Chapter 1227: Railways Are the Arteries
An hour later.
The Minister of Transport's eyes practically lit up when he heard he would be getting 27,000 free laborers, all of them strong and capable. "This is truly excellent, Your Highness!" he exclaimed, having quickly made a mental calculation. "The construction progress on the Nancy railway will accelerate by about 30%, and we'll save 3.5 million francs in building costs!"
"Only 3.5 million?" Joseph remarked, a touch of disappointment in his voice. "I thought we'd save more."
Theresa hastily explained, "Your Highness, in reality, we can't deploy more than 9,000 prisoners of war on the Nancy line. As you know, the construction site is only so large; sending more people would make them difficult to utilize. Furthermore, the Russians aren't capable of performing tasks that require higher technical skills.
At the same time, managing so many people also incurs significant costs. Even if we don't pay them wages, we still have to feed them, don't we?"
In truth, this was already a significant gain for France, as it accelerated construction while simultaneously reducing expenses.
Joseph frowned. That left 18,000 prisoners of war, who, it seemed, could only be sent to Tripoli to grow potatoes. Such strong laborers, it felt like a bit of a waste.
Theresa glanced at the Crown Prince's expression, then hesitated. "Your Highness, I understand the nation is currently focused entirely on the war... but I believe perhaps the saved funds could be allocated to building a railway from Luxembourg to Verdun. Oh, and of course, a little additional funding would be required.
You see, it's only just over 50 kilometers from Luxembourg to Verdun. If connected by railway, it could lower the cost of high-quality steel for the Nancy industrial zone by a quarter, and allow large quantities of Lorraine coal to be transported to Luxembourg. Moreover, this project could also make better use of those free laborers."
This railway line indeed held significant meaning. While Lorraine possessed large iron deposits, it primarily yielded low-grade limonite ore. Thus, in the past two years, Nancy had begun importing large quantities of high-quality iron ore from Luxembourg. Meanwhile, Luxembourg itself had few coal mines. In recent years, with the continuous development of Wallonia's coal and iron industries, Luxembourg's iron smelters were operating at increasingly lower capacities, almost on the verge of becoming solely an exporter of iron ore.
With a railway, Lorraine's coal could be transported to Luxembourg at a lower cost, helping these smelters regain their vitality.
He looked at Theresa. "How much more investment would that require?"
"Around 3 million francs, Your Highness."
Joseph sighed. France's General Mobilization had been incredibly successful; in just over a month, already about 120,000 new recruits had been conscripted. This was even before accounting for the slower-acting southern provinces, whose recruit numbers hadn't yet been tallied. However, with so many new soldiers joining, military expenditure was rapidly increasing. Many military uniforms, for instance, were being produced by textile factories that had fronted the capital.
He wasn't sure if the Ministry of Finance could truly scrape together 3 million francs in spare cash right now.
Just then, Godan, the Minister of Finance, happened to be at Versailles and was soon escorted by Eman to the Crown Prince's reception room.
Joseph briefly outlined the plan for the Luxembourg-Verdun railway line to Godan, then said, "This would require an additional investment of 3 million francs. If finances are tight, you could plan to issue a third round of War Bonds..."
"There's no need to issue War Bonds, Your Highness," Godan immediately replied. "Actually, I'm discussing a new loan agreement with the Bank of France, and we can absolutely temporarily increase the loan amount by 3 million francs."
"The Bank of France?" Joseph asked, a hint of doubt in his voice. "Do they still have funds?"
He knew very well that the Bank of France's reserves had been largely drained when France first began preparing for war.
Godan smiled and nodded. "Yes, Your Highness. Recently, public enthusiasm for savings has been extremely high. The Bank of France has seen 18 million francs in new deposits within a month. Mr. Laffitte believes at least 10 million francs of that can be used for government loans. And the deposit amount continues to rise."
Joseph hadn't expected that the declaration of 'citizen's property as sacred and inviolable' would yield such a result.
Indeed, ever since John Law engineered the 'Mississippi Bubble,' the French populace, especially older generations, harbored a cautious attitude towards French banks.
Though 78 years had passed since that event, the French still retained the habit of holding onto their cash.
But now that clear legal guarantees were in place, people naturally wanted to earn bank interest. In fact, if not for the many who had previously purchased War Bonds, this wave of savings would have been even more intense.
Ultimately, the underlying logic of finance always boils down to confidence.
Upon hearing that the Ministry of Finance had just secured tens of millions of francs in loans, Theresa's mind immediately started racing again. Rubbing his hands together with a smile, he said, "Your Highness, if we could allocate a bit more funding, we could extend the railway line to Trier. It's less than 40 kilometers from Luxembourg, and the terrain is flat..."
Joseph snapped, "Let's plan the Verdun to Luxembourg segment first. We can discuss the rest later."
Connecting Trier by railway was, in fact, also very significant for France. Trier was a transportation hub in the Rhineland, and extending the railway there would effectively revitalize the entire economy of the Rhineland.
Furthermore, if France were to deploy troops to the Rhineland via railway, the efficiency would be vastly improved compared to before.
This showed that Theresa, the Minister of Transport, had diligently studied France's strategic layout.
However, with France now engaged in a full-scale national war, there simply weren't enough funds to launch additional large-scale construction projects.
Shortly after Theresa and Godan departed, Talleyrand arrived in a hurry.
"Your Highness," the Minister of Foreign Affairs said, bowing with a hand to his chest. "News just arrived from Milan: the Mediterranean Security Organization meeting did not pass the proposal to partition Sardinia."
Joseph immediately frowned. "What happened?"
Talleyrand quickly replied, "The Milanese negotiators insisted that Aosta to Briançon should be ceded to our nation. Currently, the Security Organization is revising the motion."
Only then did Joseph smile. The Milanese were quite sensible, after all.
Aosta wasn't a large area, and most of it lay in the Alps, with only the town of Briançon at the foot of the mountains.
He surmised that these Northern Italian city-states felt uneasy about eating Sardinia's spoils alone, as France hadn't yet taken its share. So, they had essentially pushed a piece onto France as well.
He nodded. "Very well, then. Complete the vote as quickly as possible."
'Every little bit helps,' and besides, at least half the population in the Aosta region spoke French, so integration wouldn't be too difficult.
Talleyrand continued, "Furthermore, there's the issue of Sardinia's War Reparations. Sardinia hopes the reparations amount will not exceed 10 million francs.
Sardinia, meanwhile, has 7 million francs in deposits and investments in Milan and Genoa. Both countries have stated they can directly transfer it to our nation."
Joseph's eyes lit up. It seemed the railway to Trier could finally begin construction.
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