I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 583 Caribbean Strategy (asking for double monthly tickets)

The group walked along the edge of the beet test field, and Joseph continued:

"So, can we ensure that there is enough beet for the sugar refinery before October next year?"

Achard knew the French sugar industry plan, and nodded confidently:

"Yes, Your Highness. The church people are already learning seeding technology from me. As long as there are enough farmers to plant, 5,000 tons of sugar per month is just the minimum."

Joseph nodded slightly when he heard this.

In this way, his sugar strategy can be implemented.

This time, the British must be beaten to the bone!

He then visited the hybrid experimental field of wheat and corn and returned to the Palace of Versailles.

He plans to leave for Brittany tomorrow to promote the steam engine on board. He may have to stay there for a while, so he has to have dinner with his parents today to save his mother from nagging him again.

It happened that Talleyrand was here too, so he could tell him about the arrangements in the Caribbean.

An hour later, the foreign minister appeared in the reception room of the prince.

He came on his own initiative.

Talleyrand hurriedly saluted, took out a report and said:

"Your Highness, I was just about to go to the Tuileries Palace to find you.

"This is an urgent report sent by Marquis Vida de La Bayetrie of Saint-Domingo a month and a half ago. The Booker rioters are killing plantation owners in the north of the island, and the scale has reached thousands.

"And Vincent Auger called on people who sympathize with black slaves in Port-au-Prince to put pressure on the parliament to hinder the suppression of the rioters..."

Joseph took the report and listened to Talleyrand's detailed account, and finally understood the situation on Saint-Domingo Island.

At present, the biggest trouble is a black slave uprising army called "Booker Movement".

These black slaves believe in voodoo and are extremely hostile to white people. Even their flag is painted with the body of a white baby.

Wherever the Booker Movement goes, they will kill all white people, and usually torture them, even those who support abolition will not be spared.

Of course, their hatred had a reason - the way they tortured white people was the same way the plantation owners had tortured black slaves.

At the same time, although Vincent Auger, who led the abolition movement on the island, opposed the Booker movement, after all, the latter did not even let him go, but he sympathized with the blacks in the rebels, so he often used his political influence to help them.

This led to the Governor of Saint-Domingue repeatedly encircling and suppressing the Booker movement, but always returned in vain.

The scale of the black slave riots was larger than ever before - hundreds of plantation owners and their families in the north of the island had been killed, causing great panic.

Talleyrand said anxiously:

"Your Highness, given the current situation in Saint-Domingue, I suggest that an expeditionary force be sent immediately to quell the rebellion!"

No wonder he was so anxious, Saint-Domingue was too important to France.

This small island was exchanged by France for millions of square kilometers of land in Canada. The annual trade income was as high as 40 million francs, and it also supported the sugar supply of the whole of France and part of Germany.

If the riot on the island is not quelled as soon as possible, France will not only lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue, but will also have to hold its nose and eat the high-priced sugar from the British from then on - by then, the British will definitely dare to sell sugar at 10 francs per pound!

Joseph shook his head slightly.

He roughly remembered that this riot should be the fuse of the event known as the "Haitian Revolution" in history.

Just a few months later, Auger will personally lead the riot and eventually lead to the real "monster" Toussaint Louverture.

Louverture was born a black slave, but he was very good at fighting. After the riot in Saint-Domingue, he led an insurgent army composed mainly of black slaves and some mixed-race people to defeat the French army on the island.

Later, he successively defeated the Spanish army that tried to take advantage of the chaos to get involved in Saint-Domingue, as well as the British army with the same purpose.

In the end, Napoleon sent Charles Leclerc to lead 30,000 French troops to land in Saint-Domingue to quell the rebellion.

After a series of hard battles that still failed to win, Leclerc could only use a false peace talk to lure Louverture and capture him.

However, Louverture's successor quickly defeated Leclerc's troops, and the French army suffered as many as 30,000 casualties in the end.

Therefore, military suppression is definitely the worst option to deal with the uprising on the island. Because the distance is too far, the cost of deploying troops is extremely high. Even if it can be won, the cost of war is a disaster for the French finances.

If it were in the past, Joseph might have adopted a strategy of dividing blacks and mixed-race people. At the same time, he gave freedom to black slaves and divided the blacks internally. And let the Catholic Church invest in the "holy war" against voodoo. This should take a year or two to quell the uprising.

However, now that he has Achard's beets, the strategies he can choose are completely different.

First, France can be self-sufficient in its own sugar, which gives it confidence.

Secondly, France's sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean earn less than 40 million francs a year, while Britain makes as much as 140 million!

And if Britain lost Trinidad and the West Indies, there would be no other place to get sugar - given the exaggerated sugar consumption in Britain, the unsatisfied people could even bring down the government!

Joseph looked at Talleyrand and said, "I don't want to send troops to Saint-Domingue, but I hope you can go there."

"Ah? Me?" Talleyrand was shocked. "Your Highness, forgive me for being blunt, but the blacks there don't have the habit of negotiating."

"That's because we gave too few chips." Joseph smiled, "If we handle it this way..."

After a moment, Talleyrand no longer had the previous anxiety, and bowed his head in thought: "Your Highness, although your plan is very risky, it is undeniable that the benefits are also extremely amazing."

He suddenly shook his head: "However, I am not the right executor of this plan. With my current identity, as long as I appear on the island, I will immediately attract the attention of the British."

Joseph thought about it and agreed: "Then, do you have any recommendations?"

"Jacques Pierre Brissot," Talleyrand said, "a fanatical abolitionist, very capable, knowledgeable, and especially good at speaking."

"Brissot?" Joseph quickly remembered the name. One of the leaders of the Girondists, he once drafted a petition to depose the king. After taking office, he urged France to declare war on Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Talleyrand continued: "He used to be the clerk of the Duke of Orleans, so he never had the opportunity to become an official. But as far as I know, he and the Duke of Orleans don't have a deep relationship."