Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 701: Chapter 610: Cake and Contradiction

The second development was the vigorous emergence of “special trade”, which in just about four months contributed tens of millions of francs to the treasury.

Moreover, thanks to the sales volume of smuggling trade, the output of factories across France increased significantly, leading to a substantial rise in tax revenue.

However, Joseph knew that smuggling could not be sustained indefinitely. Currently, they were merely exploiting a gap that England had not yet focused on, and once the British reacted, with their rigorous fleet inspections and blockades, smuggling volumes would surely decline drastically.

Joseph estimated that the benefits from “special trade” could only be maintained for a maximum of one more year. Without a strong navy, France was still no match for England on the sea.

Of course, France had already completed tax reforms, abolishing local taxes and most tolls, and the momentum of industrial and commercial development was promising.

Thus, even without these two “irregular income” sources, the finances for this year could still at least guarantee a surplus.

Speaking of tax reforms, Joseph suddenly felt immense pressure again.

In the past two years, he had implemented extensive and radical reforms in France, and he was not naive enough to believe that simply implementing reforms constituted a complete success.

This was only just the beginning!

Any reform involves a massive restructuring of interests.

This meant that while most people would benefit from the reforms, many others, perhaps even entire societal sectors, would lose their vested interests.

These people would not easily accept their fate.

Though they temporarily lay low under royal pressure and licked their wounds, they would not hesitate to cause trouble at any opportunity.

Take the tax farmers, for instance. Although many of the major tax farmers had been executed, each had thousands of dependents who relied on them for their livelihood, if not more.

These individuals, after the downfall of the major tax farmers, inevitably endured a worsened quality of life and were certainly extremely dissatisfied with the French Government, though they dared not show it.

Similarly, this was the case with the Old Nobility Group, the old military factions, and even the old police forces.

It was only because France’s current development momentum was still good, allowing these people to enjoy the developmental dividends, that these conflicts remained covered up.

Once the momentum slowed down, these various conflicts would immediately erupt.

At that time, even if they could suppress them with military force, France would suffer tremendous damage. If foreign forces took advantage of this vulnerability then, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Joseph was lost in thought as the ministers cheered around him:

Thus, it was essential to maintain France’s competitiveness, to continue expanding the “cake”, and to use the allure of sharing this cake to suppress the dissatisfaction of various forces.

If this situation could be sustained for about a decade, France would eventually reconstruct a new balance of interests.

By then, even if some still wanted to dredge up past issues, others would suppress them for their own interests without Joseph needing to intervene.

As for “expanding the cake,” there were basically two paths—domestic development and foreign expansion…

After Brian finished his report, the Minister of Industry, Mirabeau, stood up, his face also hardly concealing a smile: “Last year, our country made tremendous developments in the industrial sector, expanding by 76%!”

This number seemed astonishing, but it was achievable during the early stages of the industrial revolution.

It’s important to note that France was still primarily an agricultural nation with very low industrial presence, so simply building a few factories could lead to a massive increase in industrial scale.

However, part of the reason France’s industrial scale had grown so rapidly was due to the earlier frantic expansion for producing goods under contract fraud schemes.

Subsequently, “special trade” utilized these capacities, leading to such an exaggerated growth rate.

Mirabeau then gleefully shared his previous year’s achievements—

Machinery industry growth of 110%…

Steel industry growth of 72%…

Coal industry growth of 265%…

Chemical industry growth of 175%…

Brewing industry growth of 12%…

Paper industry…

Furniture manufacturing…

Pharmaceutical industry…

Among these, the terrifying growth rate of the coal industry was primarily due to the application of coal gas street lamps. Just the distillation workshops in Paris daily consumed the amount of coal that used to last the entire Grand Paris area, including the Palace of Versailles and surrounding towns, for 12 days!

This tremendous demand significantly stimulated the development of the French coal industry.

Currently, a wooden railway from the Nancy Coal Mine directly to Paris had been completed. After the Steam Engine hauled coal from the mine, it could be transported directly to Paris without even needing to change carriages.

Moreover, due to the massive amount of coal being sent to Paris, the transportation cost had significantly reduced, leading to a decrease in coal prices.

As a result, many families that previously burned wood began to switch to coal, further boosting the coal industry.

Currently, the coal mines in the Southern Netherlands Walloon Region had not yet been opened for operation, but once cities like Lyon and Reims also installed coal gas street lamps, coal from the Walloon Region would continuously flow into various parts of France.

At that point, France’s coal industry scale might very well surpass that of England.

As for another astounding growth point in the industry—the chemical industry, it was primarily because France’s first factory using the “Royal Alkali Process” to produce Soda Ash had officially commenced operations, capable of producing 2000 kilograms of Soda Ash daily. Also, the cost was extremely low, only a third of the former alkali production method.

Currently, France was selling Soda Ash at 70% of the market price, almost monopolizing the entire Soda Ash market on the European Continent, including England.

Although due to the underdeveloped industDEVAMIries across countries, the demand for Soda Ash wasn’t high, it still generated several million francs in revenue each year.

Moreover, with the reduced price of Soda Ash, the production costs of French soap, paper, dyes, pharmaceuticals, and other products had also greatly decreased, rapidly enhancing their competitiveness internationally.

Especially in regions like Southern Germany, which had trade agreements with France, the aforementioned products accounted for at least 70% of their market!

These countries had never imagined at the time they signed the agreements that France would even dump products like soap, so they had not set protective tariffs on such products.

After the Queen led the congratulations to Mirabeau, the Minister of Agriculture, Venio, eagerly began his presentation.

“Our beet sugar factories began production at the end of last year, producing 80,000 pounds of white sugar in the first month. Given the current scale of cultivation and the construction status of refineries, we should be able to reach a production capacity of 600,000 pounds per month this year!”

While 600,000 pounds were not much, still less than what Santo Domingo produced in a week, being able to produce sugar on the European Continent would drastically impact the entire sugar trade structure.

Venio then excitedly introduced France’s fertilizer production and the olive cultivation in places like Tunisia.

Currently, France had built four “Phosphate Rock” crushing mills in Marseille and Paris to process Phosphate rock shipped from Nauru and Tunisia, which was then sold to farmers by agricultural service consulting firms.

After being processed and crushed, the phosphate fertilizers’ effectiveness was over 30% higher than when farmers used it by soaking it in water themselves.