Leon Bosman, president of Peruzzi Bank, was a fat middle-aged man who looked almost exactly like the rich men in satirical cartoons.
He had not come alone. There was also Minister of the Interior Chaptal, who had come in his capacity as chairman of the French Industrial Promotion Committee, as well as Ms. Brown. They had brought Georgiana gifts: a cake covered in chocolate and nuts, along with a large bouquet of Dutch tulips, as if they were visiting a friend.
This sort of cake went perfectly with black tea. Georgiana had Feilier cut it and bring it out, then went into the sitting room. Everything had already been prepared. The fire in the hearth was blazing so fiercely that they had to take off their coats.
Like the banks run by the Medici family, Peruzzi Bank was a "family" bank. Yet Bosman was Dutch.
Not every banker's child grew up to become a banker, and after so many years, even if the bank still bore the Peruzzi Bank name, the people inside would no longer be the original ones.
Georgiana glanced back toward the doorway. The American mercenary was still standing there, and she even smiled at Georgiana.
Georgiana very much wanted to shut the door, but she still acted as if nothing was wrong and received the guests.
Napoleon would never tolerate the establishment of a foreign national bank. Leon Bosman had not come to establish one, either. He represented the Netherlands in creating an industrial credit institution, which would also be granted the authority to establish a bank of issue within Belgium. In other words, it would open sixty new branches across Belgium, take in the savings of Belgian residents, and provide loans for industrial activity.
The bank's initial capital was thirty million Dutch guilders, equivalent to