As Georgiana brewed tea, she worked out the timeline. Bonaparte had treated her to Austrian chocolate after Britain bombarded Copenhagen but before the Treaty of Amiens was signed. In other words, once the Anti-French Coalition disbanded, an Anti-British Coalition could still be formed—though Austria did not seem to have joined it.
If you did not make your position clear, you would always become the victor's spoils, because no matter who won, they had no need for a dubious ally who had offered them no aid in adversity.
Georgiana had never imagined that a branch of Peruzzi Bank had survived in Amsterdam, and that it had survived through exchange business with the Hanseatic League. After all, the Baltic Sea was the Hanseatic League's "closed hunting ground." No one but League members was permitted to trade there, and there would not be a single Italian merchant east of the Rhine River.
Yet Amsterdam happened to lie along the Rhine River. Though the Hanseatic League could bring in fruit, olive oil, and all kinds of wine from Southern Europe, there were still things they could not obtain, such as Venetian mirrors.
Northern Europe had yet to produce any renowned luxuries. Most luxury goods still came from Italy and France. At that moment, she suddenly remembered to look in a mirror. How could she receive guests if she looked so disheveled?
People always unwittingly became what they had once despised most. In truth, she would not have minded living in The Burrow like Molly.
Archimedes had said, "Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the Earth." That was also why the Belgian Railway's issuance of securities had driven those people mad. For example, someone might buy 1,000 pounds sterling in securities, mortgage them to a bank, receive loans equal to 80 or 90