The Fox of France

Two days later, banker Meyer Rothschild received an invitation, which was sent by Monsieur Bovine, a director and chief executive of the Roman Bank, and a well-known banker. The invitation invited him to attend a reception at Monsieur Bovine's estate in two days.

The Roman Bank was actually a banking alliance formed by six French banks. They held shares in each other, forming a whole, and effectively acting as a central bank. The French government issued franc banknotes through the Roman Bank.

This was almost Nathan Rothschild's dream. In fact, he had almost realized this dream in Austria in recent years through cooperation with them. But the core of the world was still New Rome. This was where the most money could be made. In fact, hot money from various countries would basically come to France to seek investment or speculative opportunities. And doing these things in France required dealing with the Roman Bank.

Nathan Rothschild naturally had a lot of dealings with the Roman Bank as well. At one point, he even hoped to have his bank infiltrate the Roman Bank. Of course, this goal was not achieved because the French had some resistance to non-French capital. But Rothschild Bank and the Roman Bank often cooperated.

Nathan Rothschild would certainly not refuse Monsieur Bovine's invitation. The Bovine Bank was one of the six members of the Roman Bank. Although it was not the largest or the most well-capitalized, Monsieur Bovine was recognized as the best banker in France. And now, Monsieur Bovine was the direct manager of the Roman Bank, so being able to attend a reception at his home was already a symbol of status and position for many bankers.

Nathan Rothschild adjusted various unnecessary schedules to be able to attend Monsieur Bovine's reception on time.

Monsieur Bovine had a not-so-small estate in the valuable land of New Rome. Of course, compared to his estates in the Bordeaux region, this estate was much smaller, but in New Rome, perhaps only a few people's estates could surpass Monsieur Bovine's.

Although Monsieur Bovine's estate was not the largest, it was definitely the most luxurious. And unlike before, Monsieur Bovine's residence now appeared much simpler. But for those who truly understood, entering and seeing it immediately revealed what understated luxury was.

Nathan Rothschild's two carriages stopped at the entrance of the main building of Bovine's estate (later known as Bovine Palace). Several servants immediately came forward to greet them. The first carriage carried Nathan Rothschild's butler, who presented the invitation to the approaching servants. Then Nathan Rothschild and his wife, who were in the second carriage, walked into the building surrounded by the servants.

In the grand hall, which was unusually large, covering several hundred square meters, with a height of more than twenty meters, there was not a single pillar, making it resemble a small temple. In the center of the hall, there was a black marble pedestal over a meter high, upon which stood a white marble statue of Hermes, partly incomplete.

Nathan Rothschild knew that this statue was bought from the Turks and was said to have been dug out of the soil by the Greeks while plowing. It was said that at that time, those ignorant but devout Greek Orthodox recognized it as an ancient pagan idol and prepared to destroy it. But the Turkish lord stopped them—he knew that this thing could sell for a lot of money. So now this thing was placed here.

In addition to this statue, various paintings hanging here, as well as sculptures placed elsewhere, were all works of famous artists, with considerable value. In terms of value alone, some of these works were even higher than the value of this Hermes statue. It was just because Hermes, as the patron god of merchants, was more in line with Monsieur Bovine's intentions, so it occupied the central position.

The servants led Nathan Rothschild and his wife through the hall to the backyard—where the reception was taking place.

At this time, Monsieur Bovine was talking to a young man. Seeing Nathan Rothschild and his wife entering, he just nodded in acknowledgment from afar, but did not immediately come over. Instead, he continued talking to the young man.

Nathan Rothschild also picked up a glass of wine from a servant's tray, raised it to Monsieur Bovine in acknowledgment, and then went to talk to others.

"Monsieur Bovine, who is that person?" the young man asked.

"Ah, that's Joseph, the director from the Bonaparte family. That guy is very cunning. If you ever have dealings with him in the future, Monsieur Rothschild, you must be careful," Monsieur Bovine said.

This young Bonaparte was Jérôme, the younger brother of Joseph and Napoleon.

Jérôme had just finished his schooling. For his future, his brothers had many different plans. Initially, Joseph wanted to try to see if he could have a talent in science. Joseph's requirements for him were not actually high; he did not require his brother to reach his level in science, he just hoped that Jérôme could approach Napoleon in this aspect. Although it was not enough to become an expert, it was enough to share some of the family's business, especially the management tasks of high-tech industries.

However, Jérôme's performance disappointed Joseph. Jérôme was not lazy; when it came to studying, he was much more diligent than Lucien. However, his grades were not better than Lucien's, basically at the same level. If the test was easier, his score would be slightly better than Lucien's; if the questions were more difficult, his score would definitely be worse than Lucien's. Of course, whether it was him or Lucien, in Napoleon's eyes, they were all the same: "trash, all trash!"

In other words, compared to the eldest and second brother, the more obedient Jérôme lacked talent in science. So when he entered high school, Joseph gave up on his first training plan for him.

Then Napoleon took over this brother. After Jérôme graduated from high school, Napoleon arranged for him to enter the newly established Saint-Cyr Military Academy. But Jérôme showed considerable discomfort, even worse than when he was at the School of King Louis. Although he tried hard to learn, he was not cut out for it. So after seeing his grades, Napoleon angrily said, "He's ruined my face! It's better to send Pauline; she'd do better than him!" So Napoleon personally ordered that Jérôme, who had failed many subjects, be expelled from Saint-Cyr. So Jérôme's student career ended like this.

So, seemingly according to the rules, Jérôme should have been handed over to Lucien for training. But whether it was the eldest Joseph or the second Napoleon, they both believed that Jérôme must not be handed over to Lucien. So Jérôme was sent back to Joseph's place again.

And this time, Joseph arranged for Jérôme to be a director at the Roman Bank and then let him use his ears and eyes to see more and think more at the Roman Bank. Then report to Joseph here every week. It was also considered teaching him how to do business. So at this time, Jérôme appeared

here.

Jérôme currently had no real power in his hands. But after all, he was a Bonaparte, and the Bonaparte brothers were generally very united. So even though he didn't have much power now, Monsieur Bovine still tried hard to maintain a good relationship with him. He knew that Joseph sent Jérôme here to train his abilities, so he also took the opportunity to cooperate with him and occasionally teach him some tricks of doing business. 𐍂å₦ỌВʧ

"Monsieur Bovine, let's go together and meet that Jewish guy. We've had quite a few business dealings with him." Monsieur Bovine said to Jérôme.