Chapter 209 North Africa Development Plan

Chapter 210 North Africa Development Plan

When the nobles in the Hall of Mirrors finished their salutes and the sound of admiration gradually weakened, Queen Mary looked at Joseph again, her expression full of doting and pride:

"And my excellent son, your Royal Highness the Crown Prince! As we all know, it was he who first proposed the plan to go to North Africa to fight against the Barbary pirates, and gave many key suggestions on the specific implementation process. Finally, we welcome Here comes this great victory!”

Well, that's right. She mentioned her husband first just to take care of His Majesty the King's face. What she really wanted to praise from the beginning was her precious son.

She couldn't help but smile when she thought of her son's various outstanding performances in the past - first, his son said he would join forces with the United States to fight pirates, which saved France a lot of money and also received thanks from the United States and Russia.

Then, his son proposed last month that the newly formed Bell Corps should be mobilized to go to North Africa to provide support. At the time, she thought she was going to help the navy, but she didn't expect that this small army of 3,000 people would directly take over the pirates' lair, and also help the young king of Tunisia regain his throne and help France in Tunisia. West Asia has gained huge benefits.

Yes, the queen only knew that 3,000 men from Berthier's Army were sent to North Africa. As for the more than 1,100 police academy students, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince paid for them to go on vacation in foreign countries, and they were not reported to her at all.

The nobles in the Hall of Mirrors immediately saluted Joseph together again, and they heard all kinds of beautiful words:

"His Royal Highness the Dauphin will bring a bright future to France!"

"Praise the Son of God!"

"The best prince in France..."

"Your Highness is the embodiment of talent and wisdom..."

After nearly a year of "training", Joseph Rao has become immune to rainbow farts, and at this time he felt goosebumps all over his body.

Louis XVI, on the other hand, patted his son on the shoulder with a proud look on his face. He was even happier than when everyone was praising him just now.

Not to mention the queen, she had only one thought in her mind: her son’s outstanding judgment and talent are indeed worthy of my blood...

The little aristocratic girls in the hall looked at Joseph with eyes full of admiration and fascination - the Crown Prince was indeed the best, most handsome, and most suitable to be the lover of his dreams!

Moreover, His Highness has something more than last year.

Well, I have obviously grown taller and stronger, and even my Adam's apple is more prominent! obvious……

When the Yingying Yanyans thought of this, their cheeks suddenly turned crimson, and His Highness was obviously "cooked".

So, what method can be used to trick him into bed first? He doesn't have an official mistress yet!

They had automatically ignored Clementine, who was trying her best to act fierce and fierce next to His Highness. After these few months of observation, everyone knows that the little princess of Tuscany only looks fussy, but is actually quite easy-going, and most importantly, has no scheming intentions.

As a result, the minds of the Yingying Yanyans became active again - the rule of the Palace of Versailles has always been that the Crown Princess is the Crown Princess, and the mistress is the mistress. Let's talk about it and discuss it...

As the crowd's praises died down, Louis XVI and Queen Mary came to the center of the hall and began to dance the opening dance to Handel's "Water Music".

Standing in the back row of many nobles, a young nobleman wearing a brown coat looked at the grand celebration scene and muttered to himself with some confusion:

"It's just that there are more pirates caught. Is it necessary to hold such a grand ceremony? Pirates were never caught like this before..."

A middle-aged noble next to him heard what he said and immediately corrected:

"The celebration this time is not just about the elimination of pirates. You see, France spent almost no money and only sent 3,000 soldiers, and gained huge benefits in North Africa."

“That’s true,” the fat man beside him nodded. “According to the news, we will be able to purchase land and open factories in Tunisia in the future. Moreover, France also has Tunisia’s tariff most-favored nation status [Note 1]. "

He said and smiled: "It can be said that except that there is no right to appoint and remove officials, it can almost be regarded as a French colony."

The nobleman in the brown coat widened his eyes: "So that's it! Then we really should celebrate. Since the Seven Years' War, France has not been able to obtain overseas benefits for a long time due to the interference of the British!"

The fat man continued: "And Tunisia is a very good place. The land is fertile and it also produces iron and olives. It is quite wealthy."

"It seems that within a few years, there will be a lot of benefits for France. Our Lord Chancellor of the Finance will definitely be very happy."

"Ha! God bless my king, God bless France!"

"God bless my king!"

Unlike most people in the hall, a small group of nobles with military background standing near the band did not seem so happy.

An officer whispered: "Which of you knows the origin of that Berthier Legion?"

The man next to him also lowered his voice: "It seems that Berthier used to be General Custinat's subordinate, and later he was recommended by Breteuil and came to Paris to serve. After the incident in the French Guard, he took over some of the troops and formed This legion."

"It seems like he must be very rich, otherwise how could he climb so fast..."

An officer in his fifties with deep lines at the corners of his eyes interrupted him and said bitterly: "I don't want to care about his resume. I just want to ask, how dare he lead troops to North Africa without notifying us?! I heard that even the Marquis of St. Priest didn’t know about his sending troops!”

These military aristocrats have formed a "community of interests" a long time ago and monopolize military resources in their own hands. Any large-scale military deployment must be negotiated by them before it can be carried out.

Otherwise, either the troops will not be able to move, or the officers involved will be squeezed out, or you will not be able to win a war worth 1 million livres even if you spend 5 million.

"The transfer was directly ordered by the royal family." Another officer said, "It did not go through the Minister of War."

"How is this possible?!" The general with lines at the corners of his eyes said excitedly, "We must not set this precedent! I mean, let the royal family use force as they please..."

Several people around him hurriedly signaled him to be silent. Fortunately, the music was quite loud and no other nobles heard it.

Not to mention political factors, if their people were used to fight in North Africa this time, they would at least make a million livres out of it.

And that Berthier went behind their backs, so the money was wasted.

Several other generals also nodded: "The royal family wants to get past us."

"Gotta avoid letting the royal family control the army!"

However, a younger officer waved his hand and said: "General Astu, actually you don't need to be too nervous.

"It's just a small army of 3,000 people, and it can't do much.

“Just like this time, if they hadn’t been lucky and happened to encounter the Tunisian coup, they wouldn’t have been able to enter Tunisia city with just the few people they had.

"When encountering a real large-scale battle in the future, the royal family will have to come to us. At that time, we can completely negotiate terms with the royal family based on the ownership of the Berthier Legion.

"Aren't all problems solved?"

After the King and Queen's opening dance, Joseph danced the second dance as usual. His dance partner is naturally Clementine.

It is still the simplest sarabande dance. Two people with obvious height differences just hold their heads high and pose in various poses while politely circling relative to each other.

It's simply the most embarrassing thing in the whole room.

After the dance, Joseph immediately fled to a quiet corner. Soon, Mirabeau, who also didn't like dancing, came over and told him about Tunisia's investment plan.

Originally, this area should be the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior, but Joseph knew Monod's limitations, so he asked Mirabeau to lead people to make plans, and then directly submit them to the cabinet meeting for signature.

However, when Joseph heard Mirabeau say that "it will take three to four years" to "plan for 50,000 people to go to Tunisia", he couldn't help but frown slightly.

According to his vision, it would be best to harvest a large amount of food from Tunisia next year to alleviate the food shortage problem in France. It would be even better if there could be a certain scale of industrial and trade income at the same time.

But if 50,000 people immigrate only in three to four years, it will have almost no effect.

"Can the speed and scale of this immigration be accelerated?" He looked at Mirabeau and asked.

"Your Highness, this is the fastest plan we have come up with after studying it." Mirabeau said, "You know, although the land price in Tunisia is very cheap, it will cost a lot to buy a large piece of land. Money. In addition, the travel expenses and settlement expenses for traveling to a foreign country are considerable, and there is little output in the first half of the year. Therefore, people without a certain financial background cannot go there at all.

"And few rich people are willing to leave France. After all, the environment in North Africa is not that comfortable. If the first batch of people who go there make money, only when the news spreads back to the country, more qualified people will be willing It’s risky, but it will definitely take a while to build scale.”

Joseph fell silent upon hearing this.

It seems that I think it is too simple.

The real world is not like playing games. With a simple swipe of the mouse, hundreds of thousands of people will immediately follow the order.

If every living person is asked to spend their savings and take risks in a strange land, most people will not be willing to do so.

Could it be that the achievements in North Africa really cannot be converted into profits in a short period of time?

He searched through all the immigration cases in his mind, and suddenly his eyes lit up. A century later, wasn't the unprecedented scale of Americans' immigration action the best example? We can definitely learn from their Western Development Plan and launch a North African Development Plan.

Joseph sorted out his thoughts and said to Mirabeau: "Maybe we can solve the problem from another angle."

"You mean?"

“Since the rich don’t want to go to North Africa and suffer hardship, then we let the poor go!”

Mirabeau was stunned, shook his head and said: "Your Highness, this is probably unlikely...poor people can't even afford the necessary travel expenses."

"The government provides loan support." Joseph followed the American method back then and combined with the current situation in France. "Travel expenses, seed money, farm tool money, and even the living expenses for the first half of the year are all loaned to French farmers by banks. Do you think everyone Is 300 livres enough?”

"This shouldn't be needed. Your Highness, more than 200 livres will be enough. If we organize a fleet to transport it on a large scale, it can be even less."

"Very good." Joseph nodded. "As for the land, the bank financed it from Tunisians and handed it over directly to the farmers for cultivation. After 10 years of cultivation, the land will be owned by them. During this period, they only need to pay a fee every year. The government pays a portion of the grain harvest.

"The land in Tunisia is fertile and they can borrow the harvest and repay the loan very quickly."

Mirabeau was surprised and said: "Your Highness, if this is the case, the government will spend a lot of money...I'm afraid it will be tens of millions of livres."

"That's worth it too!"

Joseph knows that drought this year and next will cause significant crop losses. There will be unavoidable famine by the middle of next year at most. By then, the government will have to spend a lot of money to purchase food for disaster relief.

It is better to invest some of the money in Tunisia now, and the increased food harvest can still cope with the famine. And this is a stable source of food - there is enough sunshine and rain in that place, so you can harvest three crops a year if you grow whatever you like.

"It won't take long for Tunisia's rich products to earn back the initial investment."

Mirabeau thought and nodded slowly. Indeed, as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, if the number of French people in Tunisia increases, the large amount of iron products, olives, and livestock there can be developed because there will be market demand. And then sold throughout North Africa.

He suddenly thought of another question: "Your Highness, with such a large investment, our finances may..."

"Let me figure this out."

Joseph couldn't help but sigh, thinking that he could first set up a Tunisian development fund to attract private investment, but he didn't know whether domestic capital was very interested in North Africa.

If that doesn't work, issue a batch of high-interest public bonds. Fortunately, France's debt has been alleviated to a certain extent. Judging from the current financial situation, it should still be barely affordable.

But in that case, the interest rate on the national debt that just dropped will rise again.

Oh, money, why is it so hard to make money?

…

U.K.

London.

Parliament Hall, St. James's Palace.

"Obviously, the French have successfully deceived us." A bespectacled congressman glanced at the Foreign Secretary, the Duke of Leeds, with a sarcastic tone, "We spent 400,000 pounds for our unrelated North African 'neighbor' Al Jier strengthened the shore defenses, oh, and dozens of cannons.

"The result is that France can only watch helplessly as France gains almost colonial benefits in Tunisia."

The Duke of Leeds squeezed his fist hard under the table. While these Whig guys were blowing the sea breeze in the Mediterranean, eating bacon and drinking sour wine, they were all enjoying themselves in the mansion in London.

At this time, he jumped out and blamed himself!

The corners of his eyes twitched, but he put on a smile: "Congressman James, you may have remembered wrongly, it is 360,000 pounds. I have not spent all the budget."

[Note 1] Most-favored-nation refers to: If country A enjoys the most-favored-nation treatment of country B, then the trade preferences and exemptions granted by B to any other country must also be granted to A. To put it simply, B’s import tariffs on A will be lower than anyone else’s.