London Trip

The financial crisis in the Austro-Hungarian Empire came and went quickly; once the government injected sufficient funds into the market, it soon returned to normal.

In this feast of capital, Ferdinand, having had his fill, began his journey to London.

It was time to go out and avoid the limelight. Over the past two years, Ferdinand had risen to prominence in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and he had made a killing in the recent capital feast.

Being too conspicuous was not Ferdinand's style. He decided to take this opportunity to travel and, incidentally, resolve the matter of the gold mines.

After his rebirth, Ferdinand had immediately sent people out to purchase land, and many famous mineral deposits discovered in later generations had been secured by him.

Many of these places had harsh conditions and were not yet worth mining, so he left them be for now. However, he could not simply let those open-pit gold mines sit idle!

Who knew if someone else might discover them first and snatch them away? An income of tens of millions of pounds was enough to drive anyone mad.

Lacking sufficient strength, Ferdinand prepared to find a powerful partner while ensuring his own interests were protected, which led to this trip to London.

Queen Victoria, full name Alexandrina Victoria (May 24, 1819 – January 22, 1901), was the daughter of Prince Edward (Duke of Kent and Strathearn). She ascended the throne at the age of 18 and was revered as a symbol of the nation.

Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years and 7 months, longer than any other British monarch and longer than any female monarch in history, a period known as the Victorian Era.

This was a time when Britain experienced significant development in industry, culture, politics, science, and the military.

Queen Victoria was the last monarch of the House of Hanover; her son and heir to the throne, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

The Victorian Era was the most glorious period for Britain, which was then the center of world trade. The British proudly declared:

The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields; Chicago and Odessa are our granaries; Canada and the Baltic are our timberlands; Australia and Western Asia have our sheep pastures; Argentina and the western prairies of North America have our herds of cattle.

Peru sends its silver; gold from South Africa and Australia flows to London; Indians and Chinese grow tea for us; and our coffee, sugarcane, and spice plantations are spread across the Indian archipelago.

Spain and France are our vineyards; the Mediterranean is our orchard; the United States is our cotton field.

Ferdinand departed from Vienna in early December and arrived in London just before Christmas. No sooner had he stepped off the ship than he met his good friend and cousin, Albert Edward of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—Edward VII—who had come to greet him.

The two were friends primarily because they shared common interests; both lived dissolute lives and were considered outliers among the nobility.

Edward was very welcoming of Ferdinand's arrival, not least because he hoped Ferdinand could help share some of the heat. After all, being scolded together was a different experience than being scolded alone. Otherwise, a crown prince would hardly have come out in person just to welcome Ferdinand.

"Ferdinand, my brother, why have you only just arrived?" Edward shouted at Ferdinand.

"Damn it, it's not as if you don't know how long this journey is! The winds and waves at sea were truly abominable!" Ferdinand complained.

Chatting about everything under the sun was Ferdinand's forte. The two naturally hit it off, though according to etiquette, he first had to pay a visit to Queen Victoria.

Buckingham Palace—well, despite its great fame in later generations, Ferdinand did not find it particularly impressive. Perhaps having integrated into this world, it seemed no different to him than any other ordinary palace.

However, the paintings and calligraphy along the way caught his eye. The place gathered antiques and artifacts from all over the world, and the furniture, which looked like works of art, opened Ferdinand's eyes.

Edward seemed satisfied with Ferdinand's reaction and said, "If you like them, I can consider gifting you a few, but we must go see my mother now."

This pulled Ferdinand back to reality, and he smiled awkwardly; his behavior just now had been truly embarrassing.

"Ferdinand, welcome to visit!" Victoria said kindly.

But for Ferdinand, it was no less than a day feeling like a year. Victoria's aura was too powerful. He now felt some sympathy for Edward; with such a strong-willed mother, life must not have been easy for him!

Victoria was already quite old and had limited energy, so she soon let Ferdinand go. He attended the welcome banquet that evening as a matter of routine before she hurried away.

The next day, Ferdinand and Edward let themselves loose and began touring London.

"Ferdinand, I heard you've made a lot of money these past two years?" Edward said with envy.

"It's not that much, just a few million pounds. For the royal family, that's a small figure!" Ferdinand said nonchalantly.

He was a bit puzzled by Edward's envy. As the heir to the world's hegemon, wasn't it easy for him to make money? Wouldn't anything he dabbled in bring in a fortune?

"Of course, a few million pounds is nothing to the royal family! But for me, it's an astronomical figure!" Edward complained.

Reflecting on this, it seemed that the man before him was not having an easy time. His relationship with Victoria was very strained; although he was the crown prince, he was forbidden from participating in government affairs, and his expenses were strictly limited. Given his love for cruise ships and horse racing, where he often spent money like water, financial difficulties were only natural.

"God, are you kidding me? As the Crown Prince of the British Empire, you have no money? Don't tell me you don't have access to the royal family's hundreds of millions of pounds in assets?" Ferdinand said with exaggerated shock.

In truth, he was overjoyed. Since you are short on money, things are easy to handle. He immediately changed his plans; cooperating with Edward seemed like a good idea. As long as those colonial officials weren't out of their minds, no one would dare make things difficult for the Crown Prince's business!

No matter how he looked at it, Edward was easier to fool than Victoria, and the cost would be much lower. How could he give up on a gold mine that had been delivered to his doorstep?

"Economic control—I can't exceed ten thousand pounds a month! You know my expenses are high; how is this little bit of money supposed to be enough?" Edward complained.

"Haven't you tried investing?" Ferdinand asked, playing along.

"How could I not? But with the little capital I have, I don't get much of a share after buying in!" Edward roared.

"Is that so? I happen to have discovered a gold mine. Are you interested?" Ferdinand said with a smile.

"A supermarket? I've opened a few, but the profits aren't very good," Edward said bluntly.

Ferdinand cursed inwardly. So you pirated my idea, and now you're complaining about low profits to the owner himself.

"Of course not! I'm talking about a gold mine, and an open-pit one at that! Do you understand, Edward?" Ferdinand roared.

"Good heavens, God, am I dreaming? If you have a gold mine, why don't you dig it yourself? Why come to me?" Edward asked in surprise.

"Damn it, don't you know that mining requires a massive amount of labor? Do you know how high the wages are for European workers these days? I'm coming to you for a partnership precisely because I don't want to pay wages!" Ferdinand said righteously.

"What! You actually don't intend to pay wages! You black-hearted capitalist! I won't let you get away with this; I'm breaking off our friendship!" Edward said angrily.

Ferdinand remained unmoved and sneered, "Enough, don't put on a show for me. There are no outsiders here, so there's no need to act! It's the first time I've ever heard of a British Crown Prince actually caring about the lives of the natives! So then..."

"Wait, you should have said so earlier, my brother. If it's slaves you want, just leave it to me—how many do you need? But how shall we split the money?" Edward seemed to have transformed into a completely different person.

Then, the two began to bicker, haggling over every single penny until they finally reached an agreement to jointly establish the United Mining Co., Ltd.

As the owner of the gold mine, Ferdinand invested 300,000 pounds for a sixty percent stake; Edward, without contributing a single penny, was responsible for resolving labor issues and providing protection for the company, handling all external troubles in exchange for a forty percent stake.

The first target provided by Ferdinand was the Coolgardie mining district.

Coolgardie: The Coolgardie gold metallogenic belt is one of the two largest gold-producing regions spanning Australia. The Coolgardie gold mine project is located approximately 40 kilometers west of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

In 1892, 554 ounces of gold were discovered here, triggering the world's last gold rush. At that time, nearly 16,000 people flooded into Coolgardie, making it almost the third-largest city in Australia.

The project's resource volume is approximately 1.2 million tons with a grade of 1.7 grams per ton, containing 69,000 ounces of gold. During the first 28 months of the mine's life, 65,000 ounces of gold can be recovered from three shallow ore bodies.