Descending On France 1780
Chapter 185 - 178 As a Jingluo, it is only natural that I should hang the Governor of Venice (Milan) on Saturday.

Chapter 185: 178 As a Jingluo, it is only natural that I should hang the Governor of Venice (Milan) on Saturday.

Whether before or after traveling through time, Anning had never been to Milan before.

His only knowledge of the city came from two things, one being the local derby between AC Milan and Inter Milan, and the other was his favorite Hayao Miyazaki movie "Porco Rosso," in which the Red Pig’s plane breaks down and needs to be sent to Milan for repairs.

In that movie, Anning’s impression of Milan was of a city with many canals and bridges, where the products manufactured by factories along the riversides could be shipped directly down the canals.

After watching that movie, Anning had always wanted to fly a seaplane in Milan, navigating through many bridge tunnels during takeoff.

It was precisely because of the movie "Porco Rosso" that Anning had always wanted to visit Milan, but after graduating from university and joining a company, he was caught up in the rat race, where even slacking off for a single day would mean being harshly surpassed by others, let alone taking a month off to travel.

Taking a spontaneous trip was something only the financially free could afford, while corporate slaves like him could only hope that Ubisoft would set their next Assassin’s Creed in a destination he wanted to visit.

Now, Anning stood on a hillside outside Milan City under the gentle morning light of Northern Italy.

Milan seemed to be right below his feet.

But from this angle, no rivers were in sight.

Strange, could it be that the Milan in Porco Rosso is fictional? Or were most of the canals dug after the Industrial Revolution for transportation purposes?

Unable to help himself, Anning asked a Corsican beside him: "Shouldn’t Milan have many rivers?"

Napoleon answered, "Indeed, there are quite a few rivers."

Anning pointed at the Milan in front of him: "Then why can’t I see any?"

"Having rivers doesn’t mean they’re everywhere like in Venice," Napoleon shrugged. "Most of the canals in Milan were dug for transporting goods, deep enough for ships, but not very wide. You can’t see them from the outskirts standing on a hill."

Anning uttered an ’oh’.

Bertier, looking puzzled, asked: "Are you very familiar with Milan? Would it be possible for you to handle negotiations with the local elite? Our supply lines are a bit too long, it would be ideal to find some replenishment methods in Milan."

Anning couldn’t help but glance at Bertier: Just replenishment methods? Chief of Staff, are you perhaps misunderstanding my purpose for coming to Milan?

I came to Milan to accomplish the primitive accumulation of capitalism.

But Milan has not only money but also a vast number of engineers and scientists.

The Italians’ industrial level was quite decent in this era. To launch an industrial revolution in France, Milan’s craftsmen and the like were precious resources.

Anning had already planned everything out. First, he intended to launch a revolution in Milan similar to the French Revolution, letting the Italians decide for themselves.

The approach he had used in Diego selling independence bonds would not work here; a more formal method was needed.

Anning was ready to issue currency directly in Milan after assuming the role of the city’s liberator.

As the first step in this currency issuance, he would establish an Italian state of their own in Milan, then he planned to banish Milan’s currency merchants.

These were merchants specializing in various currency exchange services, most of them Jewish.

After clearing out the currency merchants, the currency exchange right would be held tightly in hand, opening an official government-backed currency exchange office.

Next, this office would issue tickets representing a certain weight of gold and silver, with regulations in place allowing ticket holders to exchange them for silver coins or gold coins of equivalent value.

Because tickets were more convenient to carry than gold and silver coins and didn’t require a complicated valuation and exchange process, as long as the ticket issuance was controlled and counterfeiting was severely cracked down on, Milan, being a trading city, would soon see tickets becoming popular.

Once the tickets gained popularity, more could be quietly printed for shopping purposes.

As long as there were no concentrated runs on the bank, the printed tickets could function like real money!

This method of harvesting ’crops’ from the public, Anning had learned from the teachers in the United States of America, and he planned to put it into practice in Milan.

In fact, Anning had wanted to implement this in France, but the French were naturally skeptical of paper. There had been attempts at paper money reform during the Kingdom Era, but these had ended badly, ruining the French perception of paper money.

Furthermore, the National Assembly’s desperate money-printing had completely destroyed the French confidence in paper currency.

It was only after the Industrial Revolution was thoroughly completed in France and domestic trade transactions became too frequent and cumbersome with gold coins that people finally accepted paper money.

Italy was different, for one, the banking industry itself was well developed, and there was already a tradition of using bank deposit tickets as circulating currency.

Secondly, Italy was historically a place crowded with various merchant republics, with frequent commercial activities, so a reliable form of paper money was needed.

But for a long time, Italy was fragmented, either dominated by the Holy Roman or split into various merchant republics and kingdoms.

The scattered republics and kingdoms lacked sufficient credibility to support and spread a unified form of paper money.

Even if accepted within their own territories, others would not recognize it once stepping outside their borders.

Actually, if the Holy Roman had been willing to issue a kind of paper money in the Italian region, its scale and prestige could have supported the acceptance of this currency by all states.

But the Holy Roman, after all, was a feudal state. Although it became an enlightened feudal system with Queen Theresa’s reforms, a feudal system was still a feudal system no matter how enlightened.

As a result, up to now, Italy had not established a unified form of paper money, which complicated transactions due to the variety of currencies to exchange.

This is precisely why there was a niche for Jewish currency merchants.

Even under such a fragmented scenario, the Italians still came up with various alternative methods, using commercial contracts to replace the cumbersome currency exchange process.

Anning’s idea was that he, as the messenger of the French Revolution, the protector of Italian independence, had to introduce in Italy a type of paper money accepted by everyone.

With the backing of France and the Italian independence, this paper currency was bound to be solid.

Even if Milan was the only city to accept it at the start, that would be fine. When the time came, Anning would incorporate the Sardinian Kingdom, Venice, and Papal State into this paper currency system.

He just needed a little time.

Regardless, everything had to start in Milan.

First, he had to go to the center of Milan, make a speech, and call for all Italians to stand up.

Then, he had to control all printing presses in Italy, making sure that the slogan of Italian independence was printed everywhere, telling the Italians that the French liberators had arrived, and with them, Italian independence!

Next, he planned to hang the Holy Roman’s Governor of Milan.

Anning said to Napoleon: "Let’s enter the city, and show the Italians how powerful and magnificent a revolutionary, civic army can be!"