Chapter 120: Turning Passive Into Active

Bordeaux is the most important export destination for French wine, and wine trading is the soul of this city.

The Royal Square, adjacent to the Garonne River, the core transportation channel of Bordeaux, was once the palace of Louis XV. However, the king no longer visits here, so the huge square and the palace next to it have become a trading place for wine merchants and wine cellar owners.

So people prefer to call it the Exchange Square.

Here, a large amount of wine is traded every day and then sent to all parts of Europe and even to America.

At this time, in the main conference hall of the magnificent palace in front of the Exchange Square, fifty or sixty nobles or their agents gathered.

These nobles all have another identity in common, that is, grape plantation owners.

They own most of the grape plantations in the Bordeaux area, and also run wine workshops, controlling nearly 60% of France's wine brewing industry.

Three days ago, they received an invitation from the Governor-General, Count Monslo, in which the Governor mentioned that the real convener of this gathering was His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

For the sake of these two heavyweights, all the invitees set off in advance and gathered at the Exchange Square.

Three o'clock in the afternoon.

A melodious music sounded outside the main conference hall of the Exchange Palace. The plantation owners turned their heads to look in the direction of the gate and saw Governor Monslo respectfully following a young man in a dark blue coat and entering the conference hall one after another.

Everyone knew that it must be His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, so they stood up and bowed their heads respectfully to the young man.

After the Governor solemnly introduced the Crown Prince and made a brief opening speech, Joseph, who was sitting in the front of the conference hall, raised his hand to signal the plantation owners and said loudly: "Thank you all for coming to this meeting."

He first said a set phrase like "Bordeaux has a long history and rich products" as usual, and then got to the point: "Today, I asked everyone to come here mainly to talk about potato planting."

There was a whisper from the audience:

"I'll say it, it must be related to those broken potatoes."

"I urged them more than half a month ago. We grow this stuff, who knows if we will lose money. "

"Yes, there is no risk in growing grains..."

"Let him say whatever he wants. Anyway, I won't grow a potato unless he can reduce the land tax."

"The Austrian woman even sent the crown prince, it seems that she attaches great importance to this matter."

"So this is a good opportunity. We must unite and let him reduce the land tax..."

"No! It's necessary to cancel the land tax..."

Most of these people spoke in low voices, but a few of them deliberately raised the volume so that the crown prince could hear.

Joseph smiled slightly, ignored it, and continued: "Droughts have occurred frequently in recent years, and everyone's harvests have been very poor. Potatoes have a very high yield and will soon alleviate the food shortage caused by the disaster."

He looked around the audience: "So, I hope you can respond to the call of His Majesty the King and plant more potatoes during the spring planting. Oh, the potatoes as 'seeds' should arrive in Bordeaux in ten days or so."

As land aristocrats, these grape plantation owners not only have grape plantations, but also hold a large amount of arable land in the Bordeaux region. As long as they cooperate, potatoes can be easily rolled out on a large scale.

In the audience, a nobleman with a strange upturned nose tentatively shouted: "Your Highness, do you think it is possible to reduce the land tax a little?"

Someone immediately responded, "Earl Redney is right. Planting potatoes may lose money. It is best to reduce the land tax to make up for it."

"Please promise to reduce the land tax first."

"These are two different things." Joseph said calmly, "If you have any opinions on land tax, you can make suggestions to the Minister of Finance and submit them to the High Court for review. Today I will only talk about potatoes."

The nobles all showed dissatisfaction when they heard this. The audience fell into silence.

Joseph calmly introduced the various benefits of planting potatoes. He spoke for more than half an hour and finally said: "Well, I know that it is a difficult decision to change to unfamiliar crops.

"Everyone can go back and think about it first. I will still be here at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. I hope to get a positive response from you. "

After Joseph finished speaking, he was about to get up and leave. Governor Monslo hurried to the center of the venue and invited the estate owners in the audience to attend the banquet with a smile to ease the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

Joseph knew very well that he could use the "pasteurization technology" as a trump card at the beginning, and many estate owners would choose to cooperate.

But if he did so, the land nobles would think that they used "not planting potatoes" as a bargaining chip to threaten the royal family in exchange for these benefits.

So on the way to Bordeaux, Joseph had already made a plan to turn passivity into Take the initiative to make the plantation owners realize that cooperation with the crown prince is beneficial, and confrontation will only lead to losses.

After a dull banquet, Monslo invited Joseph and the nobles to attend the ball held in his mansion.

Fortunately, the noble ladies of Bordeaux were somewhat in awe of the strange crown prince, and Joseph was not "besieged" at the ball, but tasted the pure Bordeaux wine.

Just as he struggled to wait until the end of the ball and just walked out of the ball hall, a middle-aged man hurriedly followed from behind.

Emman immediately stopped him alertly.

The man saluted Joseph from a distance, touching his chest: "May God be with you, Your Royal Highness. I am Pierre Victorinian Vergniaud, serving in the Bordeaux High Court. I wonder if I can have the honor to speak to you for a few words?"

Joseph only felt that the name was a little familiar. Vergniaud? He suddenly remembered, isn't this the famous orator of the Girondists?

By the way, the name of the Girondists comes from the fact that several of their main leaders are from the Gironde Province, and Vergniaud is one of them. Of course, the Gironde Province was demarcated after the Great Revolution, and now there is only Bordeaux or Aquitaine.

Joseph remembered that Vergniaud was one of the few Girondists who advocated cooperation with the royal family, but he didn't know what he came to him for.

So he gestured to Emmanuel: "Please let Mr. Vergniaud come over."

Ermand nodded and turned sideways.

Vergniaud hurried forward a few steps and saluted again, "Thank you, Your Highness."

Joseph smiled and said, "What can I do for you?"

Vergniaud looked around and saw that there were no other nobles, so he said solemnly, "Your Highness, please forgive me for being so presumptuous. In fact, you really shouldn't have come to Bordeaux this time."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Your Highness, those great nobles just refused to grow potatoes not long ago, and you came immediately. You may want to solve this matter before spring planting, but this will make the nobles think that you need them, and thus bargain with you more firmly."

Joseph blinked in surprise. Why does he feel that this Vergniaud cares more about growing potatoes than he does?

Vergniaud continued, "Your Highness, I heard the news from Paris that there is a high probability of a severe drought this year.

"And those great nobles don't care about this. They are very rich, and even if the harvest is poor, it will not affect them. Some of them are worried that the income from growing potatoes is not as good as grains, but more of them want to take this opportunity to reduce land taxes!

"But you know, disasters have occurred frequently in recent years, and the farmers in Bordeaux are already penniless and cannot withstand another drought.

"I have been to Prussia, and the people there rely on potatoes to fight famine. Right now, we also need potatoes, and the farmers in Bordeaux need potatoes!"

Joseph was a little moved. He didn't expect that this lawyer would care so much about the suffering of the lower-class people and be willing to work hard to improve their lives.

He nodded and said, "Yes, I am here to persuade everyone to plant potatoes."

Vergniaud seemed very anxious: "Your Highness, the plantation owners have formed an alliance. Oh, I also run a small grape plantation myself. They also came to me. They said that if the land tax is not reduced, potatoes will never be planted."

"Are you here to persuade me to reduce taxes?"

"No, Your Highness, the land tax cannot be reduced." Vergniaud said, "The nobles must assume their obligations to the country!"

Joseph looked at him with interest: "Oh? What do you think should be done? "

Vergniaud's expression was a little gloomy: "At present, the government can only take out a sum of money as a subsidy for planting potatoes. Driven by interests, someone will definitely be willing to plant. "

Joseph thought to himself, you really have the compromising temperament of the Girondists.

He smiled and shook his head: "Mr. Vergniaud, you should know something about the financial situation of France. There is not so much money at all. Besides, this is not necessary. In ten days at most, everyone will compete to plant potatoes. "

Vergniaud smiled awkwardly: "Your Highness, you are really joking. Unless you lower the land tax, they will never..."

Joseph immediately said: "Why don't we make a bet?"

"Bet?"

"If within ten days, no more than half of the planters are willing to plant potatoes, I will do as you said and take a sum of money as a potato subsidy. "

Vergniaud asked: "What about the other way around?"

"Then you have to do something for me. "

Joseph knew that Vergniaud was a good speaker and had good ability to do things. If he caught this "strong man", he could save himself a lot of trouble.

Vergniaud hesitated for only half a second, then stretched out his hand: "Okay, Your Highness, just as you said."

Joseph high-fived him and left.

Perhaps it was the effect of the wine he drank in the evening. Joseph fell asleep as soon as he returned to his bedroom and slept very soundly.

When he came to the conference hall of the Exchange Palace the next morning, he found that there were seven or eight fewer people present than yesterday. Of course, these absent nobles found various excuses and asked for leave from Monslo.

Joseph didn't care. He asked directly: "So, who is willing to sign the potato planting contract now?"

There was another silence in the audience. They came here today just to give you, the Crown Prince, face, but they were still thinking about potatoes?

Vergniaud immediately stood up and said: "Your Highness, I am willing to plant 5 hectares. ”

He is just a lawyer with some property, and he only has so much arable land under his name.

Then several plantation owners who have a good relationship with Vergniaud responded: "Your Highness, I can also sign a contract for 8 hectares."

"I can also plant 6 hectares."

Joseph nodded with satisfaction and looked around the stage again: "Anything else?"

The plantation owners glanced at Vergniaud and others with dissatisfaction, but under the questioning of the prince, they still had to express a little, so as not to offend the prince.

Someone hesitated and whispered: "I will plant 40 acres."

One hectare is 100 French acres, which means that it is less than half a hectare.

Other nobles also followed up: "Then I will plant 50 acres."

"I plant 40 acres."

"I plant 30 acres..."

Joseph smiled as he watched these people deal with him, and suddenly said loudly: "Oh, by the way, I was always thinking about potatoes and forgot another thing."

He gestured to Emman. The latter immediately had someone distribute documents to the nobles present.

Joseph continued: "This is the 'French Brewing Technology Association' I planned, which is convenient for everyone to exchange brewing technology. This paper shows some new technologies currently owned by the association."

The manor owners in the audience were immediately full of question marks. Why did they suddenly turn to brewing? What kind of technical association is this?

However, when they began to flip through the documents in their hands, their eyes widened.

Someone couldn't help but exclaimed: "New technology that reduces the failure rate of brewing to a negligible level?! How is this possible?"

Another person said: "There is also this technology that can make the brewed wine without sourness and improve the quality exponentially!"

"Oh my God, the shelf life is extended by more than ten times!"

The plantation owners immediately started to discuss, and their voices became louder and louder.

Vernier was also extremely shocked. He also had a winemaking business and was very familiar with winemaking.

First of all, there is no such thing as winemaking without failure. If you can keep the failure rate below 10%, you are the top winemaker. Generally speaking, 30% of winemaking failures are acceptable.

What is even more incredible is that there is a technology that can make wine without sourness.

You know, whether it has sourness is an important criterion for the quality of wine.

Ordinary quality wine will have a little sourness, which affects the taste. Only high-end wines can achieve almost no sourness.

In other words, this technology can make all the wines produced reach high-end quality!

The price of ordinary quality and high-end quality wines will differ by more than ten times!

Someone immediately stood up excitedly, holding up the documents in his hand and asked Joseph: "Your Highness, are these technologies true?"

Joseph smiled and nodded: "Of course they are true. I have applied for a patent at the Paris Patent Office, and it should be registered soon."

An elderly plantation owner said with some suspicion: "Your Highness, please forgive me for being frank. I have been engaged in winemaking for decades and have never heard of similar technologies. This can't be..."

Joseph looked at the nobles who were looking at him eagerly, and immediately stood up and said: "Whose wine cellar is closer to here? I can demonstrate it to you on the spot."

...

Yalsen Wine Cellar, northern suburbs of Bordeaux.

Although it is winter now, there are still grapes that have been specially fumigated and then dried and stored in the cellar, which can be used to make wine.

Not long after, the craftsmen placed several barrels of pulped grapes and brewing water in front of Joseph.

The latter also asked for heating stoves and large buckets and other utensils, and signaled the onlookers to leave first.

After Csode "escorted" everyone out, Joseph immediately asked Eman to help fill the pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.

When the water boiled, he mixed cold water and boiling water into the big wooden barrel, and took out the thermometer he brought to measure until the water temperature reached 65 degrees.

Then he put the small bucket of grape pulp into the big wooden barrel, started timing, and kept measuring the temperature. Once the water temperature dropped, he immediately added hot water to keep the grape pulp above 60 degrees.

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