Flowers, Swords and France

It's already mid-March. .

In the streets of Paris, where fierce battles had taken place before, green moss covered all traces of the past. After a turbulent and unforgettable winter, the clear skies of early spring gave the city a new lease of life.

The excitement and excitement that the new French Republic brought to the country when it was first established has quickly disappeared from the hearts of the people, leaving only the calmness of habit, and life has dulled the outpouring of passion.

However, beneath this apparent calm, a torrent was already brewing, no less ferocious and tragic than the revolution that created this republic.

At this time, in the residence of the Marquis of Treville, Fran stayed in her bedroom, looking through her previous picture albums out of boredom. Due to the sudden turmoil, they were supposed to restart the painting class, but they have not yet been summoned by Teacher Durenberg to restart the class. In addition, the public security outside is still a bit chaotic, so now Fran has no choice but to stay at home. Home.

Therefore, it is easy to understand how happy she felt when the servant whispered to her the news of the visit of her classmate, the Marquis Marie de Léoland. She dropped the album and ran out of the room quickly.

Since Fran had already ordered the servant not to wait in front of the door when her friend came to visit, when she walked down the stairs in the center of the living room from the second floor, her friend was already waiting there.

"Mary, you're fine! That's great!" She rushed forward, tightly protected the Marquis, and then happily shook her shoulder. "I've been worried about you all this time!"

Mary, who was equally happy as she was, smiled and hugged her back gently.

"Fran, me too, I was also worried about you during that time..."

The two hugged each other for a while before separating again, and then looked at each other again, with indescribable feelings in their eyes. These two girls seemed to have grown a lot in less than a month.

"Why did you just think of running over to see me today?" Fran scolded her friend with a hint of anger, "I'm still worried that something will happen to you?"

"Forgive me, Miss Treville, I am still busy moving during this period..." Miss Marquis suddenly smiled bitterly.

"move place?"

"To be precise, I moved back." Mary nodded, and then continued to explain, "When the revolution just started, there was a lot of noise in my neighborhood... so I hid with my uncle for refuge. It wasn't until a few days ago that I saw that the situation had become more stable, so I moved back. Later, it took me a few days to settle back in, and now I come here as soon as I have time..."

Because she wanted to save money, the small apartment that the Marquis bought was not in a very good location, and it naturally became the hardest hit area when the epidemic broke out. Coupled with the proliferation of weapons and the breakdown of public security during the Revolution, some people would naturally think of taking advantage of the situation, so it was normal for her to suffer some impact.

"Of course you don't know how chaotic my place was at that time! People were shooting everywhere, and people were setting fires and looting! If I hadn't run so fast, I'm afraid..." It seemed like he was thinking about what happened at that time again. , Miss Marquis still seems to be a little frightened when she talks about it now, "However, although I ran away in time, there are many I didn't have time to bring anything with me, so I left it there, and now... it's all gone. If it were an ordinary family, the owner of the house could still protect his home with a gun, but how could anyone help me with the maids rented from the company? No matter what happened, he ran away and took away a lot of my things...even my painting tools were taken away..."

"Poor Mary..." Fran couldn't help but sigh.

She lamented not only for the property that her friend had lost in the rape, but also for her other misfortunes. She did not go to her parents to take refuge. Fran understood why. When she thought of this, she suddenly felt sour in her heart.

"It's nothing, Fran, I can still bear it." Mary smiled reluctantly, and then gently squeezed her friend's hand, "Although life has given me all kinds of misfortunes, I still have you, right?"

Fran couldn't help but hug Mary again.

"Then what are you going to do now?"

"What should I do?" Mary smiled bitterly again, "I can only move back again, and just live like this..."

"It's such a mess there now, why do you want to move back? Let's find another place to live, even if it's renting..." Fran was a little confused.

Who knew that her words triggered a period of silence.

"What's wrong?" Fran was a little strange and asked quickly.

"Flan, you don't know... You are so happy that you don't need to know anything." Mary smiled bitterly again.

"What happened?" Fran frowned slightly.

"It's nothing..." Mary sighed slightly, "To put it simply, now I no longer have the capital to squander it and bear the expenses of moving again..."

"How could it be? You're not..." Fran exclaimed.

She still remembered Mary's previous inheritance of a large fortune.

"Yes, I inherited a large amount of money, and I still have a large amount of money, but I can't spend anything. I have become a poor man holding gold nuggets waiting to starve to death..." Mary continued with a wry smile. . "So, Fran, I envy you very much... With grandpa and brother watching over you, you don't have to worry about anything... But I'm not as lucky."

"How could it be? What's going on! Where is your money? Where has it gone?" Fran was not in the mood to pay attention to Mary's sarcasm, and asked with concern.

"Yeah, I can't figure it out...where did my money go." Mary shook her head gently, her eyes full of helplessness, "Ever since the temporary government was established in the **, it is said that In response to the run, the government has restricted the withdrawal of all bank deposits, so the deposits I put in the bank are just numbers now..."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

When Mary said this, Fran finally had some impression. She seemed to have heard about it from others.

Because of the sudden political changes, people naturally want to turn all the assets on hand into cash, and this mentality naturally puts heavy pressure on France's financial system, which has been deeply mired in the economic downturn. The liquidation of bank deposits quickly depleted banks' cash flow and made them increasingly unable to repay people's deposits.

Therefore, under the pressure of various facts and rumors, this panic was finally detonated into a run on banks all over France. Under this nationwide run frenzy, there will naturally be a large number of banks due to their inability to to pay the debt and had to declare bankruptcy.

In order to avoid a total collapse of the national financial system, the interim government "had to" announce restrictions on depositor withdrawals throughout France. No account was allowed to withdraw more than 100 francs, and deposits exceeding this part were converted into government bonds. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mademoiselle Léoland lamented that she had no money in the bank but could not use it.

"Then these bonds are still worth something, right?" Fran asked in a low voice.

"You're right! It's still worth some money! That's right! It can still be exchanged for some money... But these were originally my deposits! But I have to take them to the exchange and watch helplessly Watching it shrink?" Mary replied angrily to Fran, "Don't you know that this kind of bond is no longer available? I know why, the price is falling every day on the exchange, and a ticket with 100 francs on the face can now be exchanged for 80 francs at most. I see that if I keep waiting like this, I may only be left with half... If I exchange it now, Wouldn’t that be too much of a disadvantage? I’d rather keep it at home.”

What she, or other depositors in France at this time, never imagined was that it would not be until 1850—nearly two years later—that the government would reopen the banking system to deposits and re-admit these bonds to their original rights. Only then will people regain the opportunity to legally use their deposits. As for how many people had to sell their bonds (deposits) at low prices during the financial panic in the past two years and went bankrupt because they could not withstand the economic pressure. As for where their deposits went, who cares...

"The government debt has stopped paying off now. God knows how far they can fall. Now people everywhere are selling desperately as if tomorrow is the end of the world... It's crazy, everyone is crazy, and this country is crazy too." " Mary sighed again, and then continued, "I should really follow your brother's suggestion and buy more from the farm. Then at least I can eat what I grow in my own fields... However, It’s still March and I can’t even eat it if I want to!”

"I'm sorry, Mary." Fran finally understood the difficult situation that her friend who once made a fortune from inheriting the inheritance was in now. It is no longer easy for her to force herself to make a joke now. Since Mary was originally dressed very plainly, Fran didn't immediately notice her friend's current embarrassing situation, so she couldn't help but feel guilty for her ignorance.

"I don't understand what they mean by revolution or not, but they brought us all these gadgets! They are just waiting to bankrupt us..." After a while, Miss Marquis whispered to Fran angrily. Said, "My uncle is also very angry now, and their family seems to be in trouble... Now everyone is full of resentment, and everyone says this cannot continue. Fran, I'm afraid there will be even more chaos in the future!"

The establishment of the Republic not only did not eliminate the problems faced by any country before, but under its governance, the citizens' uneasiness gradually grew. Of course, property owners do not care whether their country has a monarch or not as long as their property is not damaged. But when their property is in danger of being damaged, Miss Lien de Léoland looks delicate and frail. The aristocratic girl who almost never cared about national political affairs could not help but feel a little disgusted when she talked about those mobs.

They did not really understand what was causing the crisis sweeping the country, but cursed the revolution and the new republic that had brought countless troubles.

"My uncle said that sooner or later we will make those people look good." (To be continued.)