The New Year had just ended when the East Continent Empire Prime Minister's Office announced the East Continent's development outline for the next four years.
This development plan, involving all industries across the entire nation, officially kicked off the East Continent's development.
At this time in Lighthouse Country, Burgess was attending a grand banquet.
There was no good banquet, as this President had gathered all the capital magnates of the country.
Everyone knew that with the economic recovery of Lighthouse Country in the past two years, a serious problem had emerged in all industries: monopoly.
Now, over 70% of industries in Lighthouse Country were monopolized by various groups, and the economy was losing more and more vitality, leading to extreme dissatisfaction among the populace.
And President McKinley was about to usher in his second election cycle; his old rival, Brian, who had lost to him last time, was making a comeback.
Brian had understood where he lost in the past few years; his radical policies made the oligarchs uneasy.
This time, he brought back his policies: opposing the gold standard, supporting the free silver policy, and making both gold and silver the standard currency of Lighthouse Country.
After all, gold is limited, but silver reserves are abundant; if a bimetallic standard were implemented, Lighthouse Country could freely print paper money and increase the money supply.
With more money in the market, it would be good news for both the government and individuals, and it could also stimulate the economy.
Another important policy of Brian was to oppose monopolies, believing that Lighthouse Country should strengthen economic regulation, limit the development of monopolies, and maintain market fairness.
These two points directly struck the incumbent McKinley; it should be known that the reason he could become President was because those Trusts feared Brian would cause trouble for them if he came to power.
McKinley was no longer the President who distinguished right from wrong when he first took office; he knew his old rival Brian was correct.
The economic crisis that occurred six years ago almost destroyed the country; if it weren't for Burgess providing gold, Lighthouse Country's monetary power would no longer be in the government's hands.
He knew better than anyone what losing monetary power meant.
Therefore, even though he disliked his old rival, Brian's idea of limiting Trusts coincided with his own.
Hence, this gathering.
The election was still more than half a year away, and this President needed to sound out the opinions of these domestic financial groups regarding anti-monopoly.
The John Leffe Family, Ponte Ghenmo, Carnegie, DuPont, Burgess Mining—these famous families, if they stomped their feet, Lighthouse Country's economy would catch a cold.
Now, their spokespeople were all present at the reception.
"Gentlemen, welcome to this gathering," said Lighthouse Country's Secretary of State Olney, as the initiator of this banquet, raising his glass to everyone.
Everyone present today knew the President's intentions, and no one was willing to restrict themselves, so everyone's attitude was not good.
Burgess was raising a glass with Eugene DuPont, the head of the DuPont Family. The DuPont family, which made its fortune by manufacturing gunpowder, now controlled more than half of Lighthouse Country's gunpowder supply.
To put it bluntly, without him, Lighthouse Country's army probably couldn't even gather enough shells.
"Burgess, do you think President McKinley's idea can be realized?" Eugene DuPont asked with a smile.
Burgess was now the spokesperson for the Central Bank of Lighthouse Country; although he started in mining, no one in Lighthouse Country underestimated him.
This incumbent President wanted to pass an anti-monopoly law, which would have to go through this governor.
"Mr. Eugene, such matters are, of course, decided by a senior like yourself. Whether it can be realized still depends on everyone's wishes."
Burgess spoke without revealing anything.
Anyway, whether you object or not, someone is already prepared to make money off you. He was just an executor of the plan.
Burgess was now completely relaxed; after all, partnering with Fang Mingzhou to make money was not a one-time thing, he was used to it.
Fang Mingzhou was already an emperor, yet he still kept an eye on Lighthouse Country every day, practically treating Lighthouse Country as a bank, coming to harvest whenever he needed money.
Seeing that Burgess did not answer directly, Eugene also knew that on such matters, these people would not express their stance until the very end.
As the most lucrative industry, Eugene certainly did not want others to appear in his family's arms business; exclusive business was the most profitable.
At the banquet, Secretary of State Olney was still eloquently speaking about promoting economic development, and between the lines, he revealed that these Trusts were hindering Lighthouse Country's economy.
But after his eyes swept around, he found that there were very few responders.
Did these greedy monopolists really think they were God?
When President McKinley appeared, everyone instantly changed, becoming enthusiastic.
This President's prestige among the people was very high now; he had won the war with Red Bull, and although the losses were a bit large, at least it created a market for Lighthouse Country's capital.
This made domestic factory owners rejoice; the saturated market finally found an outlet.
But there was another problem: when those factory owners took their factory mortgages and wanted to borrow from banks to expand production, they were told there was no money.
All industries were short of money, but printing money required gold; theoretically, this was a positive feedback loop.
Factory owners made money, which brought profits, and Lighthouse Country acquired gold in the international market, then printed currency.
But in the economic crisis four years ago, Fang Mingzhou, in Burgess's name, borrowed five hundred tons of gold to stabilize Lighthouse Country's economy, and in doing so, defeated the Rothschild Family, who wanted to control Lighthouse Country's monetary power.
As the saying goes, there is borrowing and returning; this gold bond had to be repaid, with a ten-year term, fifty tons of gold annually, plus twenty percent interest, which severely depleted Lighthouse Country's national gold reserves.
Without gold, money could not be printed, and without printing money, loans could not be provided to those factory owners who were eager to expand production.
Fang Mingzhou could be said to be killing two birds with one stone; this was also why Brian wanted to implement a gold and silver standard—it all came down to money.
Did Lighthouse Country have no money? Impossible. As the world's leading industrial power, the government should theoretically not be short of money.
But this principle was taken away by the Tossla, led by these large families; their monopolies had made any economic policy of the Lighthouse Country government extremely difficult to implement.
As soon as President McKinley announced that he intended to formulate an anti-monopoly bill, these Trusts began to unite.
For some time now, these people had been spending lavishly, fiercely attacking the current cabinet's policies in newspapers, and widely propagating that government intervention in the economy caused the economic downturn.
Lighthouse Country had one advantage: although these Trusts were all fat and bloated, they had a fatal flaw—they lacked controlled military force.
This unique mechanism of checks and balances of power meant that emerging interest groups wanting to rise needed to break this monopoly structure.
Coupled with the current public's strong desire for anti-monopoly, these monopolistic financial groups could not completely block public opinion.
This was also why the current cabinet planned to make a big move before the general election to win public support.