SGB Chapter 330

## Chapter 330: Corruption

“Hahaha, Mr. Hastings, before meeting you, I thought you were a traditional gentleman who was difficult to get along with. But after having a real conversation with you today, I realize you are actually a humorous and witty person,” said old Gladstone, his voice booming with laughter.

“You can chat with anyone, young or old. Even an old geezer like me, who can’t keep up with the times, can find common ground with you. Anyone who says you’re difficult to get along with is simply defaming your reputation.”

In the smoking room, old Gladstone, his son William, and Arthur were engaged in a lively conversation. They discussed everything from the Far East to the Near East, and from the Near East to the Americas.

Thanks to their deep understanding of international trade, Arthur gained a lot of insight from their discussion.

“If you’re doing business in the Levant, a promise from Muhammad Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, is more valuable than one from Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire,” Gladstone asserted.

“I heard that Ali has been quarreling with the Sultan for the past two years over the rule of Crete and Syria,” Arthur replied.

“That’s right. In this matter, Mahmud II played him. He initially promised Ali that if he helped quell the Greek rebellion, he would be granted the rule of Crete, Damascus, Tripoli, and Syria. Ali was very tempted by this offer, so he took the deal. In 1825, he sent his son Ibrahim with an army of over 18,000 Egyptian soldiers to land on the Peloponnese peninsula. Although the war was difficult in the first year, they captured the Greek stronghold of Missolonghi in April of the following year. That’s where Lord Byron died, you know. By August, Athens had also fallen to the Egyptians. The Greek rebels were completely unable to resist, they were defeated one after another, and the entire Greek territory north of the Corinthian Gulf fell back into the hands of the Ottomans.”

Arthur interjected, “Wasn’t that when Britain, France, and Russia intervened in the Greek War of Independence?”

Old Gladstone chuckled, “That’s right. Negotiations began while Athens was under siege. The three countries demanded that the Ottomans immediately cease fire with Greece, and Ali immediately expressed his willingness to accept. However, Sultan Mahmud II firmly opposed signing a peace treaty. He demanded that Ali continue the war.”

Hirst, the other gentleman in the room, chimed in with a mischievous grin, “The Sultan refused to cease fire, but Britain wasn’t keen on sending troops, after all, we didn’t want to completely destroy the Ottomans. So, the Foreign Office resorted to their old tricks, proposing at the London Conference to send a joint fleet of the three countries to cut off the supply lines between the Egyptian army and the Ottoman Empire.”

Old Gladstone nodded, “Then the Ottomans, in a blunder, angered Admiral Codrington, and he, in a fit of rage, completely destroyed the Ottoman Navy in the Battle of Navarino.”

Young Gladstone, William, had a strange expression on his face. “I heard some older members of the party say that when news of Admiral Codrington’s victory over the Ottoman Navy reached London, the Foreign Office was as quiet as the Ottoman imperial court. Then they saw the Foreign Secretary, Earl Dudley, furiously slam his fist on the table and shout, ‘Codrington is a complete idiot! Who authorized him to fire on the Ottoman Navy? I swear to God! If circumstances allow, I will have him posted to Westminster to guard the royal tombs!'”

Arthur couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. He swirled his drink and said, “Oh, it seems Admiral Codrington missed a good opportunity to become a Bishop of Westminster by not studying at a theological seminary.”

Hirst laughed, “It’s not bad now. Didn’t he get the position of Commander of Portsmouth Base after stepping down as Commander of the Channel Fleet this year? From the Mediterranean Fleet to the Channel Fleet, and then from the Channel Fleet to Portsmouth Base, he’s getting closer and closer to Westminster.”

At this point, old Gladstone suddenly patted the briefcase he always carried with him.

Hirst, noticing this, quickly stood up gracefully, “Mr. Hastings, Mr. Gladstone, you two continue chatting. My dance partner is probably waiting outside, getting anxious. I can’t keep a lady waiting too long, that wouldn’t be in line with a gentleman’s basic social etiquette.”

Old Gladstone replied with a smile, “Of course, have a pleasant evening.”

Hirst pushed open the door and left. Old Gladstone turned his attention to his son, “William, you go out too.”

William hesitated for a moment, then leaned down and pleaded with his father, “Father, I think you don’t need to do this privately. Just go through the normal procedures.”

Old Gladstone only patted his son’s face indulgently, “William, that won’t do. This is the rule. If everything is done openly and honestly, it’s not called politics. Aren’t you fond of Catherine from the old watchmaker’s family? Go out and have a good dance with her, talk about your experiences at Oxford, or if you like, you can talk about the Bank of England’s interest rate hike. As long as you don’t ask her to marry you, as a father, I’m pretty open-minded about my children’s love life.”

William felt the weight of his father’s hand. He remained silent for a moment, then finally looked up at Arthur, and without saying a word, left the smoking room.

Old Gladstone watched his son’s back with a sigh, then winked at Arthur, suggesting whether he should ask Dumas and the others to leave as well.

Arthur simply waved his hand, “Mr. Gladstone, there’s no need for that. These guys are all temporary workers. They all have their own jobs, and they came to Liverpool with me just for a change of scenery and to see the world.”

Seeing that Arthur said so, Gladstone had to change the topic. He asked, “What do you think of my son, William?”

Arthur took a sip of his drink and replied, “Sir, it’s not quite appropriate for you to ask me that, because I’m not that much older than William.”

Old Gladstone asked, “What year were you born?”

“1810.”

Old Gladstone was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, “Then you’re not older than William, you’re younger. He was born in 1809. But I’ve never judged people by age. Some people have lived for thirty years, but their experience is greater than others who have lived for eighty years. Although you are younger than William, in my opinion, you are more mature than him. So, you are fully qualified to evaluate him. As a father, I would very much like to hear your opinion of my son.”

Seeing his insistence, Arthur hesitated for a moment, then replied, “In my opinion, Mr. Gladstone has a good educational background and a deep family heritage. He is knowledgeable and also has expertise in financial affairs. With time, he will definitely become a very outstanding official in the Treasury. More importantly, he is very honest.”

Old Gladstone shook his head upon hearing this, “Mr. Hastings, your last sentence is a put-down, almost completely negating the praise of the previous sentence.”

“No, that’s not a put-down.” Arthur smiled, “Honesty is not a put-down, at least not in my book. In my opinion, it’s a precious quality worth cherishing.”

Old Gladstone savored these words, then suddenly asked, “Do you possess this quality?”

Arthur just stroked his chin and replied, “Sir, you know, the things you don’t have seem precious, and only when you lose something do you learn to cherish it. I had this quality a year or two ago, but I accidentally lost it on my way up. Are your eyes sharp? If they are, please help me find where I lost it.”

Old Gladstone, with a radiant smile, placed the briefcase beside the sofa on the coffee table. “You know, I’m a businessman. As a businessman, you have to be able to anticipate your client’s needs. I’ve found your honesty, it’s locked in this box. Of course, I can’t tell which stack is your honesty and which stack is the undeclared customs duty. Maybe every stack is yours, or maybe every stack is customs duty. After all, I haven’t seen what your honesty looks like, so I’ll just leave it to you to decide.”

With that, old Gladstone also stood up, bid farewell to Arthur, and left the smoking room.

Louis followed him to the door of the smoking room, leaned against the door, took off his hat and fanned himself, “He’s gone, should we open it first?”

“Of course we should!” Dumas didn’t care about security or confidentiality. Just as Arthur had said, he came to Liverpool purely for the thrill of seeing the world, even if Arthur pointed a gun at him, he had to see what was inside.

He slowly lifted the edge of the box, and before it was fully opened, the dazzling golden light almost blinded the French fat man.

He covered his eyes and plopped onto the floor, “Gold coins! It’s all gold coins!”

“Let me have a look too.” Heine also squatted down and peeked through a crack, “One, two, three, four… My God! Ten coins per stack, a hundred stacks, there are a thousand guineas here! Wait, no, there are ten bills on top of the guineas, each one is a thousand-pound check, and they’re all anonymous! Let me calculate, one guinea is 21 shillings, which is 1 pound 1 shilling, plus these ten checks, the total is… 11,050 pounds?”

Arthur, seeing this, simply pressed his hand on the lid of the box, “What are you doing? This box contains the undeclared customs duty of Liverpool. Are you coveting the property of the British government? As the special customs inspector in Liverpool, I will not allow you to pocket these 8,000 pounds of customs duty.”

“8,000 pounds?” Heine raised an eyebrow, “Arthur, didn’t you calculate wrong? I calculated 11,050 pounds!”

Louis, leaning against the door, took a puff of his cigarette and said, “Arthur didn’t calculate wrong, and you didn’t calculate wrong either, but you’re using different algorithms. You’re using the German poet’s algorithm, Arthur is using the Scotland Yard police’s algorithm. The reason you get different results is because you didn’t multiply by the exchange rate difference between you.”

Dumas looked puzzled and asked, “Is that so? Can I ask, what is the exchange rate in France?”

Louis was silent for a moment, then said, “The exchange rate in France is complicated, even the exchange rate used between individuals is different. Do you know Talleyrand? I happen to know a little bit about his conversion method.”

“Talleyrand? Of course I know him.” Dumas said, “My warrant was lifted by him.”

“He lifted your warrant?” Louis asked, “How much did you bribe him?”

“I didn’t pay him.” Dumas put his arm around Arthur’s shoulder and replied, “But I don’t know if my friend helped me exchange rates with him.”

Arthur replied, “I didn’t either, not only that, he lost me several dozen pounds playing cards.”

Louis just sneered upon hearing this, “Heh, it’s truly Talleyrand’s style. He doesn’t care about small money, he plays big. If he were to handle Liverpool, he probably wouldn’t leave a penny for the government.”

Heine was both shocked and puzzled, “He plays that big?”

Louis recalled what his uncle had told him, and couldn’t help but get angry, “Even 10,000 pounds is only a little over 200,000 francs. Talleyrand played much bigger than that. My uncle told me that during the French Revolution, Talleyrand was initially just a regular bishop. He hated the revolution from the beginning, and even went to the palace in the middle of the night to demand the assembly of troops to suppress the revolution. But later, he saw that the situation was not right, so he quickly abandoned Louis XVI, and overnight, he changed his stance, proposing in the National Assembly that church property should be confiscated by the government. He used this trick of being generous with others’ property to win the reputation of ‘Bishop of the People’. During the Directory period, Talleyrand became Foreign Minister, and in two years, he took 12 million francs in bribes. At that time, there was a saying in the Foreign Ministry: before negotiating with the French government, you had to negotiate with Talleyrand first. If he didn’t nod, no other country’s diplomatic documents would be passed through. At that time, the Americans passed a bill in Congress to default on all their international debts. The Americans claimed that these debts were owed by the previous government, and the previous government was the British colonial government, so the debt belonged to Britain and had nothing to do with the current American government. But you know, to help the Americans fight the War of Independence, France provided them with a huge loan. However, these bumpkins saw that France was in the midst of the Great Revolution and had no spare energy to deal with them, so they wanted to take advantage of the chaos and default on the debt. The Directory couldn’t agree to that, of course. So, to retaliate against the Americans for forcing them to repay their debts, the Directory ordered the French navy to seize over 300 American merchant ships in the Caribbean and hired pirates to attack their trade routes in the Mediterranean. The Americans were scared, so they decided to send a delegation to make peace and mend relations. But Talleyrand concealed the matter of the American delegation from the country. He secretly sent his agents to negotiate with the Americans, demanding that the Americans pay Talleyrand 50,000 pounds in bribes, and also provide France with a loan of 32 million Dutch guilders to help France fight the anti-French coalition. But these American bumpkins didn’t understand European practices and refused to bribe Talleyrand no matter what. As a result, Talleyrand, in a fit of anger, dragged out the American delegation for six months. The Americans saw that there was no hope, so they had to return to the country and declare that the negotiations had failed, and began to buy armed merchant ships, preparing for an undeclared war with France. Just like that, France and America fought a war at sea for two years before Talleyrand’s affair was exposed. It just so happened that my uncle came to power at that time, and Talleyrand had made great contributions in helping him ascend to power, so the two countries signed a peace treaty, and the matter was settled.”

Heine was shocked, “I’ve heard a lot about corruption, but this is the first time I’ve heard about corruption leading to war between two countries.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “That’s just the beginning. The Americans learned their lesson after that. At that time, America and France were negotiating a commercial treaty, and the negotiations were slow. The Americans saw that the situation was not good, so they immediately sent Talleyrand 3 million francs, and the next day the treaty was signed. The truce between France and Austria was even more classic. To ensure that the treaty was signed smoothly, Austria first sent Talleyrand hundreds of thousands of francs, but Talleyrand directly demanded 15 million. Austria refused, so Talleyrand simply included the 15 million in the war reparations. After the Treaty of Lunéville was signed, Austria had to pay reparations to France, and also had to pay Talleyrand separately. To be able to embezzle and bribe to this extent, it’s really hard to find anyone like him throughout history, both east and west, for thousands of years.”

Dumas took a deep breath and asked, “Could Napoleon tolerate him being so greedy?”

“What could he do if he couldn’t?” Louis said helplessly, “After all, we still have to rely on Talleyrand to negotiate. He is indeed greedy, but everyone is willing to negotiate with him. A treaty, others go and don’t get a penny, but they can’t reach an agreement. Talleyrand goes, he takes a huge bribe, and the treaty is made. What can my uncle do? And, although I don’t like Talleyrand, the Bonaparte family has been able to exist until now, and he has played a part in it. The Bourbon dynasty that was restored originally wanted to settle accounts with us, but Talleyrand kept opposing them, and even was marginalized because of it. In short, there are both good and bad sides.”

Dumas finally relaxed, and said to Arthur, “Forget it, such a small amount of money, take it and take it. Arthur, compared to Talleyrand, you are so clean that you only take a little bit. In my opinion… We should take more, right? If we take too little, I’m afraid they won’t be at ease!”

(End of Chapter)