Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 459 British Minister

"Your Excellency, Sir Davis, Mr. Johnson, and Baron Anderson request to see you."

The embassy assistant walked into the backyard of the embassy and reported to Williams.

"How long have they been here?"

"About ten minutes."

The assistant replied: "According to your instructions, if we receive meeting requests from the three consortiums of Lloyds Bank, Compass Group, and Barclays Bank, we should find reasons to get rid of them.

But this time they seemed to have something urgent to discuss with you, and they stayed in front of the embassy and were unwilling to leave."

"What a bunch of annoying guys, they are like flies, annoying!"

Williams was clearly tired of dealing with these financial jackals, and his words were filled with deep disgust.

"Tell them that I am not feeling well today. If there is anything important, ask them to discuss it with Mr. Torres, the counselor of the embassy."

"The three gentlemen asked me to tell you that they are here to discuss with you how to deal with the Empire's industrial investment in the Republic of Brazil. If you can help them solve the problem, the three consortiums are willing to jointly invest and buy a villa in the center of Oxford Street in London and transfer it to you."

"Every time these bastards come to the legation, nothing good happens."

After listening to the assistant's explanation, Williams' tone changed slightly, and the expression on his face was no longer as excited and annoyed as before.

"Tell them to rest in the reception room first. I will go to see them as soon as I change into a formal dress."

"Yes, sir."…………

Lloyds Bank, Compass Group and Barclays Bank are three newly emerged capital consortiums. Around the 1850s, the founders of the three consortiums took advantage of the opportunity of the British government to sign a trade agreement with the Brazilian Empire, and entered the commodity market of the Brazilian Empire with tens of thousands of pounds of funds raised in the London stock market. Then, relying on the extraterritorial jurisdiction and commercial privileges possessed by British businessmen, the founders of the three consortiums opened up the situation in the fields of mining, finance, etc., and gradually expanded the scope of their operations from Rio de Janeiro to other parts of the Brazilian Empire.

Although the divided and turbulent international environment in South America has caused serious damage to the economic development of South American countries, British businessmen like Lloyds Bank, Compass Group and Barclays Bank have thrived in Latin American countries dominated by white descendants, relying on the support of the British Empire's global maritime military power and political hegemony. They have exploited the privileges in their hands to seek attractive economic benefits for themselves.

Because of the intervention of the British, since Latin America broke away from Spanish colonial rule in the 1810s, almost every war conflict has had the shadow of Britain.

In these conflicts, British merchants and capital groups were not interested in land itself.
Rather, it is the natural resources and industrial markets that contain huge economic benefits.

After 1850, with the expansion of American capital, British capital investment in South America increased significantly.

Prior to this, Britain's positioning of Latin America was purely as a commodity exporter rather than a capital exporter.

Britain's great interest in Latin America, as in Asia and Africa, was to find markets for the products of its own industrial enterprises.

However, by the mid-nineteenth century, the Second Industrial Revolution entered its explosive period, capital in Britain increased several times within a few decades, and the discovery of gold in California and South Africa saturated traditional financial markets.

In order to obtain higher profits, Britain had to invest increased capital in the mining and export of Latin American mineral raw materials and basic products in order to ensure the transportation and distribution of the products.

British capital began to develop the necessary transportation routes (railways, roads and ports), as well as various service facilities.

At the same time, British financial consortiums doubled their loans to Latin American governments.
After receiving the loans, Latin American governments used them to pay for a variety of expenses, both military and non-military.

Due to Britain's financial and economic penetration into Latin America, especially Brazil,
This greatly increased the dependence of Brazil and other Latin American countries on British capital.

However, the indigenous countries of Latin America are different from the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, the Han government was able to develop a self-reliant industrial economy through overall regulation and borrowing imported foreign capital, while other indigenous countries in Latin America could only be bound by debt.

This situation continued to deteriorate, and the serious consequence was that neither the government nor individuals were able to repay foreign debts. In order to ensure the safety of early loan investments, British capital had to take the risk of intervening in the internal affairs of other countries and directly participate in the political and economic operations of indigenous Latin American countries. Then, in order to maximize their capital interests and make the economies of countries accepting foreign debts develop in their interests, they would always use all influences to adjust the country's policies according to the interests of powerful individuals through pressure and bribery.

Both British capitalists and local comprador oligarchs wanted to implement conservative national policies and thus maintain the privileges of financiers and comprador merchants.

In this way, they will mobilize their political and military pawns to overthrow nationalist governments or governments that want to oppose oligarchic social transformation.

Sometimes they also push countries that depend on them into international conflicts that are in their favor.

Whenever a country rises up against their control, they will invite the hegemonic British government to send an expeditionary force to intervene in this disobedient country. All this is done in the name of defending "civilization" (the civilization of monopoly imperialism) and opposing "barbarism" (any words and deeds that doubt the leadership of British capital consortium, financiers and business oligarchs).

In 1865, Britain stepped in to mediate the conflict between Brazil and Argentina and instigated the two countries to form an alliance to suppress the Paraguayan government.

In 1879, the British expeditionary fleet directly intervened in the Argentine War for the same purpose.

However, the British's overly brutal and greedy economic colonial methods could not last long.

While Britain's capital plundering investment aggravated the semi-colonial status of Latin America,

It also made the conflicts between the indigenous countries of Latin America and Britain increasingly acute.

The collusion between Britain and the Chilean comprador class aroused serious dissatisfaction among the middle and lower classes in Chile. In 1886, Balmaceda, who took the political will of the middle and lower classes as the dominant factor and advocated the expulsion of British capital and the nationalization of saltpeter and mineral resources, was elected as the new president. One year after taking office as president, he won the loyalty of Chilean army officers.

Balmaceda's election as President of Chile was a heavy blow to the power of the British capital consortium. Many Chilean comprador businessmen who were dependent on British capital were suppressed by the presidential and army factions. The situation of British capital in Chile became increasingly difficult.

Similar to Chile, the British capital consortium is not in a good situation in the Republic of Brazil. The Brazilian government has invested most of the capital obtained through loans in military expansion operations. The basic transportation construction projects that should have been led by the Brazilian government have been assigned to businessmen from the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.

Military spending surged, local forces rose, and local public security deteriorated. Although the Republic of Brazil imitated the Han Dynasty's policy of attracting foreign capital to develop its economy, the Republic of Brazil, with its unstable domestic and foreign situations, did not have the same strict public security situation as the Han Dynasty.

Due to poor basic transportation and deteriorating public security, the physical industries invested by British consortiums are not only unable to use road transportation to transport raw materials to other regions, but also face the risk of raw materials being looted.

It was under this severe test that the three capital consortiums, Lloyds Bank, Compass Group and Barclays Bank, which had suffered economic losses for several years, could not wait to request a meeting with the British Minister to the Republic of Brazil, Williams.

“What? You want to suspend economic support for the Republic of Brazil and withdraw the financial loans promised to the government of the Republic of Brazil?”

Williams walked into the reception room and was in disbelief when he heard the demands of the three consortiums.

"Yes, sir, you heard it right. Lloyds Bank, Compass Group, and Barclays Bank are preparing to suspend their loan program and will no longer provide financial support to the Brazilian government."

Davis, the manager of Old Ed Bank, confirmed.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Providing loans to the Brazilian government can no longer bring the consortium the economic benefits it deserves. As a businessman, when a business project shows signs of loss, it is the most sensible choice to terminate the cooperation plan and stop the loss in time."

"Well, this is your freedom. I have no right to interfere."

Williams had received the benefits promised by the three consortiums and had no intention of seeking benefits for the Brazilian Republican government. However, out of professional habit as a diplomat, he was still curious and asked, "The mines in the central and southern regions of Minas Gerais and the several railways passing through the Belo Horizonte transit station are all very high-quality economic industries. Why did you suddenly change your mind and would rather give up these high-quality industries and terminate the loan agreement?"

“Railways and mining areas are indeed very high-quality economic industries, but now these industries cannot bring the expected economic benefits to the consortium.”

A middle-aged white man who was well-dressed and had a gentlemanly demeanor on his face replied, "Your Excellency should be aware of the current predicament of the Republic of Brazil. More than 100,000 Brazilian troops have entered Paraguay for three months, but have yet to achieve a decisive victory. Asuncion is still in the hands of the Paraguayans. As the Han army enters Paraguay to fight, the situation of the Paraguayan War will also change dramatically. Based on the analysis of the combat experience of the Han country and other South American countries, more than 30 shareholders of the Jinbasi Consortium do not believe that the Republic of Brazil can defeat the Han army and win the Paraguayan War.

Therefore, in order to prevent the terrible consequences of the defeat of the Republic of Brazil, the Compass Group decided to terminate the loan transaction plan and abandon the plan of commercial expansion in the Republic of Brazil in the next few years. "

"Barclays Bank also intends to reduce its business presence in Brazil and cease loan transactions with the Brazilian government."

“The security of the Republic of Brazil is protected by the Imperial Government. Even if the Republic of Brazil loses the war, the Imperial Government has the ability to stop the Han Kingdom’s invasion of the Republic of Brazil.

Your worries are unnecessary."

Williams explained, his brow furrowed.

"Any unexpected situation may happen in a war, and no one can predict what the worst outcome will be after the war. For the safety of investment funds, suspending the loan plan and shrinking the business layout in the Republic of Brazil are the most prudent response measures."

"I hope your worries are unnecessary, otherwise the situation in South America may change dramatically again."

"We also hope that the worst outcome will not happen."…………

(End of this chapter)