I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 288 The real core of the French cabinet

East Palace of Versailles, Conference Hall.

Queen Mary, who is sitting at the head of the conference table, is obviously in a good mood. On the one hand, the singing and dancing competitions in the past few days have made her very relaxed, but the most important reason is that the Foreign Secretary sent back a report yesterday that the British government has agreed to arrest Jeanne and send her back. France.

In the future, we will finally no longer hear anything disgusting about the French royal family written by that liar.

Before the cabinet meeting officially started, she looked at the crown prince and said, "Joseph, have you heard about what happened in Spain?"

Joseph quickly changed his sad expression: "May the old King enjoy eternal peace in heaven."

Yes, King Carlos III of Spain passed away not long ago.

Queen Mary made the sign of the cross on her chest and sighed: "May God have mercy on him.

"By the way, please go to Madrid recently and congratulate His Majesty Carlos IV on his coronation for me and your father."

Carlos IV is the crown prince who was tricked by his wife. Joseph once helped him deal with adulterers, which can be said to have a lot of history. Moreover, the Spanish royal family and the French royal family belong to the same Bourbon lineage, so they should express their congratulations to the new king very formally on his succession.

Joseph nodded: "Okay, mother. I'll leave tomorrow."

In fact, he was planning to go to Spain sometime. Not only Spain, but also all major European countries, he is planning to visit.

With the rapid development of French industry, he needs to make arrangements in advance and sign trade agreements with various countries to pave the way for the sales of French industrial products.

Immediately, Queen Mary signaled to Archbishop Brian: "Please start."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The latter bowed and saluted, and then looked at the cabinet ministers at the conference table, "As Her Majesty the Queen just said, His Majesty Carlos IV has been crowned, and we need to prepare a diplomatic mission to accompany His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to visit Spain.

"At the same time, some policies with Spain also need to be adjusted in advance..."

The royal families of France and Spain are close relatives, and the interests of the two countries are relatively consistent. They are almost in a semi-alliance. Most of the policies will continue to be the same as those of Carlos III, so this topic ended quickly.

Later, Archbishop Brian added: "Next, we have to discuss the situation about Osman.

"I believe you all know that Hamid I passed away earlier this month. He had previously designated his nephew Selim III as the new Ottoman Sultan.

"During the succession of Selim III, the Ottomans were expected to experience a period of instability."

Duke Broy, Minister of War, immediately said: "We can take this opportunity to find the heir of Ali I of Tripoli and send troops to support him in retaking Tripoli."

Ali I was the pasha of the Karamanli dynasty who had been overthrown by the Ottoman officer Benjiur in a coup not long ago.

When several cabinet ministers heard this, they all nodded in agreement.

Tunisia can be said to have been taken from Ottoman hands. Now that Tripoli is under Ottoman control, it has always been a serious threat to Tunisia.

For this reason, France has to maintain a large number of troops in Tunisia. Instead of wasting so much, it is better to take advantage of the internal instability in the Ottomans and solve this problem directly.

Joseph immediately objected: "But I'm afraid it's not the best strategy."

Queen Mary was about to ask her son why, but found that the ministers who had enthusiastically supported sending troops just now fell silent, and seemed to have never mentioned the matter at all.

She looked at Joseph in surprise: "Ahem, can you tell me the reason?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." Joseph said, "There is a shadow of the British behind Tripoli, and they must really want us to get involved in the melee there. And if the Ottomans can use the British navy to increase their troops, it will be difficult for us to stop it. It will be easy to win. protracted war.

"The most important thing is that even if we drive away the Ottomans, we can't occupy Tripoli. You know, European countries will be wary of our presence in the Mediterranean."

"Please rest assured that I have made arrangements for this. The Ottomans are even further away from Tripoli than we are. As long as there is no British support, they will retreat from there soon."

Joseph looked at Duke Broy: "Maintaining an army in Tunisia for a short period of time is much less expensive than launching a war."

"Yes, that's right, Your Highness."

Queen Mary was still a little hesitant: "What is the deployment you are talking about?"

Joseph smiled slightly: "I will submit a report to you later."

The Ottoman matter was put aside for the time being, and Archbishop Briand immediately brought up the bill proposed by Mirabeau, the Minister of Industry, to cancel tariffs between various parts of France, and to reform the tax collector system.

Of course, both of these things were what Joseph ordered Mirabeau to do.

Now that the French Reserve Bank has tens of millions of livres obtained from the Duke of Orleans, it has the confidence to carry out reforms in these matters.

The capital aristocracy represented by Mirabeau naturally welcomed this.

Eliminating tariffs between various places will make the flow of goods smoother, which is equivalent to expanding the market.

Among the three major elements of industrial development: capital, technology and market, the market is the most important. It can even be said that with the market, two other things will emerge.

As for the tax collector system, it is a stubborn financial problem in France, swallowing up a large amount of tax revenue every year.

However, when Brian proposed these two reform bills, except for Mirabeau and Bailly, the other ministers opposed them more than in favor.

Joseph was not surprised by this, after all, this was a reform that involved a lot.

Local taxes not only involve the finances of provincial governments, but also the development of handicraft industries in various places. In the past, the handicraft industry here was weaker and could be protected by tariffs. After the tariffs are removed, you will have to face competition from all France. Most of these workshops with low productivity levels went bankrupt, triggering a wave of unemployment.

The problem with tax collectors is even greater. The government's tax department has poor capabilities and serious corruption. If the tax collection work is handed over directly to them, the French government will go bankrupt next year - because the tax collected may even be cut in half.

So Joseph asked Mirabeau to bring up these things, just to warm up and let all walks of life know that this was happening, so as to make some preparations in advance.

As expected, after more than an hour of debate, Queen Mary reluctantly announced that she would temporarily shelve the two bills.

Archbishop Brian also breathed a sigh of relief, and then moved on to the last matter: "There has been a serious rebellion in the Southern Netherlands recently, and thugs surrounded the Governor's Palace and drove Austrian officials out of Brabant.

"Vienna has not responded yet, but we should make some arrangements in advance."

The reason why he put this matter at the end was entirely because he thought it was insignificant - riots are very common in Europe today, and one broke out in France not long ago.

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