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Shortly before starting for the Russian expedition Napoleon vainly tried to reassure the merchants and financiers of France then face to face with a sharp financial crisis.
The attitude of several of his colleagues was more equivocal, but though they coquetted with French financiers in the hope of obtaining the support of the Paris Bourse for Italian securities, the precipitate renewal of the alliance destroyed all probability of a close understanding with France.
This commercial policy had indeed a deeper and more fatal effect than the alienation of the towns; it secularized still further the brethren of the Order, and made them financiers instead of soldiers.
The financial arrangement as finally agreed upon was that German financiers should control 40% of the capital of the line; French (through the Imperial Ottoman Bank), 30%; Austrian, Swiss, Italian and Turkish, 20%; and the Anatolian Railway Company, io %.