I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 264 Switching between the old and new eras

DiBoer looked at his watch. It was already past 9 p.m.

He hurriedly interrupted Dandong, who still had more to say, and said that the court would be temporarily adjourned and would continue tomorrow morning.

The Duke of Chartres had long lost the complacency he had when he was waiting to inherit a huge fortune during the court session. Hearing this, he felt as if he had been granted amnesty and jumped out of this place that had caused him so much suffering like a wild dog.

The court session continued as usual in the following days.

On the third day, Danton had already calculated the fine of the Duke of Orleans to 68 million livres, and at this time he had just begun to calculate the specific losses of the riot.

As for the Duke of Chartres, he no longer appeared in court from the next day, leaving all matters to a few lawyers.

…

Office of the Industrial Planning Bureau on the second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph drank the black tea just shipped from the Far East and looked at the news about the trial of the Duke of Orleans' inheritance case in the "Paris Business Journal" with a relaxed expression.

Because it concerns the privacy of the great nobles, the newspaper did not publish the specific circumstances of the case. It only mentioned that according to "informed sources", the Duke of Orleans will face a huge fine because he was involved in many illegal cases during his lifetime. The Duke of Chartres will inherit The inheritance has shrunk significantly.

Joseph couldn't help but smile when he saw this. Not only was it a huge reduction, the Duke of Orleans was already insolvent before the trial was over.

According to previous rough calculations by the Crown Prince's exclusive accountant, the total fine amount was close to 90 million livres.

Moreover, these are all fines that the Duke of Chartres cannot argue with. If Dandong works hard and gets some of the fines that may or may not be fined, he may be able to achieve a small goal!

According to the "internal information" provided by Robespierre, all the assets of the Duke of Orleans, including the Royal Palace, were sold in a package, and there should be a gap of 20 million livres.

The Duke of Chartres, who inherited the Duke of Orleans' fortune, had to figure out how to deal with these fines.

Of course, Joseph also knew that it was impossible to get any money from the Duke of Chartres, but having such a "debt from the king of hell" to hold him down would at least ensure that he would not dare to jump up and down.

Eman knocked on the door and said: "Your Highness, Mr. Fouche is here."

Joseph put away the newspaper: "Invite him in."

The door opened, and the radiant Fouche walked in quickly, bowed and saluted: "I salute you, Your Highness."

"please sit down."

Fouche sat down on the sofa and reported: "Your Highness, all 198 core personnel involved in Operation Poker have been put on leave, and the 12 officials responsible for command have been transferred to Paris."

Joseph nodded with satisfaction: "You have done a good job this time. Oh, His Majesty has signed an order to upgrade the Police Intelligence Department to the Intelligence Department, which will officially take effect at the beginning of next month. You should also make some preparations in advance."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Fouché quickly stood up and saluted. Then he realized that what he said seemed wrong, and quickly added, "Long live His Majesty the King! The Police Intelligence Department will always fulfill its duties and serve His Majesty!"

Joseph smiled and motioned for him to sit down, and Eman brought tea and placed it in front of Fouche.

Fouche placed the pile of documents he had in front of Joseph and said, "Your Highness, these are some matters worth noting recently."

According to the operational procedures of the Police Intelligence Department, Fouche will classify and screen the collected intelligence every few days, and then submit it to the Crown Prince. Of course, if major matters are encountered, temporary reports will be made.

"Lady Audelian is mediating the dispute between Baron Beverley and Earl Cyprian...

"There are rumors circulating in the streets of Paris that the Duke of Chartres is suffering from syphilis. According to the information we have obtained from his doctor, this is probably true..."

"Paris Trade and Investment Bank had a major equity transfer two days ago..."

As Fouche continued to report on what he considered the most important matters, Joseph's eyes stopped on a paragraph in the report: Recently, the number of Versailles nobles joining various clubs has increased significantly, and the frequency of gatherings is also much higher than before. According to intelligence analysis, these clubs mainly focus on political analysis and discussion, and the core members are the old aristocracy.

These clubs have strong opinions on some of the recent government reforms, especially the "Abolition of Noble Privileges Act". The main arguments are "His Majesty the King has abandoned the sword-bearing nobles" and "the nobles whose future is uncertain should fight for their own rights" and so on.

As for the yet-to-be-promulgated "specific details of various taxes on farmers' redemption of taxes", they are more inclined to make representations to Her Majesty the Queen, hoping to increase the amount of redemption and increase the compensation to the lords.

Recently there is a song called "Leave My Land" which is very popular among the old aristocracy. The content of the song is about a nobleman who lost his land rent and left his fiancée to adventure in the Caribbean because he could not afford the cost of marriage, and finally died tragically at sea.

Other pamphlets appeared complaining about the royal family.

Joseph couldn't help but frowned, thinking of last month's financial statement submitted by Brent, general manager of Paris Angel Company yesterday.

Paris Angel's turnover plummeted 27% last month.

He connected the two things together, and suddenly felt a sense of alarm in his heart.

The core customers of Paris Angel are the aristocrats of Versailles, among whom the old aristocracy accounts for a large part.

The decline in Paris Angel's turnover shows that the aristocrats are seriously bearish on their income expectations, leading to a downgrade in consumption.

Fouche's report mentioned that the old nobles began to gather to complain and composed a pitiful song, which further showed that they were extremely dissatisfied with the abolition of noble privileges.

Although he had eliminated the leading figures of the old aristocracy, they could not make any big waves for the time being, but the resentment in their hearts was obvious.

But these people are currently the core class in France. Whether it is consumption power or influence, the capital aristocracy cannot replace them for the time being.

Joseph knew that if the current situation was not handled properly, it would have very serious consequences.

At this time, Emperor Joseph II of Austria was also making reforms to reduce the privileges of the nobility. The extent of the reforms was far less than his own, but it had already made Austria full of feathers. Historically, after Leopold II succeeded to the throne in 1790, he canceled most of his reform measures at light speed in order to restore stability to Austria.

Speaking of which, the royal family's biggest support at present is still the feudal aristocracy.

Without their support, capitalists naturally like to set rules for the king - such as signing the constitution according to the king, or simply making the king disappear.

But if you want an industrial revolution, the country must move towards capitalism.

Therefore, one of my priorities in the future is how to suppress the power of capital in the process of industrialization.

First of all, we must try our best to support the capital aristocracy to occupy the capital market and prevent pure capitalists who are only interested in profit from controlling the market.

The most important thing is that you must control the country's capital lifeline as much as possible and implement state-led management of key resources and fields. Only in this way can the capital forces give up the idea of ​​rebellion.

But it takes quite a while to do that.

Prior to this, the royal family had to rely on the feudal nobles to rule the country until the royal family switched its power from "feudal land" to "capital and resources."