Chapter 425 Tunisia Development

Chapter 426 Tunisia Development

Just when Camelia was so nervous that she didn't know what to do, Perna, who had been hiding at the end of the corridor and peeking, saw the girl who was so beautiful that her heart trembled running out of the crown prince's dormitory, and then returned to her own After waiting for a long time in the room, I finally let out a long sigh of relief.

She didn't know why she did this. In short, ever since the girl named Camelia appeared, she felt an inexplicable sense of crisis in her heart.

Especially as a personal doctor, she has not been in the same car with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for a long time - His Highness often works in the car, and Mr. Eman said that would affect His Highness - and on the way out of Vienna, Came Leah was always in His Highness's car.

Perna turned around and pressed her back against the wall, silently shaking her head, no, she shouldn't have any other thoughts. But the next moment, the prince's handsome appearance occupied her mind.

"Perhaps, I should be braver, otherwise Your Highness will be..."

She seemed to be frightened by her own words. She suddenly became excited and hurriedly ran back to her room with her head lowered. She couldn't help but say in her heart: God, please give me guidance!

From the next day, Joseph unexpectedly discovered that Dr. Perna seemed to be constantly looking for excuses to hang around him.

After he coughed several times, she even said she wanted to confirm whether her pneumonia had returned, so she stayed in her carriage.

The carriage became a little crowded. In the end, Eman got out of the car helplessly and followed the Crown Prince's car on horseback.

In the carriage, Joseph started busy compiling reports on Tunisia's immigration policy. The two girls greeted each other politely and then bowed their heads in silence.

In this strange atmosphere, Perna was so embarrassed that she could dig out a Versailles Palace with her toes, but she still gritted her teeth and insisted on sitting there, stealing glances from time to time at the charming grace of the Crown Prince as he handled government affairs seriously.

In this way, under the protection of the two girls, Joseph finally made it all the way to Paris without any "accidents."

Perna did not become "brave" after all. And Camelia still hasn't found the "trick".

Joseph was well taken care of, and he took Camelia to the Little Trianon in high spirits to pay homage to his mother.

Queen Mary hugged Mrs. Delvaux's granddaughter, tears streaming down her face like a stream, and then she was about to announce that Camelia would be her third maid.

However, Countess de Berninac immediately reminded her carefully that Miss Delvaux was not suitable to be a maid to Her Majesty the Queen, given her background.

In the end, Queen Mary had to comply with the palace rules and let Camelia be her maid, so that she could stay with her [Note 1].

Joseph came out from his mother's house and as soon as he reached the door of his bedroom, he saw Brian waiting there.

The latter came up to him from afar, saluted him and said: "

Your Highness, I congratulate you on a series of important diplomatic achievements in Vienna. Our alliance with Austria has deepened. "

"This is all with the blessing of God." Joseph made the sign of the cross skillfully, and then motioned the chief minister to enter the room, "Is there something urgent for you? Oh, please sit down and talk."

Brian nodded hurriedly and said:

"Yes, Your Highness. It's Tunisia. The 'Tunisia Trade and Construction Plan' you formulated previously has been implemented, but we have encountered some troubles due to the behavior of certain tribes."

Joseph frowned slightly when he heard this. After Moreau and Ney held Tamirai, the Scherer Army completely drove the Moroccan army back to Algiers, and Tunisia's security environment was greatly improved.

Then, under the propaganda of the government, France began a second wave of development boom in Tunisia. Tens of thousands of business and agricultural immigrants flocked to Tunisia, causing signs of an economic boom there.

So Joseph prepared in advance, formulated a decree, canceled local tariffs and tolls between various places in Tunisia, reduced commercial taxes, and began to widen roads, lay wooden tracks and other infrastructure.

In Tunisia's political map, tribal forces dominate villages and towns. There had been trouble before with the tribe refusing to pay taxes, and Joseph used the "Versailles" model to resolve it. What happened again this time?

He looked at Brian and said, "Please tell me the details."

"Yes, Your Highness." Brian nodded, "The main problem is that the large tribes do not allow certain foreign goods to enter the villages and towns.

“At the same time, almost all tribes charge high ‘safety fees’ on the roads they control.

"In addition, they often extort businessmen and farmers who go to cultivate land."

He looked bitter: "You know, Tunisia does not have enough troops and can only be stationed near big cities. It has no ability to govern these distant tribes. And even if the army is sent to deter them, they will express their compliance in person. According to the decree, the status quo will be restored immediately after the army leaves.”

Joseph's expression also became serious.

Let alone North Africa in the 18th century, even in the 21st century, it is difficult for governments in many countries to effectively manage local forces.

Especially for a force like a tribe, which is maintained by blood relations, it is even more difficult for external forces to intervene.

The Tunisian tribes were relatively accepting of taxation, a matter that had existed since the Phoenician era, but now that they were asked not to charge arbitrary fees or to circulate goods freely, they began to resist.

Joseph originally planned to use Tunisia as a pilot to test local tax reforms, and then promote them in France. Unexpectedly, he encountered such great resistance.

Brian said carefully: "Your Highness, do you think you should implement the decree in big cities first, and then expand the scope after Tunisians get used to it."

Joseph shook his head immediately. He is still waiting for Tunisia's dividends to feed back to the French treasury. If he does it slowly like this, it may not be promoted in ten or eight years.

Moreover, this will make the Tunisian tribes realize that the government can't do anything to them, and there will still be various obstacles when there are new decrees in the future.

He couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Fundamentally speaking, the reason why local forces do not obey government management lies in transportation and communication.

The roads are not smooth, and the tribes have too little contact with the outside world, which will inevitably form an independent "small world". Only when there are more exchanges with the outside world and the formation of interest relations can they integrate into the whole country.

This requires building roads as soon as possible, but it is not something that can be completed overnight to build infrastructure across Tunisia.

The other is to significantly increase the number of troops or police, and use violent machines to monitor and intimidate the tribes at any time, so that they dare not disobey the law.

But this requires a huge amount of funds. Maintaining more than 100,000 troops in the whole of Tunisia may solve the problem, but most of the tax revenue will be eaten up by military expenses.

When Joseph thought of this, he was suddenly stunned. Wait, if you want to use the army to intimidate the tribes, you don’t have to station the army near the tribes...

[Note 1]: The queen’s maid is a kind of palace official position, usually held by nobles with high status and close relationship with the queen, who can take walks with the queen, play games, etc. Maids are simple servants, the kind that can only stand at the door at ordinary times.