Chapter 209 North Africa Development Plan

Chapter 210 North Africa Development Plan

When the nobles in the Hall of Mirrors finished their salutes and the sound of admiration gradually weakened, Queen Mary looked at Joseph again, her expression full of doting and pride:

"And my excellent son, your Royal Highness the Crown Prince! As we all know, it was he who first proposed the plan to go to North Africa to fight against the Barbary pirates, and gave many key suggestions on the specific implementation process. Finally, we welcome Here comes the great victory!”

Well, that's right, mentioning her husband just now was entirely to take care of His Majesty the King's face. What she really wanted to praise from the beginning was her precious son.

She couldn't help but smile when she thought of her son's various outstanding performances in the past - first, his son said he would join forces with the United States to fight pirates, which saved France a lot of money and also received thanks from the United States and Russia.

Then, his son proposed last month that the newly formed Bell Corps should be mobilized to go to North Africa to provide support. At the time, she thought she was going to help the navy, but she didn't expect that this small army of 3,000 people would directly take over the pirates' lair, and also help the young king of Tunisia regain his throne and help France in Tunisia. West Asia has gained huge benefits.

Yes, the queen only knew that 3,000 men from Berthier's Army were sent to North Africa. As for the more than 1,100 police academy students, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince paid for them to go on vacation in foreign countries, and they were not reported to her at all.

The nobles in the Hall of Mirrors immediately saluted Joseph together again, and all kinds of beautiful words were endless:

"His Royal Highness the Dauphin will bring a bright future to France!"

"Praise the Son of God!"

"The best prince in France..."

"Your Highness is the embodiment of talent and wisdom..."

After nearly a year of "training", Joseph Rao has become immune to rainbow farts, and now he feels goosebumps all over his body.

Louis XVI, on the other hand, patted his son on the shoulder with a proud look on his face. He was even happier than when everyone was praising him just now.

Not to mention the queen, she had only one thought in her mind: her son's outstanding judgment and talent are indeed my blood...

The little aristocratic girls in the hall looked at Joseph with eyes full of admiration and fascination - the Crown Prince was indeed the best, most handsome, and most suitable to be the lover of his dreams!

Moreover, His Highness has something more than last year.

Well, I have obviously grown taller and stronger, and even my Adam's apple is more prominent! obvious……

When the Yingying Yanyans thought of this, their cheeks suddenly turned crimson, and His Highness was obviously "cooked".

So, what method can be used to trick him into bed first? He doesn't have an official mistress yet!

They had automatically ignored Clementine, who was trying her best to act fierce and fierce next to His Highness. After these few months of observation, everyone knows that the little princess of Tuscany only looks fussy, but is actually quite easy-going, and most importantly, has no scheming intentions.

As a result, the minds of the Yingying Yanyans became active again - the rule of the Palace of Versailles has always been that the Crown Princess is the Crown Princess, and the mistress is the mistress. Let's talk about it and discuss it...

As the crowd's praises died down, Louis XVI and Queen Mary came to the center of the hall and began to dance the opening dance to Handel's "Water Music".

Standing in the back row of many nobles, a young nobleman wearing a brown coat looked at the grand celebration scene and muttered to himself with some confusion:

"It's just that there are more pirates caught. Is it necessary to hold such a grand ceremony? Pirates were never caught like this before..."

A middle-aged noble next to him heard what he said and immediately corrected:

"The celebration this time is not just about the elimination of pirates. You see, France spent almost no money and only sent 3,000 soldiers, and gained huge benefits in North Africa."

“That’s true,” the fat man beside him nodded. “According to the news, we will be able to purchase land and open a factory in Tunisia in the future. Moreover, France also has Tunisia’s most-favored-nation tariff status [Note 1]. "

He said and smiled: "It can be said that except that there is no right to appoint and remove officials, it can almost be regarded as a French colony."

The nobleman in the brown coat widened his eyes: "So that's it! Then we really should celebrate. Since the Seven Years' War, France has not been able to obtain overseas benefits for a long time due to the interference of the British!"

The fat man continued: "And Tunisia is a very good place. The land is fertile and it also produces iron and olives. It is quite wealthy."

"It seems that within a few years, there will be a lot of benefits for France. Our Lord Chancellor of the Finance will definitely be very happy."

"Ha! God bless my king, God bless France!"

"God bless my king!"

Unlike most people in the hall, a small group of nobles with military background standing near the band didn't seem so happy.

An officer whispered: "Which of you knows the origin of that Berthier Legion?"

The man next to him also lowered his voice: "It seems that Berthier used to be General Custinat's subordinate, and later he was recommended by Breteuil and came to Paris to serve. After the incident in the French Guard, he took over some of the troops and formed This legion."

"It seems like he must be very rich, otherwise how could he climb so fast..."

A fifty-year-old officer with deep wrinkles at the corners of his eyes interrupted him and said bitterly: "I don't care what his resume is. I just want to ask, how dare he lead troops to North Africa without notifying us?! I heard that even the Marquis of Saint-Priest didn't know that he was sending troops!"

These military nobles have formed a "community of interests" a long time ago, monopolizing military resources in their own hands. Any large-scale military mobilization must be discussed with them before it can be carried out.

Otherwise, either the troops cannot move, or the officers involved are excluded, or you can't win a war worth 1 million livres at 5 million.

"It was the royal family who directly ordered the mobilization." Another officer said, "It didn't go through the Minister of War."

"How can this be possible?!" The general with wrinkles at the corners of his eyes said a little excitedly, "We must not set this precedent! I mean, let the royal family use force as they please..."

Several people around him hurriedly signaled him to be silent. Fortunately, the music was loud and no other nobles heard it.

Even if we don't talk about political factors, if they use their people to fight in North Africa this time, they will at least get a million or so livres from it.

And Berthier went without telling them, so the money was wasted.

Several other generals also nodded: "The royal family wants to bypass us."

"We must avoid letting the royal family control the army!"

A younger officer waved his hand and said: "General Astu, you don't have to be too nervous.

"It's just a small army of 3,000 people, and it can't do much.

"Just like this time, if they hadn't been lucky and happened to encounter the Tunisian coup, they wouldn't have been able to enter the city of Tunisia with their few people.

"In the future, when they encounter a real large-scale battle, the royal family will have to come to us. At that time, we can completely negotiate with the royal family based on the ownership of Berthier's army.

"Isn't everything solved?"

After the opening dance of the king and queen, Joseph danced the second part as usual. His partner was naturally Clementine.

It was still the simplest Sarabande dance. The two people with obvious height differences raised their heads and posed in various shapes, while politely turning in circles.

It was simply the most awkward dance in the whole scene.

After the dance, Joseph immediately fled to a quiet corner. Soon, Mirabeau, who also didn't like dancing, came over and told him about the investment plan in Tunisia.

Originally, this area should have been the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior, but Joseph knew Monod's weight, so he asked Mirabeau to lead people to make plans, and then submit them directly to the cabinet meeting for signature.

However, when Joseph heard Mirabeau say "three to four years" and "plan to reach 50,000 people to go to Tunisia", he couldn't help but frown slightly.

According to his idea, it would be best to harvest a large amount of food from Tunisia next year to alleviate France's food shortage problem. If there is also a certain scale of industrial and trade income at the same time, it would be even better.

But if only 50,000 people immigrate in three or four years, it will be almost useless.

"Can the speed and scale of this immigration be accelerated?" He looked at Mirabeau and said.

"Your Highness, this is the fastest solution we have come up with after studying it." Mirabeau said with difficulty, "You know, although the land price in Tunisia is very cheap, it costs a lot to buy a large piece of land. In addition, the travel expenses and settlement expenses of traveling to a foreign country are considerable, and there is no output in the first half of the year, so people without a certain family background cannot go there at all.

"And few rich people are willing to leave France. After all, the environment in North Africa is not so comfortable. If the first group of people who go there make money, when the news spreads back to the country, more qualified people will be willing to take risks, but it will definitely take a long time to form a scale. "

Joseph fell silent upon hearing this.

It seems that I thought too simply.

The real world is not like playing games, where hundreds of thousands of people will immediately follow orders with a mouse swipe.

Most people are unwilling to take out their savings and go to a strange land to take risks.

Is it really impossible to convert the achievements in North Africa into profits in a short time?

He searched all the cases about immigration in his mind, and suddenly his eyes lit up. A century later, the unprecedented immigration action of Americans was the best example, wasn't it? We can learn from their Western Development Plan and develop a North African Development Plan.

Joseph sorted out his thoughts and said to Mirabeau: "Perhaps, we can solve the problem from another angle."

"What do you mean?"

"Since the rich are unwilling to go to North Africa to suffer, then let the poor go!"

Mirabeau was stunned and shook his head: "Your Highness, this is probably unlikely... The poor can't even afford the necessary travel expenses."

"The government will provide loan support. "Joseph followed the Americans' method back then, combined with the current situation in France, and said, "Travel expenses, seed money, farm tools money, and even the first half of the year's living expenses are all loaned to French farmers by the bank. Do you think 300 livres per person is enough?"

"This should not be enough, Your Highness, more than 200 livres will be enough. If we organize a fleet for large-scale transportation, it can be even less."

"Very good." Joseph nodded. "As for the land, the bank will buy it from the Tunisians and give it directly to the farmers for cultivation. After 10 years of cultivation, the land will belong to them. During this period, they only need to pay a portion of the grain harvest to the government every year.

"The land in Tunisia is fertile, and they will be able to borrow the harvest and repay the loan soon."

Mirabe was surprised and said, "Your Highness, but in this case, the government will have to spend a lot of money... I'm afraid it will cost tens of millions of livres."

"That's worth it!"

Joseph knew that the drought in the next two years would lead to a large reduction in crop yields. At most, there will be an inevitable famine by the middle of next year. By then, the government will have to spend a lot of money to buy food for disaster relief.

It is better to invest part of the money in Tunisia now, and the increased grain harvest can also cope with the famine. And this is a stable source of food-there is plenty of sunshine and rain in that place, and you can harvest three crops a year by planting whatever you want.

"It won't be long before Tunisia's rich products can earn back the initial investment. "

Mirabeau thought about it and nodded slowly. It was indeed as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said. If the number of French people in Tunisia increased, the large amount of iron products, olives and livestock there could be developed because there was market demand. Then they could be sold to the whole of North Africa.

He suddenly thought of another question: "Your Highness, but with such a large investment, our finances may be..."

"I'll find a way to do this."

Joseph couldn't help but sighed lightly, thinking that he could first set up a Tunisia Development Fund to attract private investment, but he didn't know whether domestic capital was interested in North Africa.

If it doesn't work, issue a batch of high-interest bonds. Fortunately, France's debt has been alleviated to a certain extent. Judging from the current financial situation, it should be able to barely afford it.

But in that case, the interest on the national debt that has just been reduced will rise again.

Alas, money, why is it so hard to make money?

...

England.

London.

The Parliament Hall of St. James's Palace.

"Obviously, the French have successfully deceived us. "A bespectacled MP glanced at the Foreign Secretary, the Duke of Leeds, and said sarcastically, "We spent 400,000 pounds to strengthen the coastal defenses of Algiers, an irrelevant North African 'neighbor', oh, and dozens of cannons.

"In the end, we could only watch France reap almost the same benefits as the colonies in Tunisia."

The Duke of Leeds clenched his fist under the table. These Whigs were enjoying themselves in their mansions in London while he was enjoying the sea breeze in the Mediterranean and eating pickled meat and drinking sour wine.

Now they jumped out to blame themselves!

His eyes twitched, but he smiled: "Mr. James, you probably remembered it wrong. It was 360,000 pounds. I didn't spend all the budget."

[Note 1] Most-favored-nation means: If country A enjoys the most-favored-nation treatment of country B, then the trade preferences and exemptions that B gives to any other country must also be given to A. In simple terms, B's import tariffs on A will be lower than anyone else.