Chapter 455: Impulse Mode
No matter how crude the methods, anyone without sufficient strength could not play this game. Leaving aside the initial capital investment, merely finding a way to ingratiate oneself with Russian nobles was already a difficult problem.
One had to know that Russian nobles were among the most conservative people in Europe. If a capitalist came to their door to sell something, he would probably be thrown out before he even got to see them.
Even if the sales pitch succeeded, if one encountered a greedy noble, they might simply swallow the bonds outright, leaving him without even a shilling in the end.
Though there was no need to worry about competitors, secrecy was still maintained. Otherwise, if the Tsarist Government patched the loophole in advance, they would have no choice but to wait for Alexander III to repay the money.
On the surface, this was an age of gold and silver standards, and currency did not seem to be depreciating.
In reality, although social wealth was increasing, its growth rate found it difficult to keep pace with the rate at which money was printed. Inflation was simply unavoidable.
Price stability was only relative. More than a decade was enough to change many things. Riding the wave of the Second Industrial Revolution, as long as one invested in the right ventures, earning several times the profit was hardly difficult.
The Industrial Revolution involved far too many fields for Franz to take them all under his wing. This was precisely when venture capital companies could emerge.
Though the concept of "venture capital" had yet to be proposed, it had in fact always existed. The best-known example was Lü Buwei—his "a rare commodity to be hoarded" was a successful venture investment.
Europe had its own example as well: Spain