After deciding to cut their losses, the French Government immediately compiled a list of assets and sent it to the countries of Europe in search of interested buyers.
Naturally, the United Kingdom and Austria were the main targets. Other countries simply lacked the strength to swallow the Mexican Empire whole. The military strength of Prussia and Russia might have been sufficient, but they had no money in their pockets, making them poor buyers.
Vienna. Ever since news spread that France was preparing to sell its Mexican assets, the Austrian Government had conducted an in-depth analysis as well.
The result was self-evident: they were unquestionably poor-quality assets. The French might have obtained a series of privileges and nearly monopolized Mexico's mineral resources, but the problem was that these assets were difficult to liquidate.
To turn those fixed assets into real assets, they first had to help the Mexican Government stabilize the situation. So long as the civil war continued, those mineral resources would be worthless.
The local population had no purchasing power, making commercial privileges little more than chicken ribs—tasteless to eat, a pity to throw away. They could hardly spend money and effort helping the Mexican people get rich and live comfortably, could they?
This was not the twenty-first century. Resources simply were not valuable in this era. At present, the Mexican Empire's most valuable assets were its silver mines, yet the silver extracted from them had to first be used to repay the French debts.
That was right. The French were now holding a tearful fire sale, but the investment required was simply too great, while the returns remained unclear.
To put it bluntly, only money in hand was truly one's own. No matter how beautifully one painted those hazy future profits, if they could not be grasped, it