.

And here.

Alfred Marshall’s true intentions were revealed.

—What we need to realize is no different. Adam Smith’s insistence on the ‘invisible hand’ in the first place is not the complete autonomy of the market, but that it can work when companies do not collude with politics and focus only on their own self-improvement.

─But what about us? Politics and corporations hold hands according to convenience, sometimes arbitrarily excluding competitors, and expediently wielding an ‘invisible hand’ on things that have nothing to do with business-political collusion like a report on the family!

─The government should implement a welfare policy comparable to, or even more than, what it did with Barings Bank! We need to save more household crises like Barings!!

In the end, William Ridderdale had no choice but to raise the white flag.

Of course, that doesn’t mean he resigned or anything like that.

No matter how big Alfred Marshall was, the central bank governor in charge of the country’s economy could not follow him straight away.

But in other words.

If it is someone higher than that, it is said that you can fold all your pride and kneel.

“Oh my gosh, Minister!!”

“President, why are you like this?”

“I can’t stand it because I’m unfair. What the hell did I do wrong!!”

“Heh heh, calm down.”

So said William Harcourt, unable to contain his laughter.

As he served from the Gladstone Cabinet to the Primrose Cabinet, he was pro-Liberal and couldn’t help but be happy to see the Bank of England, which was the base of the Conservative Party’s outpost, was in trouble.

‘It’s a good opportunity.’

Even if the central bank doesn’t hold back in what it does in the future by borrowing this time, how much freedom will the Liberal Party cabinet be guaranteed?

Harcourt thought so and gave the remedy.

“Now, isn’t the starting point of the problem the suspicion of stock price manipulation sparked by the London Stock Exchange banning the president’s trading?”

“Yeah, yes. Minister.”

“Then we have to solve that problem first.”

“ah······!”

Leaderdale seemed to be illuminated only then.

Thus, a lawsuit for administrative disposition was filed in the London Administrative Court against the injunction against the trading of William Ridderdale and Henry Gibbs on the London Stock Exchange.

And of course.

The Administrative Court requested the submission of materials from Hanslo Jean, the author of the novel presented by the London Stock Exchange through Scotland Yard.

***

“…that’s how it happened.”

“No, so what did I do?”

I muttered pitifully.

Mr. Miller, who told me the whole story, looked at me tremblingly, and Mr. Bentley also asked me trembling.

“That, writer. Did you really not know anything?”

“Of course I didn’t know.”

I said confidently.

Of course, it’s not that I don’t know anything.

But what I do know is the recent economic downturn in the UK, the coup in Argentina, and the bankruptcy of Barings Bank.

Again, I turned my gaze toward Mr. Miller. In a way, the reason I know this in the first place is thanks to Mr. Miller.

It was because the information of the upper class that I had picked up while following along at art auctions was a bit old.

By appropriately adapting that information, it is just a mix of the common cliché of chaebol dramas, ‘evil businessmen who manipulate the economy behind the scenes’, and ‘catch the information in advance and attack it from behind’, the soup of recurring dramas.

But why is the current and former governor of the Bank of England intertwined? Why is that bastard’s family company dragged in and beaten up in the first place?

“What are you going to do? Now that it’s like this, I think we need to cooperate with Scotland Yard.”

“We have to cooperate first.”

I have always been a law-abiding citizen of the Republic of Korea. That’s why I was thinking that if necessary, I should cooperate as much as possible.

No, honestly, it’s absurd to think about it again.

Why did my article become such a catalyst for blaming the British economic downturn?

As a normal citizen, I hate being gunned down on things like this. To be burned at the stake like Joan of Arc?

But the world won’t let you go… Why are there so many people who can’t distinguish between fiction and reality?

“Once in writing, I’ll leave you with no knowledge whatsoever, just imagining what happened in real life.”

“Would that be okay, author?”

“······well. It would be nice if you could move on to this for now.”

Of course.

It wasn’t okay at all.