Eagle’s Glory

While touring the newly formed Guards, Aigron chatted and laughed happily with Marshal Soult, demonstrating the "sincere cooperation" between the two generations. After the military parade, the palace held a grand banquet, where all the recent guests All the Guards officers were invited to attend, and Aigron and Marshal Soult warmly entertained these soldiers to show their respect for them.

And these officers are naturally proud of it. They all know that since they have been specially summoned by His Majesty as a Guard, it means that they are on the fast track to rise in the army. From now on, they will They are the "Emperor's personal soldiers". Since they are filled with a certain sense of superiority, it also makes them all gear up, hoping to express their loyalty to the young Majesty in various ways.

And it was exactly this effect that Aigron wanted.

Although due to historical factors, he cannot completely control the older generation and Mesozoic officer corps in the army and can only adopt the method of supervision and cooperation, he can slowly cultivate a new generation of officer groups and use pro-military officers who resolutely obey him personally to To gradually replace the old and retired officers, and naturally realize the "emperor's unification of the army" in an absolute sense.

Of course, in this process, in order to win over these people, he also needs to continue to give rewards and grant titles so that the empire can form its own "Junkers" group. However, this is not difficult for him. There are solutions.

During the joyful banquet, slogans such as "Long live the Emperor!" and "Your Majesty the Marshal will always be in good health" were heard endlessly. The atmosphere reached its climax, leaving a deep impression on everyone who attended.

After the banquet was over, Marshal Soult returned to Paris with his entourage, and the Guards officers dispersed and led their soldiers back to the military camps around the Fontainebleau Palace. The bustling Fontainebleau The palace finally regained its previous tranquility.

However, this did not mean that Aigron could relax. In the afternoon of the same day, he welcomed another important servant of his at the Palace of Fontainebleau.

In this afternoon that had just become quiet, the finance minister, Baron Montbell Guillaume Isidore, and his assistants quietly came to the Palace of Fontainebleau.

Soon, the Baron got the opportunity to meet him, and this time, it was the Agrons who met him together.

The Isidore family is a "robed nobleman" with a long history. The Baron's ancestor was a well-known lawyer during the Bourbon Dynasty. Then with the help of the money saved by the lawyer, he finally became a nobleman through the sale of official positions in the Bourbon royal family. Became a noble family.

After becoming a nobility, the Isidore family did not forget their "old business". Several generations of barons were either engaged in legal work or financial work, and also became one of the important screws in the Bourbon bureaucracy.

Since it is a "screw\

,"But the Isidore family naturally doesn't care who is sitting on the throne. They have escaped the turmoil after the Great Revolution through the connections they have accumulated over the years, and family members have held senior government positions many times. It is not "powerful", but at least it is an indispensable part of the power machine.

After Prince Talleyrand came to power and became the head of the provisional government through the previous turmoil, because he had a good relationship with this family and he recognized the ability of Guillaume Isidore, Baron Montbell, he appointed him as the head of his government. Minister of Finance.

After several months of investigation and adjustment, Aigron also recognized this gentleman's business ability, so after the establishment of the empire, he continued to retain him as his finance minister.

[In the original history, after the July Revolution of 1830, Baron Montbell was invited by the Duke of Orleans to become the Finance Minister of the Orleans Dynasty. Then because of his good performance, he carried out quite beneficial policies in the early stages of French industrialization. His economic and industrial policies were commended by the new king. Finally, he was named Count of Montbell, and the Isidore family continued to be prominent for several generations]

Obviously, if Aiglon wants to realize his ambitious industrialization and large-scale railway construction plans, he naturally needs the support of financial officials, and Baron Montbell is the talent he recognizes. He has been working hard during this period. to raise funds, stabilize government finances and debt balance, and do our best to complete the tasks assigned by His Majesty.

In the financial world, Aiglon promoted Beauvin as his agent and bond underwriter; within the government, he also used the highly capable Baron Montbell as his finance minister. He planned to use both the government and the opposition to achieve the goal as quickly as possible. Promote your plans with the utmost speed and courage.

However, today he came to Fontainebleau not for the industrial and railway plans that Aiglon had in mind, but for another important task of Aiglon.

After respectfully saluting the emperor and his wife, the nervous Baron Montbell reported his progress to Aiglon.

He carefully took out a stack of documents from the briefcase and handed it to Aiglon.

"Your Majesty, according to your request, we have completely compiled the property currently belonging to you and the royal family, whether it is cash, bonds and other assets, or real estate such as forest land, farmland, castles, sea areas and islands, etc. There are detailed details and statistics, and they are converted based on current prices. You can know how much property the royal family has, how much can be used immediately, or the estimated annual maintenance costs. You can see all of this. Detailed report.”

Looking at the thick stack of paper in front of him, Aigron was impressed by the richness of the French king's "family wealth", and he couldn't help but secretly admire the hard work of the accountants of the Ministry of Finance who worked overtime during this period.

The 21st century is an era of surplus talent. If the rich want to take stock of their wealth, they can easily find it by looking for a few accountants. However, it is not that easy in this era, especially after the "change of dynasties" just now. Of course, it will take a lot of hard work to fully receive the assets of the previous royal family and calculate them.

The reason why he wanted to calculate his family fortune when he took the throne was not because he was greedy for money, but because he wanted to concentrate the resources at his disposal for his various subsequent plans.

Agron took the document sheet presented by the Finance Minister, and immediately saw the dense data listed on the balance sheet on paper.

Naturally, his eyes jumped directly to the various "summary" columns.

As expected, there were huge money figures everywhere, but he didn't even bat an eyelid. After all, in his current position, money is really just a number.

"We are really a big family now, Theresa." Aigron teased Theresa next to him, and then handed the document to Theresa again.

Then, he himself looked at the Chancellor of Finance.

"So, have you made the plan for financial separation as mentioned before?"

Baron Montbell nodded again, then calmly took out another document that had been prepared long ago from his briefcase, and handed it to Aiglon again.

"It's done, Your Majesty."

The so-called "financial separation" is a policy that Egeron began to promote as soon as he came to power, so that the "palace" and the "government" can be completely separated financially.

In other words, in addition to the government's annual fixed "royal fee", Aigron will no longer require the government to continue, let alone meet the palace's needs through temporary tax increases.

In the 21st century, this is not new at all, because most Western developed countries have detailed budgets and accounts for royal expenses that can be checked, and there is a fixed amount of money given by the government every year; but in this era, the feudal era The remnants are far from over, and the government is still seen more often by kings as a tool to satisfy their own selfish desires (the United Kingdom does this very well, because the power of the British monarch is limited, so the financial power is subject to more supervision).

Needless to say, the monarchs of big countries were extremely extravagant and had high debts. Even the small princes in Germany also squandered the people's wealth and money. Goethe, the great writer who once held a public office in the Principality of Weimar, once lamented that the German princes spent more money to satisfy their squandering desires. The evil practices of indiscriminate issuance of banknotes and arbitrary taxation.

At the end of the Bourbon dynasty, the reason why the Great Revolution broke out, in addition to natural disasters and famine, was because the dynasty's wanton squandering of money and high debts due to various reasons triggered a widespread and severe financial crisis. In the end, the king had to convene a meeting of the Estates-General to detonate a bomb.

Because of the ancient feudal tradition, kings often do not distinguish between family and country. In the eyes of the kings, there is no difference between the national treasury and the private treasury of their own families. They are both money bags for taking what they want. All their extravagant and extravagant desires can be spent on their own. to satisfy the government’s financial resources. King Louis XVI once spent tens of millions of livres to pay off his brother's gambling debts, which is ridiculous.

After the Great Revolution, Emperor Napoleon came to power, but he did not restrain himself much. Although the emperor himself did not like luxury, the imperial court and marshals were also extravagant and extravagant. However, at that time, he could steal money from all over Europe, so after all, he did not Let the country fall into a situation where the people are exhausted and the wealth is exhausted.

Now, Aigron has come to power. Because he knows that this kind of disregard of family and country is against the trend, he plans to take the initiative to make changes and separate the palace finance from the government finance to alleviate public anger. This practice is no longer uncommon in the 21st century, but in 1830 it was the first of its kind.

He did this not because he was particularly kind-hearted, but because he had a better and more covert way to make money for the royal family.

In his plan, after counting the assets and cash in his hands, he will establish two royal treasury, one as a "maintenance fund" to meet the salary expenses of royal members, palace officials and employees; and the other As an investment fund, it is specially used to invest in domestic emerging industries and enterprises.

There are risks in investment, but for him who holds the power of the government, what "risks" are there? What factories will get orders, what railway lines will be opened, what real estate will appreciate, who will become important suppliers... these are all things he knows from the beginning. Of course he can amass the royal wealth without anyone noticing. There is no need to publicly raise taxes on the people.

In the original history, Napoleon III accumulated hundreds of millions of francs in assets for the royal family in a short period of time through his own "investment". After the establishment of the German Empire, the German royal family also benefited from the emerging Second Industrial Revolution. Among them, huge wealth has been accumulated through investments, bonds, corporate shares, etc.

And Aigron, who is leading all of this, can naturally get more easily.

Of course, in reality, such a huge family property is also "died with the country". Once he loses the throne and the power in his hands, most of such a huge property will be taken over by the new government. It disappeared almost instantly. Napoleon III and the German royal family are also bloody examples.

For the ruling class, wealth is always just an accessory to power. When they have power, everything will naturally come rolling in, and when they lose power, everything will naturally disappear.

Aiglon's pursuit of royal funds is not so much to satisfy his own selfish desires, but rather to maintain the "lubricant" necessary to maintain the huge power structure of the "palace". As the old saying goes, the emperor is not short of hungry soldiers, no matter what If he wants others to do something for him, he will naturally reward him accordingly.

The royal family is always the product of "class inequality". In order to maintain its existence, the palace must "exploit" the people. However, through the two-pronged approach of "financial separation" and "investment", this exploitation will become invisible accordingly. existence, it is no longer so easy to accumulate public resentment.

Of course, this method is not a panacea. After all, the growth of wealth is not always linear, and the expansion of productivity brought about by the Industrial Revolution will not last forever. In the end, the palace will still fall into the dilemma of "a big family, a big business, and unable to make ends meet." But at least Aigron doesn't have to worry about encountering this kind of problem in his own lifetime, and he will leave it to future generations to worry about.

Agron took the draft of "fiscal separation" from the hands of the Chancellor of Finance and read it carefully.

It has to be said that proactive reforms make it easier to obtain favorable conditions. Aigron discovered that the draft law proposed by the Chancellor of Finance not only left him tens of millions of francs in "fixed royal fees" every year, but also left He opened several backdoors to urgently allocate funds from the government treasury, which can be said to save himself enough face.

After reading it, he nodded with satisfaction.

"Thank you, Mr. Baron. You fulfilled my wish efficiently and perfectly. I am grateful to you."

"It is my duty to fulfill your wish, Your Majesty!" the Finance Minister quickly replied to Aigron with his head held high.

Then he explained to Aigron.

"Since you have nodded, we will immediately carry out the necessary legislative work, and the government will draft the proposal in accordance with the spirit of the document, and then it will be approved by the parliament and become law. You will soon be able to see it put into practice."

"Thank you for your hard work."