Chapter 1939: Chapter 1939
"An excellent speech, Jenkins."
As Jenkins took a seat beside her, Queen Isabella didn't look at him directly. Instead, she nonchalantly waved a small vial under her nose. It wasn't a snuffbox, but some kind of scented oil—a practice Jenkins had seen others do.
"Is there something you need? The recess is over."
"I'm just surprised you didn't oppose my move to have the mayor seal off City Hall."
"You're acting in Nolan's best interest, are you not? I suppose I fall into the category of 'clever people' you mentioned, so I could tell that what you're about to say could disrupt the market. You did the right thing. Don't let a single word of this leak out."
It wouldn't matter even if word got out. After all, Jenkins himself was the biggest player in the market now, controlling the entire supply of tulips and bulbs, as well as the capital flow. As long as he held his hand, a massive price collapse certainly wasn't something that could happen in a few hours.
Queen Isabella's words were a mix of truth and evasion, but at least they weren't outright lies. Jenkins eyed her with suspicion but decided not to press the issue. He prepared to return to the podium at the front to continue where he left off.
Another series of explosions echoed from a distance. The first two had been faint, audible only to Enchanters with exceptional hearing. But this time, the blasts were loud enough for everyone in City Hall to hear, provided they quieted down.
The explosions startled the people in City Hall, but their distance meant they only sparked a murmur of discussion, not enough to halt the proceedings. It would take time for any news from the Church to arrive, so Jenkins could only suppress his growing unease and step back onto the stage.
"Now that we understand the abnormal 'Tulip Frenzy' occurring in Nolan, we can break the event down into two simple parts. The first is the unusual short-term spike in tulip prices. The second is how their price detached from their intrinsic value, turning them into an appreciating asset in the eyes of the public.
In this final stage, a tulip is no longer really a tulip. People are simply buying an item they believe will increase in value. By that logic, this 'Tulip Frenzy' could just as easily have been a 'White Rose Frenzy' or a 'Pinwheel Chrysanthemum Frenzy.' My point isn't to say this phenomenon can be easily replicated, but to illustrate that the tulips themselves are not what's important in this incident.
This is a frightening phenomenon—when the short-term appreciation of an item has almost nothing to do with the item itself. I know there are some major merchants among you, and by now, you can probably guess what I'm about to say."
"Are you saying someone hoarded a massive number of tulip bulbs and then manipulated the market to drive up prices, all to make a huge profit?"
Someone shouted from the audience—this time, it wasn't one of Jenkins's plants. The person he had arranged to speak hadn't even had a chance to open their mouth, but this was precisely the question he had intended for them to ask.
"No, no, I've already said this isn't simple price gouging. While there's an element of truth to that, it's far too simplistic a view. Besides, who would deliberately hoard tulip bulbs? Nolan isn't a tulip-producing region, nor does it have any floral industry titans. But the line of thinking is correct. Someone gained control of a large and rare supply and used methods we cannot yet explain to drive up the price of tulips.
But this unidentified individual wasn't just trying to make a quick profit. When an entire city starts treating tulips as an appreciating asset and pours excessive amounts of capital into chasing them, it effectively means the entire population is tacitly working together to inflate the price, all because they believe the selling price will always be higher than their buying price."
He wrote a few words on the blackboard behind him, then gestured for the commoners from various trades waiting in the audience to come forward and share the stories of their families and the tulips. These individuals had also been arranged in advance, and before the speech began, Jessica had already ensured they sold off all their tulip holdings.
Whatever the outcome of his speech, it would no longer concern them.
"The people behind this only participated in the initial price inflation. I would wager that by the middle and late stages—starting about two or three weeks ago—even they could no longer control the market's trajectory."
"How do you know it's a group of people?"
"It's obvious. I don't believe a single individual could simultaneously manage distribution, monitor market prices, and inflate the value of the goods. It must be a coordinated group, and an exceptionally capable one at that."
Jenkins replied, and seeing no further questions, he continued:
"This is an uncontrollable 'game.' To use an imperfect analogy, the people whose identities we have yet to uncover merely lit the fuse on a stick of dynamite. They knew it would cause an explosion, but they had no idea how massive it would be. All they needed to do was 'run fast enough.'"
Just as he was about to explain the meaning of 'running fast enough' and lead into the consequences of the overinflated tulip market, he suddenly saw someone in the last row of the lecture hall gesturing at him. It was a clergyman from the Church, flanked by Captain Bincy and two of his squad members.
Jenkins doubtfully deciphered the meaning of the hand signals, continuing his speech without missing a beat:
"Do you remember the 'Fabry scheme' from a while back? It was a similar method, where people continuously poured money in to reap greater returns. But the key was to pull your investment out before everything collapsed, not to throw everything you had back in, hoping for the next round of profits. That is what it means to 'run fast enough.' Dıscover more novels at NoveIꜰire.net
Similarly, in this Tulip Frenzy, while the asset is a physical tulip, our earlier analysis shows the current market price has far surpassed the tulip's intrinsic value, reducing it to a mere token of exchange. In this incident, the tulips are fundamentally no different from the non-existent 'Miss Fabry's mining business.'
Once it collapses, the consequence of the Fabry scheme was that you were left with nothing. The consequence of the tulip scheme is that you'll be left with a pile of flowers that have no market value. I would argue those are the same outcomes."
These final words immediately caused an uproar. All eyes turned to Jenkins, everyone hoping for a more detailed analysis. At this point, the speech had thoroughly captured the audience's attention and active interest. But this was only the beginning. He was about to dissect his own methods, and then, it would be time for 'Miss Fabry' to take the stage.