Chapter 88 Switching Positions

Seeing that Mirabeau was deep in thought, Joseph knew that the preparation was almost complete, so he started to get to the point: "Let's talk about the tax bill again.

Mirabeau immediately became alert after hearing this: "Your Highness, you know that the nobles have the same attitude towards the bill."

Joseph said seriously: "Actually, in this matter, you were taken advantage of by the old nobles!"

Mirabeau smiled and waved his hands: "Your Highness, how could this happen?"

Joseph picked up the small wooden stick next to him to pick out impurities in the pulp and said, "I would like to ask, how much real estate do you have?"

"Ah?" Mirabeau was a little surprised, but still replied, "There are more than ten hectares in Paris and forty hectares in Reims."

Joseph nodded: "Then do you know how much real estate the Duke of Orleans has?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but it should be at least four to five thousand hectares."

"Where's the manor?"

"About a dozen?"

"That's it. The core part of the tax bill is the land tax."

Joseph raised the small wooden stick in his hand: "For example, this is the size of the land you own, and the land tax will have almost no impact on you."

He pointed to the pillars of the paper drying rack in front of them, which were as tall as the two of them and as thick as a child's waist: "And that is the size of the real estate of old nobles like the Duke of Orleans, and the land tax is basically paid by them. This is why they strongly oppose it. tax bill reasons.

"But capital aristocrats like you are also coerced by them to fight against the bill together, and they have put in a lot of effort, but they are only protecting their interests."

Mirabeau was stunned for a moment. He knew that the crown prince was right, but he immediately retorted: "Stamp duty, the bill also increased stamp duty, which has a great impact on industry and commerce."

The so-called stamp duty is a tax levied when signing a contract or applying for a document.

Joseph smiled and said: "You are one of the leaders of the distinguished meeting. You must have read the text of the bill. The tax rate of stamp duty is very low. In fact, the main function of stamp duty is to let the government serve as the notary of the contract."

When he last revised the bill, he had already lowered the stamp duty rate in order to win over the capital aristocracy.

Seeing that Mirabeau was still hesitating, Dupont couldn't help but said: "Count Mirabeau, it is obvious that the tax bill is beneficial to the national finance, and there is no need for us to oppose it.

"And His Highness also promised that as long as the bill is passed, he will restart negotiations on the Treaty of Eden and significantly increase tariffs."

Dupont was extremely opposed to the Treaty of Eden. So when Joseph told him that the treaty could be modified, he immediately reached an agreement with the crown prince.

Although he had no political power, he could influence Mirabeau and other capital aristocrats, so he facilitated this meeting.

Mirabeau immediately looked at Joseph: "Are you sure the British will accept it?"

Joseph nodded: "I have already talked with the British Ambassador. France's industrial product tariffs have been increased to 25%, while Britain's alcohol tariffs have been reduced to less than 10%."

Mirabeau's pupils shrank: "This is impossible! How did you convince the British?"

"We will talk about this later, but I can assure you that the new treaty will definitely be signed. Of course, if you are worried, you can learn about the situation from the UK."

As a heavyweight political figure, Mirabeau must have his own channels to get news about Britain.

Mirabeau finally began to waver.

He knows very well that according to the current tariff level, French industry will completely collapse in less than two years.

By then, those properties of your own will inevitably be in trouble.

If you can really use a tax bill that has little impact on you to get the "Treaty of Eden" re-signed, oh, and the implementation of the "Company Law" and "Patent Law" mentioned by the Crown Prince before, it will definitely be a very cost-effective of!

He leaned towards Joseph and said: "Your Highness, this matter will involve many people. I have to go back and discuss it with Viscount Dico and Viscount Pellier."

What he said were all representatives of the capital aristocracy in the meeting of dignitaries. Based on the conditions mentioned by the Crown Prince just now, he felt that he was quite confident that he could persuade them to change their stance.

"Of course. I look forward to your answer."

Joseph smiled and nodded, then raised his hand to gesture to the pulp pool beside him: "Now that the business is over, we can finally talk about papermaking."

Mirabeau was a little unresponsive: "You mean, papermaking?"

"Yes," said Joseph, "I told you this when you first came here."

"But……"

Joseph took him to those huge "boiling pots" and said to the workers guarding the pots: "Please tell Count Mirabeau, what is boiling in this pot?"

The worker immediately lowered his head respectfully and said, "It's wood, sir."

"Wood?" Mirabeau looked at Joseph in surprise, "Didn't you just say you wanted to make paper?"

Joseph nodded: "This is the first step in making paper. After the wood is boiled, paper can be made. Of course, using my newly created technology."

Mirabeau said in disbelief: "You can make paper out of wood?!"

He still has some knowledge about papermaking. Generally speaking, the raw materials used for papermaking are rags, flax, etc., with at most some bark fibers mixed in.

"Yes, willow and pine." Joseph gestured toward the outside of the workshop. "They were just cut back in the morning."

He turned around and asked the worker next to him: "How long has this pot been boiling?"

The latter looked at his watch: "Six and a half hours, sir."

"It should be almost done..." Joseph was not sure. After all, he had only seen the process of making wood paper on a documentary, so he told the workers, "Please pour out the wood pulp, filter and bleach it. Oh, just use That’s the way it used to be.”

"Yes, sir."

Seven or eight workers gathered around, lifted the huge cooking pot and placed it on a wooden stand, opened the lid, and poured the boiling yellow liquid inside into the square stone trough.

Mirabeau looked at the liquid in surprise, unable to believe that wood could cook like this.

The workers began to use various tools to remove the residue from the wood water. Someone carefully brought a small bottle of chlorine bleach and slowly dripped it into the stone trough while stirring continuously.

Then, the workers added a large amount of water to the pulp tank, stirred, filtered, and a series of complicated processes, which took more than half an hour.

Before the pulp cooled down completely, another group of workers came around with a square "sieve", carefully soaked the bottom of the sieve with pulp, and then lifted it up while shaking it gently.

When Mirabeau saw the thin layer of "mucosa" on the bottom of the "sieve", he felt his heart beat a few times - if this method can really make paper, it will definitely be a disruptive technology. !

Compared with previous paper-making raw materials such as rags and flax, wood is almost free, and the cost of paper will drop significantly.

This also means that this new papermaking technology will unify the European paper market!

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