"Uh...the one with the most money?"
The coachman glanced at Lawrence with a strange expression.
If he hadn't seen Lawrence walking out of the Palace of Justice, the coachman would have thought he was a thug going to rob a bank.
However, the coachman was still very sensible and didn't say much, and quickly drove the horses onto the street. After all, judging from Lawrence's attire, he must be either rich or noble.
...
After a journey of more than twenty minutes, the driver drove the carriage to a building only three hundred yards away from the Exchange Square.
"Sir, we have arrived, the headquarters of the Banque Commerciale de France."
After stopping the carriage, the driver turned his head respectfully and said.
Lawrence didn't waste any time. He nodded slightly and threw him a few lifre silver coins. Then he jumped out of the carriage and walked quickly towards the bank.
The size of this bank building is indeed quite large. The four marble pillars at the entrance are as thick as three people surrounding them. The interior hall is also extremely luxuriously decorated.
The crystal chandelier is inlaid with gold and silver, and even in the daytime it is filled with fine jade wax. The tables, chairs and counters can also be decorated with ivory everywhere, as if every object here is highlighting the wealth of this bank to visitors.
.
Being able to own such a building in such a valuable location shows Mr. Montmartre's financial resources.
However, Lawrence didn't care much about these luxurious arrangements. In his opinion, these arrangements were not so much about showing off wealth, but more about reassuring savers and increasing their confidence.
As soon as Lawrence stepped into the lobby of the bank, the smiling waiter immediately greeted him, bowed deeply and asked:
"Good afternoon, Mr. Do you need to handle any business?"
Lawrence waved his hand directly and said:
"Is Mr. Montmartre here? I want to see him. If he is not here, someone will take charge."
The waiter was stunned for a moment. He had never seen someone so arrogant about meeting the president in all the years he had worked in this bank, so he frowned and said:
"I can serve you with any business you need to handle. If you don't need it, please don't stay here."
Lawrence glanced at the waiter and asked:
"I want to withdraw money, can you be responsible?"
The waiter puffed out his chest and said:
"Of course, how much do you want to withdraw?"
"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand."
"what did you say...?"
The waiter was just about to take Lawrence forward. When he heard the number in his ear, he thought he was hallucinating and asked with a frown:
"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand...? Are you here to have fun?"
"Three hundred and seventy-five thousand livres, cash."
Lawrence added calmly:
"If you cannot take responsibility, call Mr. Montmartre and tell him that Laurence Bonaparte is waiting for him here."
"You...you, you are Monsignor Bonaparte?! Sorry, I...I will go and inform Mr. Montmartre right away."
The waiter said in a panic, and then he bowed deeply twice before running away as if he had been relieved.
...
Less than five minutes after the waiter left, Mr. Montmartre was seen running down the stairs dragging his fat body.
Judging from the unwiped butter at the corner of his mouth and the smell of wine on his body, he was probably called down by Lawrence in the middle of lunch.
"Oh my God, Your Excellency Bonaparte, why did you come suddenly and didn't tell me in advance? Hahaha, come on..."
Mr. Montmartre trotted up to Lawrence and said slightly out of breath:
"It's noisy here, please come to the VIP room with me."
The two moved to a VIP room in the corner of the bank. After entering, Mr. Montmartre personally took out a bottle of sherry from the counter and poured half a glass for himself and Lawrence.
"Ahem...Um, I heard that you are coming to withdraw money...?"
After Mr. Montmartre poured the wine, he quickly sat down on the sofa and looked at Lawrence nervously and anxiously and asked.
Lawrence took a sip of the special sherry and nodded and said:
"Yes, three hundred and seventy-five thousand livres, cash required, no banknotes accepted."
"This...Your Excellency Bonaparte..."
Mr. Montmartre showed a troubled expression, and his eyes wandered around helplessly. After a while, he said cautiously:
"It is also difficult for the French Commercial Bank to take out so many reserves at once. You may not know that this will affect the bank's credit and operational stability."
"I understand your difficulty, Mr. Montmartre."
Lawrence nodded in approval and said.
After all, banks are not safes, banks need to make profits.
After depositors deposit their funds in the bank, the bank must lend or invest these funds to make profits.
The bank will only retain a small part of the funds to meet the daily withdrawal needs of customers. This small part of the funds is the reserve.
Since reserves only account for a small part of customer deposits, banks will impose restrictions on large withdrawals, and generally must make an appointment in advance to avoid the bank's credit being affected.
Lawrence's sudden need to withdraw more than 300,000 yuan in cash may cause major problems for the bank's operational stability.
Once there is a shortage of reserves and depositors are unable to withdraw their deposits from the bank, depositors will not care about those complicated economic principles. They will only think that there is a crisis in the bank, so they will rush to withdraw their deposits.
In this way, more and more people will join the ranks of runs, and banks that were originally only a little cash-flowing will be completely credit-bankrupt due to such runs.
If such a run is not controlled, it will soon spread from one bank to the entire banking industry, and may even lead to a financial crisis.
"While I understand your difficulty, I still need the funds."
Before Mr. Montmartre could be happy for a few seconds, Lawrence shook his head and said:
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "But as compensation, I can reveal a piece of news to you."
"information?"
Only then did Mr. Montmartre become interested. People of Lawrence's level must not have come into contact with things that everyone knew, so he quickly asked:
"You mean...?"
"In the next few days, there will be a general contraction in the securities industry in Paris, especially the stock market."
Lawrence crossed his legs and said directly without any hesitation:
"That is, a short-term short market."
As soon as Lawrence finished speaking, Mr. Montmartre couldn't help but his eyes lit up, and he came up to Lawrence and asked repeatedly:
"Are you serious? Can I know the source? Oh my God, this is huge news."
For financiers, whether it is a short or long market, as long as they can know the market trend in advance, there is bound to be room for profit.
"I don't want to reveal the source of the information, but I can guarantee more than 90% accuracy." Lawrence shook his head and said:
"Now that you have heard the news, then..."
"Ah...yes."
Mr. Montmartre hesitated for a moment. Now that he had accepted this precious news, he could only grit his teeth and said:
"I will prepare this fund for you. When will you need it?"
"The sooner the better, I will send someone to deliver the corresponding deposit slip to you."
...
At about two o'clock in the afternoon, Lawrence returned to his mansion on the Champs Elysées.
After returning home, Lawrence immediately got into the study, and after thinking hard for a while, he wrote a letter. Then he counted out the corresponding amounts from the unnamed deposit slips locked in the safe and gave them to the old housekeeper of the mansion, and ordered:
"Send these deposit slips to Mr. Montmartre, and send this letter to the Daily Observer. Send someone to go there in person. In addition, prepare the carriage at the residence."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
To be continued...