I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 485 Royal University of Administration of France

The sky gradually darkened.

The carriage of the crown prince finally left the first prison of France.

Joseph sat in the car, looking at the list of more than 30 officials in his hand, smiled, and threw it to Emman:

"Please put it in the storage cabinet in the study for me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Joseph did not want this list to purge officials at all.

Although the people on the list were involved in corruption and dereliction of duty, they did not stand up to oppose tax reform. At least it is not appropriate to touch them for now.

Politics is like this, the scope of the attack must be concentrated, so that officials know whether they are safe. In this way, those who are not involved will draw a clear line with the target of the attack and support the royal family.

If political purges spread indefinitely, officials will be panicked and will inevitably use various means to protect themselves, which may eventually lead to political turmoil.

However, it is completely possible to use this list to hit the bureaucrats.

If you don't hit these bigwigs who are domineering, they will easily forget who they are and who is the boss.

The next day, Joseph brought Fouché to the First Prison again.

He personally "visited" an assistant governor who was captured by Marat. Fouché followed his instructions and went to the cell of Municipal Commissioner Caston.

Joseph's energy was limited, so he could only take care of officials at the provincial level. The rest of the small shrimps were thrown to the Intelligence Bureau to deal with, especially since many officials involved in the case had not been sent to Paris, and he could not run around the country for such a small matter.

Joseph estimated that after "threatening" all the more than 40 officials, he could probably get the revelations of thousands of officials.

At present, France has only more than 10,000 officials, not counting North Africa and Luxembourg.

The number of people he got was enough to start the reform of the civil service.

Joseph looked at the assistant governor of Picardy who was busy writing the revelations, and silently planned in his heart:

First, the officials had to be nervous.

Then, the royal family would act as a savior and save them at the critical moment.

These gentlemen who have been blessed will certainly not refuse to go to university to learn professional knowledge in order to improve their business capabilities to repay His Majesty the King.

Joseph knew that the French bureaucracy had been running for too many years and had a very strong inherent inertia. If he copied the "public examination system" of North Africa, it would most likely cause strong opposition from the entire bureaucracy and even the nobles.

So, he could only change the mode to operate.

That is to set up a "Royal University of French Administration" with the king as the president, and let a large number of high-ranking officials enter the school for further study.

In this way, in the future, "academic" officials will gradually begin to exclude colleagues from "wild backgrounds", forcing the latter to seek to enter the school for further study.

At this time, the entrance examination can be started.

Sorry, those who cannot pass the entrance examination, the academic colleagues will marginalize you without the royal family's intervention.

After that, it gradually evolved into people without a diploma from the University of Administration and Management, and they would not even think about entering the officialdom.

Eventually, even low-level positions such as clerks, secretaries, and data clerks were all included in the scope of university studies.

At that time, the entrance examination of the Administrative University had already become the civil service examination in France. Unknowingly, the most important step of the reform of the civil service was completed!

The biggest difficulty in implementing this plan is how to get as many officials as possible to study in the school.

And this "large-scale corruption case" just provided an opportunity for Joseph.

Joseph was thinking about the reform of the civil service, and the carriage had slowly stopped. Emman reminded him:

"Your Highness, we have arrived at Notre Dame."

Joseph nodded and looked out the window, and saw that the Archbishop of Paris, Beaumont, had already led a large group of priests to wait respectfully in the square in front of the main entrance of the church.

He immediately got out of the car with a smile, and had a conversation with Beaumont who came up, and then he got straight to the point:

"Respected Archbishop, I need you to help me build a university."

Yes, for education, it is best to find the "Ministry of Education" of France - the Catholic Church.

The church not only has rich experience in running schools and can draw out teachers at any time, but also pays great attention to the maintenance of royal power.

Moreover, the Administrative University is not like a police academy, where classes can be held by just building a warehouse and a playground on wasteland. The Administrative University represents the face of the French bureaucracy, and the necessary things cannot be saved.

Archbishop Beaumont smiled when he heard this - the crown prince wanted to build a university, which meant that a large amount of funds would be handled by the church, which was a rare and lucrative job.

He nodded repeatedly: "Your Highness, it is my great honor to serve you. I wonder what kind of university you want to build and how big it is?"

"Royal Administrative University." Joseph walked to the reception room behind Notre Dame with familiarity, and said to Beaumont, "It mainly teaches courses such as economics, management, society, law, and engineering. Oh, of course, it doesn't have to be as in-depth as the University of Paris. All courses can be completed within one year, or even half a year."

He then gave a general introduction to the main functions of the university, and then said:

"As for the scale, it will be built according to the scale of 1,500 students in the early stage, but space for expansion must be reserved."

Archbishop Beaumont signaled the assistant beside him to take careful notes, and gave a lot of suggestions on school construction. Finally, rubbing his hands, he smiled and said:

"Your Highness, it's just that the time you gave is too short, only three months. This may significantly increase the construction cost..."

Joseph nodded carelessly: "Then we have to ask the church to pay in advance."

"Ah, thank you Your Highness..." Beaumont responded subconsciously, but suddenly froze and exclaimed, "No, Your Highness, you said you would let the church pay in advance?

"This university may cost 500,000 francs to build. How can the church come up with so much money..."

Joseph patted him on the back, came closer and said, "The church's manor east of the Seine River can be renovated and used. It shouldn't cost so much, and it can speed up the progress."

Beaumont became anxious when he heard this: "Your Highness, this is not..."

Joseph smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice: "Archbishop, a large number of officials may have been investigated recently. I think people from the church can fill some positions."

This administrative reform is tantamount to a major surgical operation for France. Joseph could not predict what emergencies he would encounter. To be on the safe side, he decided to enlist the help of the church to support him.

Even though the church is far less powerful than it was under Louis XIII, it still has some political influence. At least by roping in the church, we can prevent them from colluding with the bureaucracy.