The Shopkeeper of All Worlds in the British Wizarding World

Chapter 737 Cooperation
The April sunshine shone through the glass windows into the headmaster's office at Hogwarts, illuminating everything in the office and sweeping away the gloomy feeling of an old castle that used to be in the whole house.

The current war situation is as exciting to Ryan and his friends as the weather today, so during this gathering, everyone in the principal's office began to discuss the arrangements for many things after the war. After all, this war has completely torn the entire British society apart, so there will be many things to deal with after the war.

Therefore, when the war situation has shown signs of hope, Ryan and his team need to make some general preparations in advance. This can avoid unnecessary losses caused by mistakes in a hurry after the war is truly won.

Fortunately, we have the experience of the last war, so we don't need to discuss the handling of war criminals and post-war reconstruction. We just need to follow the cases left in the past. At most, there are more criminals to be tried this time, and we need to invest more energy in the trial. Therefore, there is no need to discuss anything.

But in addition, there are some situations that have never occurred before and do need to be arranged in advance, such as the United Wizarding Bank of Britain. Its existence will inevitably break the current financial monopoly of Gringotts on the British wizarding world.

Obviously, Professor Dumbledore also noticed this. So after planning the attack on London, the first post-war issue discussed was about the United Wizarding Bank of Britain.

"Now, the first thing we need to discuss is the status of the United Wizarding Bank of Britain after the war." Dumbledore looked at the others in the room and said, "Of course, I have also invited the bank's president, Mr. Xiong Duosu, to discuss this issue with us today."

After saying that, Professor Dumbledore released his phoenix patronus. The silver patronus flew around the office and then sank directly into the wall. A few minutes later, a chubby, furry figure opened the door and walked in.

"Good morning, nice to see you." After entering the room, Xiong Duosu clasped his paws together and raised them to his chest, then leaned forward slightly and bowed to everyone. Several people in the office also stood up and returned the greeting to the panda man in their own way.

"Ah, Mr. Xiong Duosu, please take a seat." Professor Dumbledore stood up from his chair and spoke in Mandarin, then waved his wand and conjured up a chair as big as a sofa next to Ryan and the others, motioning for everyone to sit down.

"Mr. Principal, is there anything you want me to do today?" Xiong Duosu said with a simple smile on his face. However, if there was a Taoist priest from the Celestial Empire here, he would definitely know that this panda man had definitely discovered a good opportunity to make money, and now he was using the unique advantages of his race to find a way to reduce the vigilance of his negotiating opponent.

Of course, Dumbledore had absolutely no idea about this, and because he had devoted most of his life to education, he was not very good at this kind of business negotiation. Therefore, the headmaster directly stated why he was looking for the panda man this time.

"Mr. Xiong Duosu," Dumbledore said, "You know we are about to win the war, so there are some post-war issues that we need to make some arrangements now, and one of the most important things is about the bank."

"I understand, Mr. Dumbledore." Xiong Duosu raised a paw and said, "As a currency issuing bank, it is definitely not good to be controlled by foreigners. So I think today you should want us to hand over the control of the bank, right?"

"Yes, that's right." Ms. Bones said in a low voice. Xiong Duosu's straightforwardness made Dumbledore and Bones a little embarrassed, because it seemed like they were the kind of people who would burn the bridge after crossing it. After taking advantage of others in the most difficult times, they now excluded others when it was time to reap the fruits of their labor. However, for the financial independence of the British wizarding world, some things had to be done.

"That's good. I like straightforward people like you when doing business." The panda man patted his thigh with his paw and said, "In fact, we have received instructions from the country. They believe that the current situation is only a temporary measure in an emergency. We can give 28.1% of the shares to the British Ministry of Magic to help the British Ministry of Magic make up the shares to an absolute majority of 50.1%."

At this point, Xiong Duosu reached out and took a piece of golden honey dessert from the plate on Dumbledore's table and ate it, then continued, "Because we have made preparations before, we have also helped you British people train a group of personnel. Now as long as the personnel in those important positions are withdrawn, your people will be able to get started quickly."

"Thank you so much," Ms. Bones said excitedly. Given the greed of the goblins, she thought it would be very difficult to take back the bank. But she didn't expect the pandas to be so easy to talk to. They even helped them train a group of technicians who could take over the bank directly.

"By the way, what price do we have to pay to get these things back?" After a while of excitement, Ms. Bones finally realized a very important question, because such a large business obviously could not be given away for free. "It's very simple, you just need to increase the current market price of the shares we will give you by 15% within two months. This includes all the personnel training costs and technology transfer costs." Xiong Duosu said.

This requirement is not high, and can even be said to be very conscientious. Of course, Xiong Duosu did not lose money. After all, the bank's investment was very small at the beginning, and the profit from the sale of the shares is more than 20 times the cost at that time. Moreover, they can retain the remaining 21.9% of the shares to bring long-term benefits to themselves.

Not to mention that as the vanguard of the Chinese magic world going overseas, they successfully gained the favor of the British magic world and truly established a firm foothold here. So this investment was a great success for the Panda people.

"Of course, of course, the price you offer is very, very reasonable." Ms. Bones said embarrassedly, "But we may not be able to come up with that much money within the time you set."

Ms. Bones was telling the truth. The war over the past six months had indeed placed a huge financial burden on the Ministry of Magic. Bonds alone had been issued several times. Given that most of those on this side had little money, Ryan bought more than 90% of these bonds at a 10% or 95% discount on the face value using various materials and hard currency needed by the Ministry of Magic.

Therefore, Ms. Bones said awkwardly that she had no money and turned to look at Ryan: "Mr. Liang, that--"

"You want to borrow money again, right?" Ryan seemed generous. "How long do you plan to borrow it for this time?"

"I think it might be twenty years." At this point, Ms. Burns became even more embarrassed. "Because you borrowed too much money before, the Ministry of Magic may not be able to pay you back in a short period of time. So rather than being embarrassed by not being able to pay the money when the time comes, I might as well choose a longer term."

"The interest rate for three years is 4%, the interest rate for five years is 5%, and the interest rate for ten years is 8%." Ryan said the interest rate the Ministry of Magic had offered him before when he asked to borrow money. "If it's 20 years, what interest rate will you give?"

"13.5%," Ms. Bones blurted out. It seemed that she had discussed it with other people in the Ministry of Magic before she came. This interest rate was not low, but compared with the interest rate that the greedy goblins asked when they borrowed from Gringotts before, Ryan was definitely a conscientious creditor.

"Of course," Ryan nodded, and then said to Xiong Duosu next to him, "Look, Uncle Duosu. I'll go to the bank with you and give you the money. Ms. Bones will also go with us to sign the loan documents."

"Very good." "No problem." The bear and the man nodded at the same time. After finally confirming that the deal was done, Professor Dumbledore clapped his hands and summoned a house elf. Then he gave a few instructions, and the house elf nodded and disappeared.

Soon the house-elf appeared in the office with a wine bottle and several cups on a silver tray. Dumbledore opened the corks with his wand and directed the bottle to pour the mead in all the cups, then asked the house-elf to pass the cups to everyone in the office.

"Cheers to our successful cooperation!" After seeing that everyone had received their glasses, Dumbledore raised the glass in his hand with a smile.

"cheers!"

(End of this chapter)