I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 466 To win, you have to win against Britain (monthly votes requested at the end of the month!)

If France had the same good financial situation as Britain, it could issue special government bonds to support the fiscal window of half a year.

But the French government had already exhausted the market for government bonds to cope with the debt of more than 2 billion. Now, even if the interest rate of government bonds is raised to 12%, it is probably difficult to sell much.

Joseph nodded solemnly. According to the French government's annual fiscal revenue of 500 million francs, at least 250 million must be raised at one time to start the reform of abolishing the tax-farming system - this money can be used to support the first half of the year, and the tax revenue received in the first half of the year can be used to maintain the second half of the year.

However, if you want to be more safe, you may need 300 million francs.

Joseph quickly recalled the cases of fund-raising in later generations. There should be some cards to play in the fields of banking, insurance, securities, etc.

He initially selected a few backups and said to Mirabeau: "I will find a way to deal with the financial matters. Tax reform must be promoted as soon as possible.

"You can contact the forces that support the reform first and spread the news in advance to build momentum. I will propose the establishment of a tax bureau at the next cabinet meeting as the beginning of the government taking over tax collection.

"The next thing will be continued after the money problem is solved."

"Yes, Your Highness."

When Bailly heard "tax bureau", he immediately thought of another problem: "Your Highness, all tax collection work is now done by tax farmers, and the government has no experience in collecting taxes. I am worried that this will cause chaos in tax collection."

At the beginning, the reason why Louis XIV handed over the tax collection to tax farmers was because the government's tax officials were mediocre and there were cases of tax evasion everywhere. Even tax officials colluded with taxpayers, collected some benefits and put them in their own pockets, and taxes could be exempted.

After the tax farmers took over, they handed over a sum of money to the government in advance, and then they were responsible for their own profits and losses, so they would never let go of any taxes that should be collected.

Joseph smiled: "I have my own way to solve this, you don't need to worry."

For the government in the 18th century, how to avoid tax evasion is definitely a big problem, but Joseph has read the ready-made "textbook" - the methods of the later American IRS can be copied.

IRS is the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. Some Americans in later generations are not afraid of the police, and some are not afraid of officials, but no one dares to explode in front of the IRS. There was once a gangster who killed and robbed, and committed many evil deeds, but even the FBI couldn't do anything about him. In the end, the IRS stepped in and quickly put him in jail, and finally completely eradicated the entire gang.

In addition to the IRS, Joseph can use many tax "weapons", such as the invoice system, the personal income tax system, the tax reporting system, etc.

In order to increase tax revenue, the government tax department of later generations has come up with all kinds of "tricks", which can even be mastered by professional tax avoidance accountants in the 21st century, not to mention the taxpayers in the 18th century.

Of course, these are all theoretical. Joseph estimated that there would be some disturbances in the implementation of tax reform, but for the business environment of France, this must be done.

Moreover, if the tax farmer system can be abolished, the tens of millions of francs of taxes in the hands of tax farmers every year can greatly improve the French finances, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone, and it is worth taking some risks.

Then, Bailly submitted a report on the development of business last year. The two ministers reported to Joseph on the affairs of French industry and commerce until late at night, and only left with a hint from Emman.

The clock has pointed to 11:30. Joseph is still looking at the report in his hand in the study, and occasionally takes a sip of the teacup on the table.

Last year, France's total trade volume reached an astonishing 1 billion francs, which is even close to the UK's 49 million pounds, or 1.22 billion francs.

However, France's profits from foreign trade are far less than those of Britain. After all, most of France's trade volume comes from surrounding European countries, so it must lower prices and compete with these countries' own products.

On the other hand, Britain could exploit its colonies, buy raw materials at low prices and sell industrial products at high prices, without worrying about competition, and the tariffs were close to zero.

Even the United States, France's nominal ally, was a British colony in the past, so all its industries and commerce were built to match those of Britain, and it was extremely dependent on Britain. At present, although it is independent, its trade contribution to Britain is only slightly lower than that in the colonial era.

In short, France's annual profit from trade is only about half of that of the British, but it has to feed a population more than three times that of Britain - currently, the population of Britain is less than 10 million, while that of France is 30 million.

This is the result of Joseph's continuous promotion. Historically, the French industry had begun to collapse in 1790, and only wine had some sales until Napoleon used cannons to open up the European market and kick out British goods.

Joseph knew that France, as the most powerful country on the European continent, would face the threat of war from Britain, which adhered to the continental balance policy, at any time.

The so-called continental balance policy means that Britain will never allow a powerful country that can suppress all other countries and dominate the continent to appear in Europe, so as to ensure Britain's absolute influence on the continent.

In terms of specific implementation, he will lead other countries to fight against whoever is the strongest in Europe.

The emergence of the anti-French alliance in history was superficially due to the outbreak of the Great Revolution in France, which chopped off the heads of the royal family and aroused the common hatred of other kings.

But the root cause was that Prussia and Austria were always somewhat weak, which made France stand out in Europe, thus causing the British to be wary.

Otherwise, Britain was the first country to have a revolution and chopped off the king, and it is still a country ruled by parliament. Instead, it empathized with other kings to make trouble for France? In fact, Britain just wanted to weaken France through war.

Therefore, after basically resolving the domestic revolutionary crisis, Joseph's current strategic focus is to prepare for the "continental balance" stick that the British will inevitably drop.

In the era of the Industrial Revolution, if you want to challenge Britain, you must first catch up in industry and trade.

Joseph looked at the world map on the wall next to him. Those large British colonies from India to North America, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean really put a lot of pressure on him.

But soon, his eyes flashed with determination and confidence, and he would definitely lead France to catch up in industry and commerce. By then, a powerful fleet must be built to defeat the British navy that they are proud of, completely remove the curse that restricts the development of France, and achieve the feat that Napoleon failed to accomplish in his lifetime.

To win, you must defeat Britain!

Of course, you have to eat one bite at a time.

At present, first of all, we must complete various domestic reforms and lay a solid foundation, then stabilize the market won from Germany, and try to expand the territory in North Africa to pave the way for the industrial revolution.