War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

June 14, 1843, night.

Vienna, Lion's Pride Hotel.

Solomon Rothschild was sitting on a lounge chair. The man who was once respectfully called "His Majesty the King" looked like a weather-beaten old man, struggling to even open his eyelids.

Salomon has been buying up companies in Austria this year. At this time, Austria's economy was booming and making money was not difficult.

But history is always cyclical, and people can trip over the same stone once or countless times.

"Smart people" are always different from others. Most factory owners can only see immediate benefits or frantically expand production or improve technology to reduce costs.

But Solomon felt that they were wrong. Instead of wasting money on improving technology and expanding production, it would be easier to maintain the scarcity of goods.

And the advantage of doing this is that you won't waste money. After all, those technical investments may not necessarily pay off, but the "financial innovation" he made will definitely pay off.

After all, if you master the relationship between supply and demand, you can form a price alliance and wait for the money. This is the benefit of monopoly.

But Solomon missed one person, and that was Franz.

Whenever he is about to succeed, or has already succeeded, royal capital will quickly enter the field.

Then came the drastic changes in the entire industry. New technologies, new models, new subjects, and new results shattered the original framework into pieces, and established a very solid new system at an extremely fast speed.

Also broken is Solomon's heart. He doesn't know what he has done wrong, and the royal family seems to be targeting him. This must be jealousy of talents. If they don't suppress themselves, those in power may not be able to feel at ease.

Solomon comforted himself in this way, but many things were actually beyond his expectation, such as the war that should have happened and another war that should not have happened.

(He advised his nephew not to buy it, but he bought it like crazy and lost more than the nephew.)

But Solomon firmly believed that there was at least one thing that he would not be wrong about.

At the same time, a young man with an extraordinary bearing stepped into the Grizzly Bear Hotel on Tuen Street. Next to him was a lady holding a parasol, who was elegantly dressed and well-dressed.

The boss was a little stunned for a moment, not sure what the young man in front of him was going to do.

"Hello, sir. How can I help you?"

"Are you the owner of this hotel?" the young man asked politely.

"Yes, sir."

"With all due respect, how much money can you make in a month?"

"The economy is booming now, and you know Vienna is a place where land is at a premium. It's okay to earn 1,000 florins a month, but after deducting various taxes, plus labor and other expenses, what's left will be Only two or three hundred florins."

Although it was only their first meeting, the young man had an irresistible temperament, and the boss unknowingly said too much.

The young man smiled, and the beautiful woman beside him also smiled. The two of them seemed to be used to it. The young man spoke again.

"I am willing to pay 1,500 florins to rent your hotel for a month. We want to be the only guests here."

The boss thought for a while and said with great embarrassment.

"I'm afraid that won't work, sir. This hotel was passed down to me by my father, and I will continue to be in business."

In fact, it is not unusual to book a hotel in this era, but this kind of family hotel rarely encounters this kind of thing, at least this boss has not encountered this kind of thing.

The young man seemed to have known the boss's answer for a long time, and he continued unhurriedly.

"I want to buy your hotel for twenty thousand florins."

This was a bit unexpected for the hotel owner, and the price just met his expectations.

A quarter of an hour later, the owner of the Grizzly Bear Inn was replaced.

Soros and his wife sat by the window on the second floor of the hotel and looked at the rapidly developing city. The noisy crowd who was driven out from downstairs did not disturb their interest.

"This city is good, I like it very much. It is full of vitality and business opportunities." Fiona smiled, very charming, and then said.

"It's a good choice as the last stop of the wedding trip. Do you mean "The Flying Dutchman" by the big opera? It's a very good work, but it seems that the Netherlands is better to appreciate this opera. After all, the author of this opera Mr. Wagner is in Holland."

Soros smiled and shook his head. Mr. Wagner is a great artist, but King William II of the Netherlands is a fool. Their performance is not worthy of our wedding trip.

"Oh? What is that?" Ferona asked curiously. Her husband had a special kind of pride that only belonged to the Jews.

She was convinced that the Jews were the smartest race in the world, far superior to other white people, and her husband was the smartest among them.

"The entire Austrian Empire is the stage, and the clown is the Habsburg royal family. This is a big play directed by me." Soros said confidently, and he would not allow himself to fall into the same place twice.

Although the previous two times were a win and a draw, they did not cause the opponent to feel any pain, which made him very dissatisfied.

Especially after knowing that his opponent was just a child, Soros became even more dissatisfied. How could those pig-like nobles compare with the noble Jews.

In order to prevent this matter from becoming his inner demon in the future, Soros must see the scandal of the country's breach of trust and collapse in order to make his thoughts clear.

Yes, tomorrow is the first anniversary of the establishment of the Austrian Royal Overseas Development Company. Logically speaking, tomorrow should also be the day for dividends.

But this company is different from any other company in the world. It has more than four million shareholders and may involve tens of millions of people.

Seeing the speed of development of the Austrian colonies, Soros knew that this country must have invested a lot of money. This is no problem from a business perspective. After all, the early stage of colonization requires massive investment, which is the consensus of the business community.

But civilians don't understand this, and they don't want to understand it. Those people wanted real money and things, and colonial development at this time still required a lot of financial support. Unless the Austrian Imperial Government was crazy, it would choose to pay dividends.

Even if they bite the bullet and pay dividends, how much will they pay? There are 20 million shares and more than 4 million shareholders. If each share is only divided into one florin, then these shareholders will definitely be dissatisfied.

If based on the normal 5% at this time, it should be 1.2 florins, but this does not help because people's expectations for this company are too high.

The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment. At that time, it will not only be the credibility of the Habsburg family that will be affected. Maybe there will be another French Revolution, so Soros needs a house in a civilian area.

He didn't want to get involved in the infighting among these idiots.

June 15, 1843.

The Austrian Royal Overseas Development Company announced a dividend of five florins per share.

Earnings per share were as high as 20.8%, or 100% for those shareholders who initially placed their bets when the share price was five florins.