Chapter 64 Treaty of Eden

Regarding the first item, Hartley had actually started to do it a long time ago. Now he has received instructions from London, which is nothing more than sending more people to find out the political trends of the French Crown Prince.

Hartley deduced from the French Dauphin's opposition to the development of the navy that at least he was not a hater of England, so establishing relations with him could be arranged as early as possible.

It is said that the French crown prince is also a very powerful mathematician. Hartley quickly decided to send a scholar to contact him.

As for the second item, he had a headache.

After Prussia withdrew from the Netherlands, it had little interaction with France.

He thought for a long time but couldn't find a way to use it. The most he could do was spread rumors and smear him. It seems that for the time being, we can only wait for better opportunities to arise.

Hartley put the secret letter away, immediately called a meeting with his men, and gave instructions on all the matters in the letter.

…

Early in the morning, Joseph welcomed a distinguished guest.

His one-day teacher - Mr. Lagrange, the Prince of Mathematics.

In fact, Lagrange would come to Versailles to give lectures every two days. But Joseph has been busy everywhere recently, and the two of them have never met.

After exchanging greetings, the old mathematician pushed an exquisite invitation to Joseph and persuaded him earnestly for a while. The core idea was to ask him to attend an academic conference two days later.

In fact, Joseph had received two invitations from the French Mathematical Society, but he really had no time to go, so he declined both invitations.

Half a month ago, Joseph's expanded Rolle's theorem was compiled and published in a journal by Lagrange. Now he is well-known in French mathematics circles.

At the same time, the Mathematical Society also wanted to use the crown prince to expand its influence, so it moved out a heavyweight master like Lagrange to invite him.

Since the teacher came forward in person, Joseph couldn't refuse anymore, so he promised to be there when the time came.

The next day, in the luxurious villa of the aristocratic widow Madame Josna in the Saint-Germain district of Paris, dozens of mathematics and physics scholars stood up to pay tribute to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

In this era, the boundaries between physics and mathematics were not so clear-cut. Physicists often mix with mathematicians.

An official of the Mathematical Society gave a warm speech and introduced the Crown Prince ceremoniously before announcing the official start of the meeting.

People came to the stage one after another to give speeches, mostly on cutting-edge mathematics topics of this era, and the atmosphere was quite serious.

More than an hour later, the meeting entered a free discussion period, and the servants began to bring out various delicacies, and the aroma of drinks and snacks suddenly filled the room.

Everyone was laughing and talking loudly. The meeting suddenly turned into a mathematics salon.

Joseph wanted to leave, but he saw his host, Mrs. Josna, diligently bringing him fine black tea, and then enthusiastically pushed him to the middle position. Obviously, it was very honorable for her to have the crown prince come.

Joseph reluctantly sat down next to Lagrange, smelling the fragrance of hot tea, and listened to a white-haired old man on the left describing a method he envisioned for deriving discrete probability distributions in probability.

After the old man finished speaking, there was a burst of discussion. Joseph could vaguely hear that what the old scholar meant was a bit like Poisson distribution, but it was still far from the finished product. Hmm... I don't know if Poisson was born at the moment.

Immediately afterwards, Lagrange stood up with the manuscript in hand and began to elaborate on some of his inferences and ideas between connecting functions and function derivatives. After having an in-depth discussion with Joseph about Rolle's theorem last time, he has been concentrating on studying this aspect and has made quite a breakthrough recently.

Everyone also gave him very high praise and had a heated discussion.

Afterwards, several more scholars spoke. Although they were not as in-depth as the first two masters, most of them had ingenious ideas and novel angles and had considerable academic value.

At this moment, a young scholar wearing a dark gray short coat coughed lightly, attracting everyone's attention, and then began to talk about the negative impact of Protestantism on science.

Joseph was quite surprised and asked Lagrange in a low voice, only to confirm that he was not a clergyman, but an assistant professor of physics at the University of Paris.

After the young professor finished speaking, he unexpectedly won bursts of applause. Except for a few people including Lagrange, everyone present loudly praised or expressed their agreement.

Since then, the pace of the discussion has begun to falter.

A short, fat middle-aged man spoke angrily about British industrial espionage's frenzied theft of French science and technology. It is said that this kind of behavior causes France to suffer losses of tens of millions of livres every year.

Joseph frowned slightly. There was no patent law in this era, and it was normal for Britain and France to steal each other's technological achievements. However, there was some discrepancy with what the fat gentleman said, that is, France stole more British technology. However, it seems inappropriate to talk about this at an academic conference.

But other people obviously didn't think so, and immediately started the British-bashing mode, and all kinds of sarcasm and abuse were heard endlessly.

The brown-haired young man sitting behind Joseph loudly recounted the history of France's academic leadership, denounced the British for plagiarizing French achievements one by one, and finally expressed his contempt for the British academic community through gritted teeth.

Someone shouted excitedly:

"So the British can never surpass France in the world of science!"

"That's right, look at their stupid paper, they actually say that light is a wave, haha!"

"They always come up with this kind of funny stuff and they're always so smug about it."

"Only France can lead the advancement of science. This is the will of the Lord!"

Nowadays, the French academic community is still very proud. Coupled with the feud between Britain and France, criticizing Britain has become a kind of political correctness.

"Has there ever been any great scholar in Britain? No!" The brown-haired young man waved his hands and shouted excitedly.

Then, he looked at Joseph, as if seeking support, and leaned forward: "Your Highness, do you think so?"

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief, shook his head slightly, and whispered: "They have Newton."

There was silence all around, and dozens of pairs of eyes looked at Joseph at the same time, as if they did not expect that the crown prince would actually speak for the British.

Joseph thought for a while and simply stood up. The atmosphere and arguments just now really made him unhappy: "Actually, Britain also has a lot to offer in terms of science.

"Except Newton, I think everyone is familiar with Mr. Taylor, and his Taylor series is often used when calculating motion trajectories.

“And MacLaughlin’s Structural Geometry.

"In fact, more often than not, craftsman Mr. Watt's steam engine may have an even more amazing impact. In the field of textiles, the entire France has already felt that threat.

"Speaking of textiles, an Englishman invented an automatic loom not long ago..."

A middle-aged man with bright eyes and a big nose whispered: "It's Cartwright."

"Oh, yes, Cartwright." Joseph nodded, "If this loom is combined with a steam engine, it will crush the textile industry around the world.

"France does have many very outstanding scholars and has achieved amazing academic achievements, but we must also see that in many aspects, the British have actually gone ahead..."

The reason why he said this is to remind the French scholars sitting here that the battle for the Industrial Revolution is right in front of us, and the next technological explosion is also coming.

Steam engines and textile technology are areas that must be focused on and are the core pillars that will shape the Industrial Revolution.

And being unable to extricate yourself from France's previous academic glory, or being jealous of the British's progress, will only completely lose the industrial revolution.

After he finished speaking, the scene suddenly cooled down. For a while, no one stood up to speak. They all seemed to be caught in the conflict between self-confidence and reality.

The middle-aged man with a big nose came to Joseph's side and whispered: "Your Highness, what you said is so good! I didn't expect you to know Britain so well."

Joseph smiled and nodded at him.

The middle-aged man continued: "A few years ago, I conducted an in-depth investigation of the British industry and technology for the purpose of negotiating trade negotiations between Britain and France. As you said, Britain has gained a lead over France in many technologies. It is a pity that people like you are like this There are too few knowledgeable people, and most of them are still immersed in pride..."

"Trade negotiations?" Joseph looked at the middle-aged man, "Who are you?"

"Oh, look, I was so excited that I forgot my basic courtesy. I'm so sorry. My name is Dupont, Pierre Dupont."

This name is too familiar. Joseph immediately asked: "Have you participated in the U.S. independence negotiations and also run a company in the chemical industry?"

"Oh, yes, Your Highness." Dupont said in surprise, "Do you know me?"

Joseph nodded secretly. It turned out to be the famous industrialist DuPont. He didn't expect to meet him here.

"I've heard of you."

As a result, the two started chatting about the industrial technology situation in the UK, and the topic quickly turned to the UK-France trade negotiations.

"Your Highness, since the death of Count Vergennes, our negotiations with the British have stalled... and the single tax plan has not been implemented." Dupont worried, "You know, the negotiations have not been completed yet. The "" The Treaty of Eden was very detrimental to France."

The "Treaty of Eden" he was talking about was the Anglo-French trade treaty just signed last year. The two sides have imposed a series of restrictions on tariffs - France has comprehensively reduced tariffs on British industrial products, while the UK has reduced tariffs on French wine and some agricultural products. tariff.

As a result, French industry lost its tariff protection and was defeated by the British who had technological advantages. The increased sales of wine and agricultural products in France are far from making up for the huge losses in industry.

Joseph nodded: "This treaty was signed inappropriately and had a disastrous impact on French industry."