Chapter 51 Paris Angel Company goes public

In 1717, John Law, a generation of financial tycoons, founded the Mississippi Company in order to solve France's huge debts. He obtained the monopoly rights to operate the Louisiana colony from the French government, and then the company began to sell stocks.

Because it is said that there are a large number of gold mines in the Mississippi River Basin, and the company has successively obtained the operating rights of more French overseas colonies, the stock price has been rising.

From the 500 livres per share at the time of issuance, it has risen to the highest point of nearly 20,000 livres. Yes, don't miss a 0. The stock price has increased 40 times!

John Law believes that the opportunity has come to solve France's 1.5 billion national debt. Starting in 1719, he issued additional stocks five times in a row, taking advantage of the soaring stock prices and cooperating with the Royal Bank to issue banknotes, which really paid off the French government's debt in one fell swoop!

Of course, it is impossible for him to earn 1.5 billion livres in three years. All the money was piled up from the stock market bubble.

In 1720, as a large number of gold prospectors found nothing, the legend of the Mississippi gold mine began to disintegrate. This brought about a sharp decline in the stock price of the Mississippi Company. People sold stocks in a panic, and the stock price fell to less than 200 livres.

The French ruler at the time, the old Duke of Orleans, the regent, hurriedly took back all the privileges of the Mississippi Company. The Mississippi Company went bankrupt, and the bubble of billions of livres disappeared overnight. The amount was equivalent to the combined fiscal revenue of France for more than thirty years at that time. !

Countless people who bought the shares of the Mississippi Company went bankrupt, and the entire France fell into a serious economic crisis. Industry and commerce were all stagnant, and only agriculture was left alive. This also led to the rise of French Physiocrats.

John Law left a lot of chicken feathers behind and fled to Brussels, but France did not recover for decades.

At that time, a similar "South Sea Company" incident occurred in the United Kingdom, and the British government immediately promulgated the "Bubble Act" that strictly restricted companies from selling shares.

France is also following the same example. It stipulates that any company that wants to sell shares publicly must be reviewed by a cabinet meeting and signed by the king. Basically, it takes more than ten years to approve a company's listing, and supervision is extremely strict.

Of course, these are not problems at all for Joseph.

The Minister of Finance and the Minister of the Interior have long been developed by him into beneficiaries of the Paris Angel Company's stocks, and the King and Queen are even more his own.

In addition, Joseph assured at the cabinet meeting that the share price of Paris Angel will never exceed 30% of the company's actual value, and the shares sold to the public will not exceed 40% of the total share capital. After it falls to a certain level, the company will pay to underpin the share price. .

Confirming that all financial risks were eliminated, Louis XVI readily signed the Paris Angel listing proposal.

In fact, Joseph still has a lot of room for maneuver here. What is the actual value of the company? For a store with daily sales of 120,000 livres, if I value it at 5 million livres, that's not too much, right? The entire Paris Angel Company can easily be valued at tens of millions of livres.

Of course, Joseph didn't want to fish in the water, and messing up the stock market would be of no benefit to anyone.

After all, the industrial revolution requires a large amount of capital support, and a healthy stock market is a necessary guarantee for the development of industry.

What's more, if something like the Mississippi Company happens again, disaster may come early.

In the open space in front of the Paris City Hall, a wooden platform half a person's height has already been set up.

The wooden platform is decorated with a large number of colorful ribbons and garlands, as if it is celebrating some festival. A banner on the top of the wooden platform read "Paris Angels Stock Offering."

The wooden platform is surrounded by chairs, and on the platform are the counters of stock traders and the staff sent by various banks to provide services.

The most eye-catching thing is a giant smooth wooden board on the left, with the words "Transaction Record" engraved on the top. This is where the transaction information will be displayed in the future.

The entire transaction site occupies an area as large as two football fields in later generations.

Because of John Law's shady operations, the French people's attitude towards stock trading has changed. The stock exchange is also deserted. It has become dilapidated and dilapidated over the past few decades and the space is very small.

So Joseph simply set up the trading location outside the city hall.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, as a melodious sound of drums and horns sounded, and people began to throw flower petals around, Brent walked onto the wooden stage and announced loudly: "Paris Angel Company officially sells shares to the public! Anyone can invest here."

Immediately, an assistant showed everyone the document signed by the king allowing the sale of stocks.

Then, officials from the Paris City Hall came on stage one by one to deliver congratulatory speeches for the listing of Paris Angel Company.

The investors couldn't wait any longer and ignored the officials. They swarmed to the trading desk and shouted to the traders the number of stocks they wanted to buy. Even Brent was almost knocked to the ground.

This scene has not appeared in France for decades. In the past, even when some big banks offered stocks, people were extremely cautious and few bought them.

But Paris Angel has made sufficient preparations this time. Not only is it the overwhelming publicity in newspapers, but those specialty stores have actually appeared all over Paris, and everyone has seen the lively decoration scene.

Just yesterday, three new Paris Angel stores in Paris opened at the same time. The streets were packed with people. Countless ladies and ladies squeezed out of the stores carrying purchased goods, with smiles on their faces full of excitement and satisfaction.

It is said that there are more Paris Angel stores in Reims, Marseille and other places, and even the UK is preparing to open new stores.

Moreover, Paris Angel also promised that if the stock price falls below 80% of the issue price, the company will immediately invest to recover all shares.

At the same time, the stock price cannot exceed 30% of the company's actual value.

Everything proves that there will be no bubble in Paris Angel Company! No risk!

Seeing that the business of those specialty stores is booming, the stock dividends will definitely not be less when the time comes. Everyone believes that this is a rare investment opportunity, so just buy it!

Soon, an employee of the stock exchange wrote the first transaction information on the wooden sign displaying the transaction records——

Buy, Paris Angel Company, 2 livres, 30 shares, totaling 60 livres.

Then came the second stroke——

Buy, Paris Angel Company, 2 livres, 105 shares, totaling 210 livres.

The third stroke,

The fourth stroke,

The fifth stroke...

The Paris Police Department sent more than 60 police officers to maintain order at the transaction site, which barely allowed the situation to get out of control. The surrounding reporters stared wide-eyed, recording this shocking scene.

At 9 o'clock in the evening, Brent and the Crown Prince's exclusive accountant rushed to the Palace of Versailles excitedly.

In the Crown Prince's living room, Brent handed a form issued by the exchange to Joseph with trembling hands.

The accountant on the side immediately said excitedly: "Your Highness, a total of 773,000 shares were sold, totaling 1.55 million livres!"

In fact, it is mainly limited by the fact that stock trading in this era relies entirely on manual operations, which is very inefficient. The speed limit for traders to fill in documents and post transactions with banks is 2,000 orders per day, totaling more than 700,000 shares.

People kept coming to buy stocks outside the city hall, and it was crowded, but only a small number of people who queued up early in the morning actually completed the transaction.

Joseph praised Brent, and then calmly ordered: "Transfer all funds to the Reserve Bank of France. Follow the operation I said before, and there is no need to report to me again until the funds reach 6 million livres."