What would you do if you controlled the central bank of a great power?
As Georgiana practiced dancing with Saint-Merry, she innocently imagined it. Even as a dream, it was far too crazy.
Leaving aside matters of macroeconomic regulation, Nathan Rothschild had said that controlling a nation's right to issue currency was equivalent to controlling that nation itself.
Britain had also spent all its precious metals paying for the war, which was why it had agreed to transport Mexico's silver coins for Spain. Since its founding, the Bank of England had sold banknotes. These notes could be exchanged for gold at any time and were more convenient than bills of exchange. Private banks had pioneered this practice.
Yet issuing banknotes also required corresponding gold reserves. As long as notes could be redeemed at any time, there would be no bank run.
What banks feared most were bank runs. Private banks issued notes without restraint, and it often ended with bankruptcy when depositors rushed to withdraw their money.
Excessive paper currency issuance had turned France upside down, whether it was Assignats or the paper money issued by the Directory.
The greatest difference between central banks and commercial banks was that central banks maintained financial stability, while commercial banks took public deposits, issued loans, and discounted bills.
Just as she was happily thinking and dancing, hurried footsteps sounded outside the suite. Not long afterward, Bonaparte appeared with an ugly expression. He wore an olive-green marshal's uniform, with a sword set with the Regent Diamond at his waist.
Saint-Merry immediately removed the hand he had placed on Georgiana's waist, as though he had done something shameful.
Georgiana looked speechlessly at the tall man, then at the short Corsican glaring wide-eyed as if he wanted to bite her to death. For a moment, she