Chapter 409: A Man of Distinction Becomes a Hero
Borneo Island.
Brunei in the north.
As one of only four independent entities left in Southeast Asia, economic conditions are deteriorating rapidly.
The reason is very simple. Brunei is surrounded by the Borneo branch of the Zhiren Company on three sides and across the sea from a certain big country. This tragic geopolitical pattern of being sandwiched in the middle is no less than that of the Mobei region, and they also feel like they are walking on thin ice.
Originally, they could rely on the oil fields to sell oil and natural gas, and then use the money to subsidize civilians, maintain high welfare in the country, and thus stabilize the country.
It all looks wonderful.
Unfortunately, they encountered a company of Homo sapiens that lacked great virtue.
Two years ago, Zhiren Company secretly drilled inclined and horizontal wells and drained all the oil and natural gas from underground and seabed of Brunei in less than two years.
In September this year, explorers from Brunei Royal Petroleum Company finally discovered that the oil fields in the country were exhausted.
At this time, coupled with the previous global economic crisis, Brunei's tourism industry and offshore finance were also hit hard. After losing their core resource of oil and natural gas , their internal economic problems began to emerge.
Although the Brunei royal family was extremely wealthy, the fact that the royal family was rich did not mean that the common people were also rich.
In the past, people could make money by selling oil and natural gas, and if the royal family gave them some leftovers, the common people could also have enough to eat.
Now the royal family’s oil field income has disappeared, and the transformation of the tourism and financial industries has failed. The royal family has no income and can only rely on its past capital to maintain high internal welfare for the time being.
However, the wise people in the Brunei royal family have already discovered it, especially King Bor, who has sensed the crisis and believes that this is not a long-term solution.
The news of the oil field depletion was temporarily blocked by the royal family.
At this time, in the magnificent palace, King Bor, who was already seventy years old, was holding a small meeting with other core members of the royal family.
"Brother, what are you going to do?" Prince Jeffrey asked quickly.
As for his younger brother, Bol actually didn't want to talk to him at all.
Fortunately, Crown Prince Habib spoke up to ease the atmosphere: "Don't worry, uncle, we will work out a solution."
Bol looked at everyone and said, "The Royal Family still has $47.3 billion in assets . In addition, the Treasury holds $26.6 billion in foreign exchange and $2.3 billion in foreign exchange. These are all our assets."
Upon hearing this number, all the core members of the royal family frowned.
It seems that these assets add up to a lot, about 78.5 billion US dollars.
However, this did not make them happy, because Brunei's pillar industries collapsed, and from now on, Brunei's fiscal deficit will increase significantly.
The local population is 465,000, plus more than 100,000 foreign workers from Annan and India. Brunei, which has no industry, can only rely on the half-dead tourism industry, which can't make much money and can't provide many jobs.
To continue maintaining the current high welfare, tens of billions of dollars in fiscal spending will be required each year.
If we rely solely on foreign exchange reserves, it can only support us for about three years. With the royal family's secret treasury, it can only be extended to seven years at most.
Obviously, the royal family members are unwilling to use the royal treasury to subsidize the common people.
In the past, when there was income from oil fields, it was harmless to share some of the leftovers with the common people, and it could also win people's hearts.
Now that there is no income from the oil fields, they are still trying to pretend to be rich. Unless the royal family members are fools, you should know that there are more than 40 billion US dollars in the small treasury. If they spend a penny less, it will be difficult to maintain the capital chain.
In this case, continuing to give money to civilians would be like cutting meat to feed the eagles.
Prince Jeffrey, who lives an extremely extravagant life, was the first to jump out: "I will never agree to continue subsidizing those parasites. This is our money."
Others also expressed their opinions in a flurry.
These people all unanimously opposed continuing to provide subsidies. After all, this involves their core interests.
Bol frowned, "You said you won't send it, so how do you plan to appease the civilians?"
"this……"
These people were suddenly speechless. After all, ordinary people in Brunei have been spoiled by them and used to a high-welfare life. Now that they are told not to give them money, most of them will definitely be resentful.
The situation of repaying kindness with resentment will definitely happen in Brunei.
Bol, who doesn't want to be the Sun King, naturally understands that stopping benefits would be self-destruction.
But if he continued to give out benefits, his own small treasury would suffer heavy losses, and he might even end up with nothing, which he could not accept.
Suddenly, Jeffrey's eyes turned, and an idea came to his mind: "Why don't we sell Brunei to Homo sapiens?"
"What?" Crown Prince Habib no longer cared about his manners, and asked with wide eyes: "Uncle, do you know what you are saying?"
However, Jeffrey sneered: "Haha, Harpy, are you worried about your throne? You'd better think about one thing clearly. If you don't have money, it's still a question whether you can continue to be the crown prince."
Gulu...Happy also reacted at this time.
Yes! If Brunei goes bankrupt, then either it has to use the royal family's secret fund to hold on for a few more years, or the royal family will abscond with the money. Apart from that, there are not many options.
As for why it was sold to Homo Sapiens instead of to America or the Far East.
Anyone with a little bit of common sense knows the location of Brunei, which is right next to the headquarters of the Sapiens Company, regardless of whether America and the Far East dare to take over.
As long as the Brunei royal family dares to say that they want to sell land to other forces, the Homo Sapiens Company will send their entire family on a plane in a matter of minutes.
What's more, now that the Sapiens Company is very wealthy and has very good benefits, the Brunei civilians will have much less opposition to becoming employees of the Sapiens Company.
Jeffrey continued, "Sell the land in Brunei to the Homo Sapiens. We only want the Homo Sapiens to retain the royal property and a special asylum qualification, and then we can move to Hong Kong to invest and develop."
A group of royal family members started discussing.
After some discussion, although he did not want to lose the throne, Bol was also very clear that this was the best option at the moment.
The common people of Brunei can continue to maintain a high-welfare life, and the royal family can leave with the money. With assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars, as long as they are well planned, they can at least ensure the wealth of three generations of the family.
That evening.
Bor had a secret meeting with the head of the Zhiren Company in Brunei in the imperial palace.
After more than a week of secret negotiations.
Finally, both sides reached an agreement.
Bor signed the "Borneo Overall Asset Sale Agreement", selling the entire Brunei to the Zhiren. The condition given by the Zhiren was to allow the Bor family to take away all foreign exchange reserves as special compensation.
At the same time, the Bol family was promised a special asylum for 50 years, where they could become honorary employees without enjoying the benefits of Homo sapiens.
The imperial palace was even reserved for the Bor family, and they were allowed to return freely to live in the imperial palace in Brunei.
As the agreement was signed, both parties announced the event on television.
The whole world seems to be accustomed to this.
Although Bol explained the reason on TV, saying that Brunei's oil and natural gas resources had been exhausted and could no longer maintain the high welfare life of the people, for the sake of the people, he could only "reluctantly" sell Brunei to Homo sapiens.
But America didn't care. The New York Times published an article immediately with the title: "Evil giant company swallows Brunei, who will be next?"
Then major media and Internet giants in Europe and the United States came out one after another and publicized the ambitions and crimes of Sapiens.
Not to be outdone, the ZhiHua Culture and Entertainment Division brought a large number of online trolls to engage in a war of words with European and American media on the international Internet.
The Bol family, which had withdrawn, quietly arranged for some of its members to buy properties in Hong Kong, preparing to set up the Bol Group and the Bol Foundation, and completely ignored the public opinion confrontation between Homo sapiens and America.
