The young girl was now dressed as a proper countess, with not too many jewels, only wearing a sapphire hair clip.
It was said that her favorite jewelry had been taken to Boston and sent to England with the ship, leaving only what she disliked.
However, even a simple long dress and calfskin boots were extraordinary; the beautiful dress, according to Diana, was last year's most fashionable style in France, and the calfskin boots were made by the best artisans in Rome.
Fortunately, the young girl's figure hadn't changed much, so last year's clothes still fit her well now.
Diana's family property issues had been resolved, but she still stayed here every day, only occasionally returning to her own castle to check on things and retrieve some items, then returning to her small house.
Charles had told her several times to go back to her castle, but she always refused, citing her distrust of the servants and her desire to stay with Charles, her guardian, which made Charles retract his words obediently.
He also genuinely worried about a girl living alone in such a large castle, so after a discussion, they simply replaced all the servants in the castle.
"Diana, the castle's problems have been resolved, and the servants have all been replaced with new ones. When will you go back? You can't stay here forever, can you?"
The girl blinked, not daring to meet Charles' gaze, and said timidly:
"Those people are all new, I'm still a little scared of them!"
Her voice was clear, without any tremor, and Charles believed she wasn't truly afraid.
In the past few days, Charles had suggested several times that she could go back, but Diana had found various excuses to decline each time, and after several rejections, living in the castle became increasingly impossible.
First, the original servants were dismissed, and the new servants couldn't immediately adapt to the original work.
Then, many things from the castle were moved to Charles' small house, and no one was specifically managing the new servants, so many things in the castle began to fall into disuse.
Now, forcing Diana back to the castle would indeed be harming her.
"Forget it, tomorrow I'll go to the castle with you to take a look, and we'll talk then. Anyway, we can't let the castle fall into disrepair like this!" Charles shook his head.
"En! Okay." Diana continued to look at Charles with a special gaze.
However, Charles became increasingly wary of Diana's frequently affectionate glances.
Whether it was due to her open nature or genuinely considering Charles a family member, Diana often hugged Charles, and face-to-face kisses on the forehead were commonplace.
If Diana were a mature woman now, Charles would certainly be very happy with such intimacy.
But Diana at present was a growing girl, without any assets.
Being looked at by such a girl with worshipful eyes would definitely make Charles feel comfortable, but now it was an affectionate gaze, and Charles always had a feeling that he was molesting a minor.
He was naturally not a gentleman, nor an old conservative, and was very clear about his own feelings.
Although he had affection for Diana, this affection was mainly pity and fondness.
Perhaps when the girl grew two or three years older, it would turn into romantic love, but now it was still a bit too early.
He also thought about the so-called beautiful girl nurturing plan, but currently, he didn't have the patience to do it and wanted to find a woman to marry as soon as possible.
Today, he wasted another half a day of words, unable to sway Diana in the slightest.
These days, wherever Charles went, Diana followed, and he originally wanted Jefferson to introduce him to a few suitable unmarried young women, but with such a tag-along, he couldn't succeed.
Every time he asked the girl to leave, Diana would say that Charles was her guardian and that she had to follow him, then look at Charles with a pitiful expression, making him soften immediately.
Now Charles regretted having brought this trouble upon himself.
While talking with Diana , Tom came to announce that old Biddle and his son were visiting.
This was the first visit from the father and son since the inheritance dispute case.
Charles glanced at Diana beside him and still nodded, allowing Tom to invite them in.
"Mr. Biddle, Biddle, welcome to my home!" Charles personally went to the hall entrance to greet the Biddle father and son, and did not forget to instruct the servant: "Tom, prepare refreshments."
"Councilor Charles! You are a busy man, and we only came to visit today because we heard from Jonathan (James) that you were free." old Biddle took off his hat and held it to his chest, bowing deeply, "We haven't properly thanked you for your help last time.
Without your advice, our family might have gone bankrupt by now."
Charles knew he wasn't being sarcastic, smiled and nodded, inviting the father and son into the house.
Biddle felt a bit awkward when he saw countess Diana still sitting in the inner room.
However, old Biddle, the real party involved who had participated in the property dispute, acted as if nothing had happened, smiling and greeting Diana.
Diana was not clear about the details of the case, only knowing that the Biddle family had helped her in the end with the inheritance dispute, so she also returned a friendly greeting.
After the tea was served, Diana retreated to her room, and the formal conversation began.
"Councilor Charles, I heard you are preparing to establish a bank?"
"Yes, that's right, I do have that intention." Charles nodded.
He had already asked James to go to the city hall to handle the relevant procedures, and of course, he knew that such a matter could not be kept secret, so he was not surprised that the Biddle family had received the news.
"Haha! Councilor Charles, establishing a bank is definitely a profitable business.
Our family has been preparing for decades, but a bank requires a very large capital space.
After so many years of preparation, due to a large amount of capital being invested in real estate, operations became unstable, making it even more impossible to raise funds to establish a bank.
I didn't expect Councilor Charles to be able to do it first!" old Biddle said with emotion.
Charles smiled slightly.
He wondered if old Biddle wanted to learn his method of establishing a bank, or if he wanted to ask if his bank was targeting their family.
However, this Biddle family was truly amusing; he had never heard of preparing for decades to establish a bank.
Morris' Bank of America didn't seem to have any special preparations.
Was there really some secret to it?
"Mr. Biddle, as long as the bank's capital is sufficient for circulation, is there anything else special required?"
"How can it be enough just to have circulating capital? You need to allocate appropriate police force, prepare corresponding reserve vaults, and the key is to provide a safe reserve environment.
However, the income from accepting deposits is not even enough to cover these expenses, so there must also be a reliable and stable investment channel, otherwise, the bank can only act as a gold custodian.
Therefore, to establish a bank, there are many things to prepare.
First, the location of the bank must be as safe and reliable as possible; then, it is..."
Upon hearing Charles' request for advice, old Biddle immediately listed a large number of requirements and precautions.
The tedious procedures and requirements astonished Charles, who had felt that banks were very simple.
However, he felt that if he followed old Biddle's advice, he could probably establish the most complete bank of this era, definitely different from the specialized bank he had established in Pittsburgh.
In fact, the main requirements old Biddle proposed were also very simple: the bank should have a stable source of income and must utilize bank deposits effectively.
To put it simply, they must find a good lending channel.
In fact, this is similar to how early imperialist countries, those great powers, profited by lending through banks.
A stable and reliable lending channel is essential for establishing a bank.
For example, Morris' Bank of America's lending channels were providing war loans to the Continental Congress and government loans to various colonial states.
Even Charles' Pittsburgh Bank, which profited through remote deposits and withdrawals, was essentially a disguised form of deposits in one place and loans in another.
Establishing a bank still had so many troublesome matters.
Then, was his bank in Pittsburgh not considered a bank?
His mind wandered for a moment, and he missed some of old Biddle's words.
"Ahem!" A dry cough brought Charles back to his senses.
"Hmm? What?"
Charles saw an embarrassed old Biddle and a smiling Biddle.
"Haha! Charles, my father wants to ask if there is still room to increase the capital of this bank you are establishing.
Our family hopes to be able to appropriately acquire shares in the bank as well." Biddle, as Charles' friend, was easier to talk to, so he repeated the proposal on behalf of old Biddle.
"Acquire shares?" Charles frowned.
His original plan was just to establish a branch of the Pittsburgh Bank, and the main business here was just remote deposit and withdrawal services; he hadn't intended to operate it like a normal bank.
However, the Biddle father and son before him were true bankers, very knowledgeable about running a bank.
If they joined, he could completely establish a real bank.
However, he didn't have much capital at hand right now, and if they acquired shares, it was very likely to squeeze his capital into a minority share.
And according to old Biddle, the key to a bank's profitability was a stable lending channel.
The Pittsburgh Bank's lending channel was completely in his hands.
If they took the majority of the shares but used the channels he provided to make money, wouldn't he be the scapegoat?
Charles gently shook his head.