I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 492 The church is the king of making money (recommended above, please give me everything!)

Beaumont had previously promised that the Crown Prince would cooperate with him in rectifying the bureaucracy, but he has been very concerned about it during this period. He has publicly condemned officials who are on trial for corruption whenever he can.

At the same time, at his request, churches in various places would bring Gehazi's portraits around the city to give speeches from time to time - Gehazi was a man in the Bible who was punished by God for being greedy for money and suffered from severe leprosy. Become extremely pale. At least the painting looks very visually impressive.

However, as the situation gradually calmed down, the church has not mentioned it much recently. Beaumont suddenly mentioned these things now, in fact, he wanted to show off in front of Joseph.

Fouche took the wine from the priest's hand, glanced at Beaumont who was chattering away, snorted disdainfully, and muttered:

"Oh, those officials are not as greedy as you."

Joseph looked back at him curiously: "What should I say?"

Fouche realized that he had made some mistakes, but under the gaze of the Crown Prince, he could only whisper:

"Your Highness, many people in the church know that Archbishop Beaumont's property is three to four million francs. This money..."

He was born as a priest, so he knew a lot of information inside the church.

When Joseph heard this, he took a breath, frowned and nodded.

He also knew that as a first-level priest, how could he not be greedy? In particular, France has strictly restricted the church's power to interfere with the secular world. Those in the church are left with the pursuit of making money.

However, for now, he can only choose to temporarily cooperate with the church. After all, the church is more honest than the aristocracy and relies more on the royal family, so it is easier to control.

If you want to carry out reforms at the national level, you must recruit forces that can be used by yourself and separate the first and second estates, that is, the cooperation between the priests and the nobility.

After the various reforms in France are basically completed, the rectification of the church will definitely be put on the agenda.

Apart from anything else, the fact that one-tenth of the country's land is in the hands of the church makes it impossible to let it go.

You must know that historically, after the success of the French Revolution, the National Assembly relied on confiscating the church's land and using these lands as anchors to issue paper currency "coupons", which barely managed to survive the initial financial crisis.

In addition, the church is still collecting the tithe. Although the actual tax rate is not 10%, but about 7%, it is still a huge burden on the country's economic development.

After everyone had received the Holy Communion, Beaumont also ended his criticism of corrupt officials and turned to wink at the priest on the side.

The priest hurriedly took out a piece of paper with patterns and densely printed text, and held it up to show it to everyone.

Beaumont smiled and said: "This is a 'wealth guarantee coupon' launched by the church in compliance with God's revelation. After purchasing this coupon, you will be blessed and avoid being harmed by greedy people."

Joseph's eyes widened in shock. The church was really good at drawing inferences from one instance to another. It could even think of a coupon for such a trivial matter!

But he could only watch.

After all, in order to deceive the church into saving money, he promised to let the church sell "improved indulgences".

It can be seen that the church has been creating various coupons to make money over the past year.

Joseph smacked his lips subconsciously, looking forward to what he would gain after reorganizing the church.

…

The capital of Corsica, Ajaccio.

In the room on the second floor of Congressman Girolamo's house, Bartolio, who is also a Congressman, pushed a few pieces of paper to the middle of the table, then looked around at the people in the room and said:

"This is from Mr. Ennio from Charleston. Oh, he went to the United States on my behalf four months ago."

Another Corsican MP picked up the top piece of paper doubtfully and read:

"Naborstown, Charleston, has had only three Massimo ladies for nearly 30 years, two of whom are still alive and one who died at the beginning of the year.

"The deceased Mrs. Massimo had never mentioned that she had Corsican relatives before, and she was very poor, with all her family property adding up to less than $30.

"But people in the town saw that after her death, a man with an Italian accent came into contact with her nephew, her only relative, and then her nephew began to claim that she had been to Corsi Chia.”

"so……"

Bartolo slapped the table hard and said angrily: "So Mrs. Pauley doesn't have any American aunt at all! Even if she did, she would only be left with an inheritance of US$30 at most, not US$10,000!"

"Please look at this again."

He pulled out two documents from those papers and handed them to the congressman beside him.

The latter could not understand English and handed the document back to him.

Bartolio poked the two pieces of paper with his fingers and said:

"These are certification documents issued by the Charleston City Hall. This one is a villa on the west side of Charleston, and this one is a huge cotton estate in the southern suburbs. They both belong to Mrs. Pauley."

"Didn't you say that Mrs. Paoli did not inherit the inheritance?" Girolamo, the spy, immediately pretended to be confused.

"This is not a legacy at all. Look at the transfer time on it." Bartolio gritted his teeth and said, "At the end of April, it means that this is a newly purchased property by Mrs. Pauli!"

Girolamo pointed to the price on the certification document and said in surprise:

"The house and land combined are worth $100,000. Where did she get so much money?"

All seven members of Congress in the room suddenly became darkened.

Oscar Paulie has always claimed that he is devoted to restoring his country and has no property at all. The house he lives in London was donated by supporters, but now a huge sum of $100,000 suddenly appeared.

Without anyone reminding them, they immediately thought of the 25,000 pounds of funding that was accidentally burned a few months ago, which is $120,000.

And the property purchased by Paulie in the United States, plus the $10,000 inherited by his wife in the Netherlands, just matched this number.

"I think it's clear now," said Bartolio. "Pauli betrayed us."

Someone raised a question: "But he had no reason to do that..."

"No, he did." A thin brown-haired man who had been silent before said, "In fact, we got intelligence at the beginning of the year that the British seemed to be negotiating in France and might no longer provide asylum for Mr. Pauli."

The speaker was an officer in charge of the intelligence agency of the Corsica Restoration Organization. He took a deep breath and continued:

"I reported this to Mr. Pauli, but he said he was not afraid of the French and told me not to worry."

Girolamo immediately followed up: "It seems that Mr. Pauli was ready to leave Britain from then on."

He was going to say that the British no longer protected Pauli, but someone was one step ahead of him.

The brown-haired man thought: "No, not just leaving Britain. I think he might have made a deal with the French."