Chapter 611: France's Achievements
Chapter 612 France's Achievements
After two years of vigorous promotion, "stone fertilizer", that is, phosphate fertilizer, has been widely accepted by French farmers.
After all, this thing can really increase wheat production by more than 10%, and the price is not expensive-phosphate ore is just stone at the place of origin, basically free of charge, and all costs are incurred in the transportation link, so it is very cheap.
In addition, with the vigorous promotion of agricultural service consulting companies and churches, almost every French farmer has made new compost.
Phosphate fertilizer plus compost increased France's wheat and potato production last year by about 14% compared with the previous year, and this is because a lot of land was converted to beet, otherwise it would be higher.
At the same time, the fertility of the land has also been significantly improved, and the fallow period has been extended from three years to four years.
However, Vergniaud seemed to think that this growth rate was not good enough compared to Mirabeau's amazing industrial data, so he just mentioned it in a few simple sentences.
In fact, after French farmers had the right to redeem land, their willingness to improve planting technology was greatly improved than before, and various new agricultural tools and fertilizers were quickly rolled out with the help of agricultural service consulting companies.
After experiencing various natural disasters in the past few years and facing the threat of famine, France's agriculture has now completely stabilized.
Vergniaud then talked about the olive plantations in Tunisia.
In fact, France has imported olive oil from Tunisia for a long time, but due to limited quantities, the French still use butter or sunflower oil for cooking.
However, Vergniaud, the Minister of Agriculture, is still very diligent. When he was promoting the composting method in Tunisia at the beginning of last year, he accidentally noticed the olives there.
Tunisia is definitely a paradise for olives. The plants grow rapidly, there are almost no diseases and pests, and the yield is very high.
However, the olive trees here are almost unattended, growing together with shrubs and weeds, and even letting monkeys and birds eat the ripe fruits.
So he thought of promoting the olive plantation model in Tunisia.
After seeing his planning plan, Joseph immediately approved it and gave him additional tax reduction and tree species subsidy policy benefits.
At first, Joseph just wanted to use this to develop Tunisia's economy, but unexpectedly, Vergniaud did a good job and got unexpected gains.
In Tunisia, olive trees are everywhere. It only takes a little money to enclose a large area of olive trees, which is basically a plantation.
If the government subsidy is included, the investment is almost negligible.
So many French immigrants in Tunisia and local nobles have started olive plantations.
The nearby Tunisian tribes provide sufficient labor for these plantations. Even women and children in the tribe can earn a little income by doing some weeding and watering.
Under the promotion of Vergniaud, hundreds of plantations of various sizes were built in Tunisia in just one year.
Under the careful care of the plantation owners, the olive production has increased greatly compared with the past. Last year, the total amount of olive oil shipped from Tunisia to France increased by 190%!
On the other hand, Vergniaud, with the support of Mirabeau, encouraged investors to build 4 large oil mills in Tunisia, which directly squeezed and barreled at the place of production, further reducing transportation costs.
Under a series of measures, the price of olive oil in the French market is currently lower than that of sunflower oil, and the French are more and more willing to use oil when cooking.
"Beef with Asparagus" is a popular dish in Paris recently. It is fried with olive oil and is considered a "petty bourgeois" dish for the common people. Even bakeries that are more particular will add a little olive oil to improve the taste when making black bread.
In his report, Vergniaud mentioned that three new oil mills will be built in Tunisia this year. Considering the expansion speed of plantations, the price of olive oil can be reduced by another 15% after the olive harvest in October.
What Vergniaud did not expect at the beginning was that due to the good income of olive plantations - the crown prince gave a 60% tax reduction - more French people were attracted to immigrate to Tunisia to run plantations.
The number of immigrants last year was close to 100,000. Currently, there are more than 250,000 registered Tunisian immigrants. There are also many who came by boat from Italy, Spain and other places, and it is estimated that there are still 20,000 to 30,000 people.
At the same time, the olive trade has also promoted the construction of towns in Tunisia. At present, with several oil mills as the center, it has gradually developed into a small town, and two of them have even begun to raise funds to build wooden tracks to the port of Bizerte.
It can be said that Vergniaud used the "olive strategy" to put Tunisia's development on the fast track.
After the Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Trade and the Minister of Household Registration also spoke one after another.
However, their achievements were overshadowed by the brilliance of the previous three and seemed a bit mediocre.
Bai's biggest achievement was that the "Special Trade Association" had established a sales network in the Indian Peninsula, the Caribbean and Brazil, but this could not be brought to the cabinet meeting.
So he could only focus on the growth of exports to Germany and Italy.
Under the special sales methods of the trade alliance caravan, slogans such as "Don't pay 999" and "Invite friends and relatives to 'cut a bargain'" have been known to most of Europe, and sales are booming.
In addition, the cost of French industrial products has been continuously reduced. Major products such as wine, paper, and chemicals have almost dominated the markets in southern Germany and Italy. The market share of steel, machinery, and furniture is also increasing rapidly.
Even in Russia and the Ottoman Empire, French products are constantly eroding the market for British goods.
The Minister of Household Registration looked at Vergniaud with resentment.
Because his greatest achievement, large-scale immigration to North Africa, was just "spoiled" by the latter, he finally talked about conducting a census in Corsica and promoting ID cards.
Even the Minister of the Navy, the Marquis of Castelli, who had no presence in the cabinet meeting for a long time, stood up and introduced the new steam-powered warships under construction and the situation of the naval academy.
Queen Marie was also very excited when she heard the brilliant achievements of the ministers. France has made such amazing development in the past year.
She couldn't help but look at Joseph, thinking to herself: It seems that all these achievements came after the Crown Prince took over the cabinet... My son is indeed a son of God, his political talent is simply better than mine, no, even comparable to his grandmother!
Queen Marie's mother, Maria Theresa, was the last ruler of Austria and the person she admired the most.
Queen Marie couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, perhaps, she should have let her son take charge earlier.
But a smile soon appeared on her face again. Isn't it because of her careful teaching that her son can do so well? In the future, I will provide more support to Joseph behind the scenes to make France stronger!
