Chapter 20 Budget (seeking investment)

Castries' face turned green, and he shouted with wide eyes: "Your Highness, how can you say that? The fleet is the sharpest spear in France, and it must not..."

Joseph looked at him calmly: "Marquis of Castries, while we are building one warship, how many can the British build?"

"This," Castelli said without confidence, "about a ship and a half..."

When he saw the Crown Prince smiling and not saying anything, he said angrily: "Two ships. The British Prince's new ships are indeed launched very quickly, even more than two!"

Joseph nodded: "In other words, no matter how hard we build ships, we can never defeat the British Navy."

He said something that everyone present knew but never dared to say openly, and there was a sudden silence.

Joseph continued: "If this is the case, why waste a lot of resources on building ships? If we are to escort merchant ships, the current fleet is enough."

He naturally knows the importance of the fleet, and he will certainly not object to the expansion of the navy. What he objects to is the continued waste of money on large and useless old-fashioned sailing battleships.

Britain has great advantages in shipbuilding. Not only does it have numerous shipyards, skilled craftsmen, and sufficient funds, but it is also isolated overseas. It can transfer the resources of the army to the navy, but France cannot.

If the competition is purely based on the number of ships built, France will definitely lose. The Battle of Trafalgar more than ten years later was proof that even though France tried its best to produce warships and joined forces with the Spanish and Dutch fleets, it was still pinned to the bottom of the sea by the British navy.

After the friction, the French maritime trade routes were completely blocked by the British. From then on, the emperor gradually entered a decline, and Britain eventually became "the sun never sets."

Therefore, there is only one way out - abandon the currently popular multi-layered sail warships, use the advanced technology in your mind, go directly to the ironclad ship, equip it with steam engines and stronger artillery, and reduce the dimensionality of British warships.

But he couldn't talk about these plans at the cabinet meeting. At least Orleans was very likely to leak the news.

"But..." Castries knew that the crown prince was sophistry, but at the moment he didn't know how to refute it. He was only worried that the queen would really listen to him and lay off all the new ships.

Brian gave Joseph an approving look. This young man knows how to bargain! Moreover, he has just taken office, and he knows that he may be a good assistant to help with his fiscal reduction plan.

He coughed lightly and said pretentiously: "Your Highness, although our finances are a little tight, we must not give up on naval development. Reducing one battleship is the limit."

Mono also advised: "Our overseas colonies also need warships to guard them, otherwise the mobs there will cause trouble every day."

Finally, Queen Mary made the decision: "Joseph, you can't cut expenses too radically. The Marquis of Castries, for the time being, will follow Archbishop Briand's plan and reduce one battleship and two second-level ships. But the cost of other new ships Construction, I hope you can review it carefully to avoid waste."

Castries' new ship was almost destroyed by the group. At this moment, he nodded feebly: "Yes, Your Majesty."

He secretly sighed in his heart: The Crown Prince is still too young and does not understand the significance of the navy to the country. He only wants to reduce expenditures. He must communicate with him more in the future to let him change his mind.

Brian successfully won the most difficult navy, and he felt a lot more relaxed, and then read out the subsequent reduction plan: "I believe everyone has heard about the situation in the Netherlands. The Patriot Party only resisted for less than a month. They were defeated by the Prussians. In view of this, I think that the aid to the Dutch Patriot Party can be discontinued, which will save the treasury 250,000 livres every month."

Joseph frowned slightly, recalling information about the Dutch Patriot Party movement.

This was an uprising initiated by the new capitalists and citizens of the Netherlands to overthrow William V. With French funding, they succeeded in driving the consul William V out of the Netherlands and established a federal provincial assembly.

Later, under the planning of William V's wife, Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, Prussia sent troops to intervene. The Patriot Party was defeated, William V was restored, and all the French's early investment was in vain.

All the cabinet ministers expressed their approval to abandon the Dutch Rebel Army. After all, 20,000 Prussian regular troops had already entered the Netherlands. The Patriot Party's small force was no match for them and they should stop their losses as soon as possible.

Queen Mary looked around: "Any other comments?"

"I think..." Joseph stood up.

Minister of War Saint-Priest originally wanted to struggle a little longer. After all, he had invested a lot of money in the Netherlands. When he saw the Crown Prince speaking out, he immediately felt cold. Judging from his move to cut off all the new ships in the navy, it should be He belongs to the anti-war faction, and the queen loves him very much. The Dutch's aid will definitely be in vain.

Joseph said loudly: "Your Majesty, I believe that not only cannot we interrupt the aid to the Patriot Party, but we must also increase our efforts, and even pose a posture of sending troops to Prussia, we must not let the Patriot Party collapse!"

"Oh?" The queen was very surprised, "Tell me your reasons."

“First of all, the Netherlands is the outlet of the Rhine Channel. If it can be held in our hands, it will be able to effectively contain Prussia.

“Secondly, the Netherlands has developed commerce. If we bring it under our control, we can earn back aid from trade alone.

"Finally, we will have a war with Prussia in the future, and the Netherlands can contain a large number of Prussian troops in the west."

"And if Prussia is allowed to control the Netherlands, all of this will become a boost to Prussia!"

In fact, Joseph still has two points left to say.

First, the Netherlands has large reserves of coal and iron. Now that the starting gun of the industrial revolution has been fired, whoever has more coal and iron resources will have a greater advantage in the future.

Second, the Patriots are very good at inciting trouble. After they are driven out of the Netherlands by Prussia, they will flock to France. Historically, they often caused troubles in France under the influence of Da Qi.

As soon as he finished speaking, all the cabinet ministers looked a little strange.

What the Crown Prince said is indeed very reasonable, but while he strongly opposes building warships, he supports aiding the Dutch, especially his statement that "there must be a war with Prussia." Could it be that...

They lowered their heads and tried not to think about the worst possibility.

Brian was the first to speak: "Your Highness, our financial situation no longer allows us to give more money to the Dutch."

Joseph said: "Didn't you save a lot of money on building a warship just now? Give some to them."

Admiral Castries almost cried, thank you, Your Highness.

The Minister of War burst into tears of joy. Thank you so much, Your Highness.

"This..." Brian began to feel grateful that the financial decision-making power was still in his hands.

Queen Mary came to his rescue and said: "Joseph, your reasons are very good, but even if we give more aid to the Patriot Party, they may not be able to stop the Prussian army."

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