Chapter 1083: An Open Scheme to Undermine the Foundation
Rahman and several dozen Berber nobles walked out of Governor Uste’s mansion in high spirits.
After the Governor had "disappeared" for more than three months, he reappeared in Mitidja for the first time. On his very first day back, he summoned the high nobles, officials, and tribal chiefs of Algiers. In the name of the King, he officially declared the establishment of the Province of French Algiers and promulgated a series of new decrees.
The contents of these laws left Rahman and his peers practically ecstatic.
"How much did you manage to secure?" Lazzaz whispered gleefully to the tribal chief beside him. "I have over six thousand riyals here."
The latter, a relative by marriage, did not bother to hide his fortune. "I received four thousand riyals."
Indeed, Uste had just announced that the various tribes could keep one-third of the property confiscated from the Janissaries and the navy. The remaining two-thirds would be handed over to the provincial treasury to be used for building towns, irrigation facilities, and roads.
While this reduced the tribes' immediate income slightly, it served to legitimize wealth that had previously been hidden in the shadows. No one had any objections to such a compromise.
Furthermore, regarding the specific amounts, the Governor certainly couldn't be precise in his audits, allowing them to pocket a bit extra on the side.
Nearby, several other tribal chiefs were discussing the news loudly. "I just did the math. Under the new tax system, our tribe will pay over two hundred riyals less every year."
Someone shouted in broken French, "Long live the King!"
"Faisal, I truly envy your French. With those skills, you might actually land a government post in Mitidja."
"Listen to me, it's not that hard to learn. Now that the navy is gone, buy a boat and do business in Europe. You’ll be fluent in French within two years."
"I’m not cut out for that. I’d rather buy more land."
"Exactly. Land is so cheap right now. I plan to take all my savings and put them into buying property."
"Does your tribe even have enough hands to farm it? You’ll be fined if the land is left fallow..."
"I’ll just buy some slaves. In Morocco, you can get one for only twenty-five riyals."
It was no wonder they were so excited.
Back when the Janissaries and the navy controlled the council, those of Berber-Arab descent were relegated to the lowest rungs of society—farming, laboring as porters, or at best, small-scale trading.
Since all the ports and ships were in the hands of the navy, eighty percent of any commercial profit was siphoned off by the authorities.
Now, Algiers recognized only "Roman Descendants." Berbers could hold office and engage in maritime trade, a change that felt like a rebirth for them.
What satisfied them most, however, was the new decree stating that any resident of Algiers could apply to the government for six acres of land for free. As long as it was cultivated continuously for ten years, the land would belong to them permanently.
If one wanted to buy even more land, they could do so for a nominal fee—the price was only about thirty percent of what it had been under the Dey’s rule.
Of course, the condition was that the land had to be cultivated for ten consecutive years, and the yield had to reach at least eighty percent of the average for nearby fields. Otherwise, the owner would face a fine of nearly twenty riyals per hectare for the first offense, and the land would be confiscated outright for the second.
These Berber tribal chiefs were so preoccupied with fantasies of how much land they could acquire that they failed to realize this decree was actually an Open Scheme designed to undermine their very foundations.
Joseph knew that over ninety percent of the Berber-Arab population in Algiers lived within their respective tribes.
These tribes were highly cohesive, following the religiously flavored "Kanun" laws and governed by a council of elders. It was historically very difficult for any central government to manage them effectively.
He had suffered from the tribal system’s resistance back in Tunisia. It had taken immense effort—including "inviting" the tribal chiefs to live in the Palace of Caserta as honored guests—to finally force tax officials and police into the tribal lands.
Even so, the internal daily affairs of the tribes remained largely out of the government’s reach.
This time, Joseph intended to settle the matter in Algiers once and for all.
The leverage he would use was land.
Previously, the prime agricultural land in northern Algiers was occupied by Janissary forces, and the coast was the domain of the navy. This forced the Berber tribes to live in the central mountainous regions, where the soil quality was mediocre at best.
Now that the Janissary and naval influences had been purged, their lands had reverted to the Governor's Mansion. These lands were perfect for luring the Berber people away from their ancestral tribal lands.
Since the original power structures in these areas had been shattered, the French government could plan new towns and villages from scratch, appointing officials to manage them. Naturally, these areas would be governed strictly by the laws of the Algiers Province.
The Berber tribes had traditionally operated on a "communal land" model, where the harvest was distributed by the tribe. One didn't need to guess to know that many were dissatisfied with this arrangement—not even a utopia could guarantee perfect fairness, let alone a North African tribe of this era.
Therefore, if the tribal members could obtain their own land for free, with the entire harvest belonging to them, they would inevitably flock to the opportunity.
Once these people possessed their own land and became self-sufficient, who would still want to follow the dictates of a tribal elder? In practice, they would have escaped the tribe's control.
If this continued for several years, the tribes in the mountains would be gradually "hollowed out." The younger and stronger the men were, the more they would want to move north to become independent farmers.
Furthermore, these newly established towns would introduce various advanced European facilities and a variety of goods far richer than what was available in the mountains, quickly becoming major population centers.
At the same time, French immigrants could also obtain land here. Through mixed living, the Europeanization of the local population would be strengthened.
This model would fundamentally dismantle the tribal power in Algiers.
As for whether there was enough land to distribute?
There was absolutely no need for concern.
Algiers possessed over three hundred thousand square kilometers of land north of the Sahara, most of which enjoyed a Mediterranean climate perfectly suited for farming. Meanwhile, the Berber-Arab population totaled only about 1.5 million people.
Forget giving everyone six acres; they could give every single person eighty hectares and still have room to spare.
By comparison, mainland France covered about 550,000 square kilometers but supported a population of thirty million.
Just as Joseph expected, once the new land decree reached the various tribes, it immediately triggered a frenzy of applications.
In less than a month, over twenty thousand people had applied for "New Cultivation Lands."
The Agricultural Services Consulting Company also timely expanded its operations into Algiers. They primarily focused on renting out farm tools to these new farmers, and they even offered seeds and chemical fertilizers on credit.
The company’s employees provided free instruction on composting techniques and offered grain brokerage services for future harvests.
Once news of this support spread, the number of applications for land doubled the following month.
Almost overnight, hundreds of villages began to sprout up across northern Algiers.
...
Lazzaz was among the first of the tribal chiefs to realize something was wrong.
In just a few months, his tribe had suddenly lost three or four hundred members, most of whom were able-bodied men. This loss was poised to severely impact the tribe's spring planting season.
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