Chapter 76 Who is fooling whom?

Naturally, Joseph did not squeeze in with the ordinary audience. Instead, he was escorted by the guards and entered the theater directly through the VIP channel.

His seat is in a luxurious box on the third floor of the theater facing the stage. It is very spacious inside and can accommodate 12 people. But now he is the only one sitting here.

As the audience entered one after another, the music sounded all around, and the curtain of the stage slowly opened.

The setting on the stage is a light gray castle.

In the castle, a blond boy wearing a blue double-breasted coat was carving runes on a conical glass bottle. Colorful mist suddenly rolled up in the bottle.

The old man in the robe in front of him took a look and said in an indifferent voice:

"Thank you for the gift of the elements. My dear Hunter Xiao, I am sorry that you have only reached the third level of alchemy."

There were sarcastic voices all around:

"Oh, did my ears deceive me? Our genius is only level three?"

"He must have been spurned by the elements. He has made no progress for many years..."

"I never thought a genius would fall so quickly..."

Joseph did not expect that except for the exaggerated expressions, these actors were actually pretty good in other aspects. As he was concentrating on admiring them, he heard someone knocking on the door of the box.

Eman glanced outside, leaned into Joseph's ear and said, "Your Highness, you are the British Ambassador."

"Please let him in."

Immediately, the box door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing a gray-black robe with extremely thin lips took off his hat and bowed to Joseph: "Dear His Royal Highness, I didn't expect to meet you here. I'm so lucky. .

"You may not know me yet, but my name is David Hartley, the current British Ambassador to France. Of course, I am here to visit you today in a private capacity."

Joseph nodded to him: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Ambassador. Please take a seat."

Hartri sat down at the back side of the box, from a position where he could not be seen from other boxes. As the ambassador of a country, it is actually very inappropriate for him to meet with the French Crown Prince in private. If word spread, it may even cause diplomatic disputes.

"Dear His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, I can often hear people praising you." Hatri smiled and said, "The talents of the 'Son of the Gods' shock the world. He is extremely kind and full of wisdom..."

After blowing a lot of rainbow farts at the beginning, the British Ambassador then continued: "Your Highness, you know that I have always advocated the firm development of the traditional friendship between Britain and France..."

Joseph's eyelids twitched, and he thought that Britain and France still have traditional friendship? You mean the kind of friendship where you spend all your time digging up each other's ancestral graves?

Khatri is worthy of being a veteran politician, and his lies were extremely sincere: "However, in the past, due to the instigation of some careerists, the two countries had a lot of friction. This is very regrettable.

"Even now, there are still a lot of people who don't want to see our friendship."

He glanced at Joseph and said tentatively: "So, I think we should work harder to promote this valuable friendship. What do you think?"

Joseph didn't know what medicine he was selling in his gourd, so he followed his words and said: "Yes, long live the friendship between Britain and France."

Hartley's eyes lit up. He did not regard the thirteen-year-old boy in front of him as an old fox at all. He thought to himself: This crown prince is indeed pro-British, and the information is correct.

He talked about the broad prospects of British-French cooperation, changed the subject, and said: "Your Highness, in fact, I have always had a proposal that is beneficial to both our countries."

Joseph showed interest: "Oh? Please elaborate."

Hartley sat up straight: "I heard that His Highness once strongly opposed the waste of money to build large warships. I fully agree with this."

Joseph's eyes narrowed. This was something discussed at the cabinet meeting. How could the British get the news? It seems that we need to investigate the issue of the mole.

Hartley continued: "Actually, there are some guys in the UK who keep advocating building warships and wasting tax money. I think there is no need to waste this money. As long as everyone stops building warships like crazy, the mutual threat will disappear.

“So, I suggest that we can push for the signing of a treaty to limit the scale of shipbuilding in various countries.

"For example, the British launch no more than 5,000 tons of warships each year, and the French no more than 2,000 tons. Oh, you know, the British maritime trade is very large and requires more ships.

"Of course, Spain, the Netherlands and other countries will also participate in the signing of the treaty..."

Joseph couldn't help but frown, did he really treat me like a child?

In history, both Emperor Kaiser and Kaiser Wilhelm II have proven with bloody lessons that if continental European countries do not have a powerful fleet, they will be blocked to death.

He asked the Navy to suspend the production of sail warships just to avoid waste. He did not expect that the British would misunderstand him as giving up the challenge to the British Navy.

Seeing that Hartley was still eloquent, he immediately interrupted him and continued to the rhythm he wanted:

"Mr. Ambassador, the shipbuilding treaty seems a bit far away. Why don't we study the existing treaties first?"

"current?"

"Like the Treaty of Eden."

Hartley immediately became alert: "Your Highness, I think this treaty is very complete and reasonable, and there is nothing worth talking about."

"Yes, it is very reasonable, but there is still room for improvement." Joseph smiled, "Actually, France's industrial manufacturing capabilities are very weak and it cannot produce a large number of necessities on its own. However, high-quality and low-price British products are exactly what we need. .

"But you know, the tariffs stipulated in the Treaty of Eden are still too high, causing the prices of these goods to be inflated. The French people will spend a lot more money for this."

Hartley was stunned: This is not quite right. Normally, the French are desperately trying to raise tariffs to protect their industry. The prince actually thought it was too high...

He is indeed pro-British, that’s right!

Hartley asked cautiously: "What is your suggestion?"

Joseph said sternly: "I think we should continue the negotiations on the Treaty of Eden and further reduce tariffs! This is in the interests of our two countries."

Hartley smiled: "Can you tell me more specifically?"

"First of all, the tariffs on industrial products including textiles, steel, paper, etc. should be reduced by at least half." Joseph glanced at the British ambassador's expression and added, "In order to reflect the equality between our two countries, the United Kingdom should also treat French industrial products at the same time." reduce."

Hartley nodded: "Equality, yes, you are right, equality must be reflected."

Britain's current industrial scale and technology have far surpassed France's, and it is not afraid of competition from French industrial products. In his view, even if Britain's import tariffs on industrial products were reduced to zero, it would have no impact.

Seeing that he was holding back his excitement, Joseph knew that he could close the net: "But, you know, if I want to promote treaty negotiations, I must first shut the mouths of those guys in the country. What they like to say all day long is damaging to France. Interests'.

"So, I would like to change the approach, such as temporarily increasing France's industrial product tariffs to 25%, and then lowering it year by year, reaching 5% within 7 years. In this way, they will get short-term benefits and will not be so resistant."

The current "Treaty of Eden" stipulates that France's industrial product tariffs are between 12% and 15%. According to this model, it will only take three years to reduce to the current level.

Thanks to: Mr. R_Island for the huge reward of 10,000 points for this book. This is the largest single reward I have received so far! The young author is so grateful that he can only add more to express his gratitude! (It may take a few days to add more, but I will definitely remember it)