Franz still gave Fanny von Arnstein a tip. He thought she could short French stocks; after all, those bubbles could not last much longer.
Though the Dutch had already engaged in short selling in the seventeenth century, it remained a highly specialized and rare academic term even in the nineteenth.
Fanny von Arnstein placed even greater faith in the rumors surrounding Franz, and so she boldly drew closer to him.
"What about the Empire?"
"Do you think I can't handle it?"
Vienna, Hofburg Palace.
Franz had barely stepped down from his carriage, without even a chance to rest, when an official excitedly came to report to him.
"Cholera has returned! In one district of London, 127 people died in three days. Even more interestingly, the local officials tried to conceal the truth by having the bodies transported beyond the city for burial, but the workers found it too troublesome and simply threw the corpses into puddles by the roadside.
"And those puddles turned out to be reservoirs for the London water company! The epidemic has now spread throughout London!"
Franz's face darkened with black lines. Why did this plot feel so familiar? Were the British trying to kick off a biohazard crisis?!
Franz nodded. This truly was good news. An outbreak of Cholera would affect every facet of society, especially places where people gathered in large numbers, such as the military.
What Franz did not know was that this Cholera outbreak would have a far greater impact than he imagined. Not only Britain, but France, Portugal, Berlin, and even the United States failed to escape it.
In New Orleans alone, nearly one-tenth of the population died from Cholera, Yellow Fever, and other diseases triggered by the accumulation of vast numbers of corpses.
The New Orleans local government collapsed outright. The