Chapter 609 New Year, New Hope

Chapter 610 New year, new hope

After talking with George III for nearly two hours, little Pete finally felt confident.

The king still supported him.

He saw the familiar figure of Dr. Willis appear at the door and said hurriedly:

"Your Majesty, I will calm down the gas street lamp situation as soon as possible. However, Lord Fox..."

He was talking about James Fox, leader of the opposition Whig party.

"Our focus is on the French strategy, and this requires a stable cabinet. On the Whig side, I will advise them not to cause trouble."

Before George III finished speaking, Dr. Willis came over, leaned over and said:

"Your Majesty, it's time for your treatment. There is also a leech and mustard healing treatment tonight, which will make your spirit more relaxed."

George III suffers from porphyria, which causes brain problems from time to time, so he has been living in Windsor Castle for treatment recently.

Treatment items include binding, scolding, whipping, sticks, bloodletting, poisonous insects, etc.

Well, the King of England's physical fitness is indeed good. He endured these "tortures" and mental illness and lived to the age of 82.

George III's legs could not help but tremble slightly, but he still gritted his teeth to steady his emotions, and finally told Little Pete:

"If that doesn't work, direct people's attention abroad, Mr. Prime Minister."

…

In calm days, time always flies by.

Not long after Christmas, the early spring breeze began to caress the land of France.

The conference hall of the Palace of Versailles was warmed by the fireplace, and the cabinet ministers sitting around the conference table were all smiling and chatting in low voices from time to time.

Obviously, in the past year, everyone was quite satisfied with their results. The topic of today's cabinet meeting is the submission of last year's statistics by various departments.

In the past, Joseph would discuss the areas they were responsible for individually with each minister, but he has been presiding over cabinet meetings for the past six months. This year, he simply put the annual summary here.

On the one hand, various departments can compare with each other to increase everyone's sense of competition.

On the other hand, it can also strengthen cooperation between different departments. For example, the Minister of Trade will formulate this year's work plan based on the growth rate of industry.

Queen Mary sat at the head of the table. After everyone saluted, she looked at Brian with a smile and said:

"Archbishop Brian, then please begin."

Although she no longer cared much about specific affairs, she was always worried that these unruly ministers would dissatisfy the crown prince, so she insisted on coming to "take charge" of her son.

Brian bowed to the queen and the crown prince, first said some routine remarks, and then went straight to the topic:

"...According to the arrangement of the topic, let me first explain last year's financial situation."

After hearing this, all the ministers picked up the "1791 National Financial Report" that had been placed on the table and looked through it.

The corners of Brian's mouth kept rising and he couldn't hold it down:

"With the blessing of God and the careful management of Her Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness the Dauphin, the country's total fiscal revenue last year reached 740 million francs. An increase of 110 million francs from last year!"

In fact, the ministers had heard in advance about the huge increase in fiscal revenue, but they did not expect it to increase so much. They were all very excited immediately and nodded their congratulations to Brian.

This is an annual growth rate of 17%! Even in the era of the Industrial Revolution, it was an extremely brilliant achievement.

The smile on Brian's face became even thicker. He didn't even look at the document. He had obviously memorized it by heart:

"Last year's total fiscal expenditure was 640 million francs.

"In other words, we achieved a high surplus of 98 million francs!"

After he finished speaking, he felt a little choked up. He lowered his head and took a few deep breaths to calm down his emotions.

It’s no wonder he was so excited. He couldn’t remember how long it had been, probably since the late years of Louis XIV. France’s finances had been troubled by the nightmare of deficit, and all previous finance ministers were accused of incompetence.

Finally, in this year, a historic turnaround was achieved.

This is definitely a great achievement that will still be mentioned by the French more than a hundred years later!

Queen Mary immediately stood up excitedly, applauded Brian and said:

"Thank you for your excellent and productive work! You have opened a new chapter for France and made the country full of hope again!"

Everyone else also stood up and applauded Brian.

Brian looked at Joseph and said seriously:

"All of this stems from the major financial and tax reforms led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I am just following His Highness's instructions."

This is definitely not modesty on his part.

His ability can only be regarded as average among recent finance ministers. If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had not made many strange moves, let alone fiscal surpluses, he might have stepped down due to debt crises countless times in the past two years.

All the ministers looked at Joseph in unison, and their eyes clearly said - indeed.

Joseph smiled and said: "The French finance will always be in surplus in your hands, Archbishop Brian, and no one will ignore your huge contribution. Congratulations to you, and congratulations to France!"

He did not hesitate to praise Brian, after all, he was an old subordinate, and the latter was loyal to him.

Everyone immediately chanted "Congratulations to France" and "Congratulations to Archbishop Briand", and then praised Joseph highly. It took a long time before they sat down again.

Brian continued: "This year, our total debt will be reduced to 1.98 billion francs.

"If the debt replacement plan is implemented smoothly, this year's fixed interest expenses can be reduced to 84 million francs."

The "replacement plan" he mentioned is to raise funds by selling low-interest government bonds to repurchase previous high-interest loans and replace high and low. But this requires a prerequisite, that is, the public is optimistic about France's development, so that the government bond interest rate can be lowered.

Brian obviously thinks that there is no need to worry about the sales of government bonds, because he has read last year's industrial and agricultural reports.

Everyone cheered and applauded again. Although France's total debt is still extremely high, in terms of this interest rate, it is already close to a healthy range. If this momentum is maintained, France will be able to completely... Get out of the shadow of debt!

However, compared with the jubilation of others, Joseph seemed calmer.

He knew very well that the high fiscal surplus last year was just a special case and it would be difficult to repeat it in the future.

First, a large number of tax farmers were dealt with at the beginning of the year and their property was confiscated, which brought in tens of millions of francs.

In fact, due to the lack of proficiency of the tax bureau, tax revenue even declined. It was not until the implementation of the value-added tax system that the situation improved.

Second, the booming "special trade" contributed tens of millions of francs to the treasury in just about 4 months.