I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 611 Cake and Contradiction

Moreover, thanks to the sales volume of the smuggling trade, the output of factories across France has increased significantly, which has also increased the tax revenue by a large amount.

But Joseph also knew that the smuggling business would not last long. At present, they are taking advantage of a loophole that the British have not paid enough attention to. Once the British react, under the strict inspection of their fleet and the blockade, the amount of smuggling will definitely decrease rapidly.

Joseph estimates that the Special Trade bonus will last another year at most. Without strong naval support, Britain still cannot defeat Britain at sea.

Of course, France has now completed its tax reform, abolished local taxes and most tolls, and the development momentum of industry and commerce is good.

Therefore, even if these two "abnormal revenues" are missing, this year's fiscal year can at least ensure that there will be no deficit.

When tax reform was mentioned, Joseph suddenly felt tremendous pressure again.

He has carried out a lot of very radical reforms in France in the past two years. He would not be naive enough to think that the reform would be complete as long as it could be implemented.

This is just the beginning!

Any reform would involve substantial redistribution of benefits.

In other words, while most people benefit from the reform, many people, or even a certain class of people, lose their vested interests.

These people do not accept their fate easily.

Although they are temporarily dormant and licking their wounds under the pressure of royal power, they will not hesitate to jump out and cause trouble whenever an opportunity arises.

Just like the tax collector group. Although the big tax collectors were beheaded, each of them had thousands of subordinates who depended on them for food, or even more.

After the fall of the big tax collectors, the lives of these people must be worse than before. They must be extremely dissatisfied with the French government in their hearts, but they just dare not show it.

Similar to this are the old aristocratic groups, the old military groups, and even the old police forces.

In other words, France's current development momentum is pretty good, and these people can enjoy the development dividends, thus covering up the contradictions.

Once the development momentum slows down, all kinds of contradictions will immediately break out.

By then, even if the army can be used to suppress it, France will suffer huge damage. If another foreign force takes advantage of the situation, the consequences will be disastrous.

Joseph's ears were filled with the cheers of the ministers, but he fell into deep thought:

Therefore, France must maintain its rapid development, continue to make the cake bigger, and offset the dissatisfaction of various forces with the temptation of sharing the cake.

As long as this situation lasts for more than ten years, France will rebuild a new balance of interests.

At that time, even if someone still wants to settle old scores, others will suppress them for their own rights without taking action themselves.

The so-called "making the cake bigger" is nothing more than two ways - internal development and external expansion...

After Brian finished his report, Industry Minister Mirabeau stood up and couldn't hide his smile: "Last year, our country achieved great development in industry, and the overall scale expanded by 76%!"

This number sounds extremely alarming, but it was possible at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

You must know that France is still an agricultural country with a very low industrial stock, so just building some factories can significantly increase the industrial scale.

However, the rapid growth of France's industrial scale was partly due to the crazy expansion of production in order to produce the goods for the order scam.

Later, "special trade" utilized these production capacities, which made the growth rate become so exaggerated.

Mirabeau then cheerfully introduced his achievements last year——

The machinery industry grew by 110%...

The steel industry grew by 72%...

The coal industry grew by 265%...

The chemical industry grew by 175%...

Brewing industry grows 12%…

Paper industry...

Furniture manufacturing...

Pharmaceutical industry…

Among them, the terrifying growth rate of the coal industry is mainly due to the application of gas street lights.

The distillation workshop in Paris alone uses as much coal as the entire greater Paris area, including the Palace of Versailles and surrounding towns, for 12 days every day!

Such an astonishing demand has greatly stimulated the development of the French coal industry.

Now the wooden track from the Nancy coal mines to Paris has been built. After the steam engine lifted the coal from the mine, it could be transported directly to Paris without changing the carriage.

At the same time, because of the huge amount of coal shipped to Paris, freight costs were greatly reduced, and coal prices also fell.

Many households that had previously burned wood began to choose to burn coal, further boosting the coal industry.

At present, the coal mines in Wallonia in the Southern Netherlands have not been opened for mining. When cities such as Lyon and Reims also install gas street lights, coal from Wallonia will continue to flow into all parts of France.

By then, the scale of France's coal industry is likely to surpass that of the United Kingdom.

As for another amazing industrial growth point - the chemical industry, the main reason is that France's first factory using the "Royal Soda Production Method" to produce soda ash has been officially put into use, with a daily production of 2,000 kilograms of soda ash. At the same time, the cost is very low, only one-third of the original alkali production method.

France currently sells soda ash at 70% of the market price and has almost monopolized the entire European soda ash market, including the United Kingdom.

Although the demand for soda ash is not too high because the industries in each country are not very developed, there are still millions of francs in revenue every year.

Moreover, thanks to the decline in the price of soda ash, the costs of France's soap, paper, dyes, pharmaceuticals and other products have also been significantly reduced, and its international competitiveness has rapidly improved.

Especially in the South German region, which has a trade agreement with France, the above-mentioned products account for at least 70% of its market!

When these countries signed the agreement, they never imagined that France would even engage in dumping of soap, so they did not set protective tariffs on such products.

After the queen took the lead in congratulating Mirabeau, Minister of Agriculture Venio began to speak eagerly.

"The beet sugar factory in Valois was put into operation at the end of last year, with a monthly output of 80,000 pounds of sugar. Based on the current planting scale and the construction of the sugar refinery, this year it should be able to reach a monthly output of 600,000 pounds!"

Although 600,000 pounds is not much, less than a week's production in Santo Domingo, sugar can be produced in Europe, which will have a disruptive effect on the entire sugar trade pattern.

Venio then excitedly introduced the fertilizer production in France and the olive cultivation situation in Tunisia and other places.

At present, France has built four "stone fertilizer" crushing plants in places such as Marseille and Paris to crush and grind phosphate ores shipped from Nauru and Tunisia, which are then distributed by agricultural service consulting companies. sold to farmers.

Compared with farmers who use "stone fertilizer" directly by soaking it in water, the crushed phosphate ore is less likely to be lost and its fertility is more than 30% higher.