Bonds
Finance Minister Karl said delightedly, "Your Majesty, the 50 million pounds' worth of bonds we issued in London have already sold out."
It had gone far too smoothly—or rather, the British had too much surplus capital. Dominating more than half of the international trade market, the British had accumulated an enormous amount of capital.
The domestic market could not absorb it, so naturally it could only flow overseas. Yet overseas markets also had thresholds; not everyone was qualified to play there. Those without sufficient strength could only invest in stocks and bonds.
The infrastructure bonds issued by the Vienna Government looked like premium assets from every angle, and naturally drew fervent demand from small capitalists and the middle class.
Fifty million pounds had sold out in less than a week. The pace was practically a buying frenzy. One had to know that these bonds only carried an annual interest rate of 6.5%, which was not particularly high.
Of course, that was not the final cost of issuing the bonds. There were also bond handling fees, promotional expenses, printing costs, and exchange fees to pay after the money came in.
Franz asked with concern, "What about Paris and the domestic market?"
Since they were issuing bonds, they naturally could not target only London's financial market. Paris, Vienna, and Frankfurt were likewise Europe's financial centers. How could Franz possibly overlook them?
Finance Minister Karl replied, "Sales in Paris have already reached 650 million Francs. The remainder is expected to sell out within a month. Domestically, 94.8 million Divine Shields have already been sold, and the rest is expected to sell out within two months."
(1 pound ≈ 2 Divine Shields ≈ 25 Francs ≈ 7.32 grams of gold)
Franz asked in surprise, "Does Vienna's financial market really have such carrying capacity?"