Chapter 139: Boosting Revenue and Cutting Costs
As the famous American five-star general and commentator, Douglas MacArthur, once quipped: "No matter how vast the world, Dad's word is law." A summons from his father was, without question, the highest priority.
Joseph glanced helplessly toward the carriage, gesturing to Eman. "To Versailles first. We can examine them closer once we're in the carriage."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Before long, several carriages departed from the Industrial Planning Bureau.
Inside the carriage, Joseph unsealed the envelopes one by one.
The letters were from the three "White Gloves" who procured grain for him overseas, written in code for secrecy.
Joseph then took the codebook from Eman and laboriously cross-referenced and read the messages.
In their letters, the White Gloves first reported on the grain procurement efforts, stating that the overall situation remained relatively optimistic. The first two batches together comprised nearly 70,000 sétiers of grain, 10,000 sétiers of corn, and over 30,000 sétiers of potatoes, purchased from Britain, North Africa, Eastern Europe, and other regions.
A sétier was a commonly used unit of measurement at the time; one sétier equaled 43 bushels. As for how much actual grain that represented... it varied.
In other words, during this period, the three White Gloves had already purchased nearly 20 million pounds (about 9,000 metric tons) of foodstuffs from various parts of the world.
Moreover, according to them, as per Joseph's instructions, whenever they arrived in a new location, they would first pay influential local figures to publish news in newspapers, proclaiming that it would be a year of abundant harvest, and grain supplies would likely exceed demand. Since autumn harvest was still far off, they could say whatever they pleased without immediate contradiction.
Afterward, local grain prices would begin to fall, and only then would the White Gloves enter the market to purchase. As soon as prices showed the slightest rebound, they would withdraw immediately. Thus, these tens of millions of pounds (several thousand metric tons) of grain had mostly been acquired at fair prices.
Joseph mentally calculated that, at this rate of acquisition, they should be able to purchase about 500 million pounds (approximately 227,000 metric tons) of grain before the hailstorms arrived in July.
These supplies alone would certainly not be enough to survive a great famine, but nearly a third of France's provinces had already planted potatoes, meaning grain output would significantly increase and would not be entirely wiped out by hailstorms.
With efforts on both fronts, safely navigating through this winter should not be an issue. As for next year... he could only take things one step at a time.
Of course, there was also the problem of the national treasury needing sufficient funds to purchase these 500 million pounds of grain.
Sure enough, in the latter half of the letter, the White Gloves mentioned that the first two installments of funds were nearing exhaustion and requested His Highness to disburse subsequent funds as soon as possible.
Additionally, they inquired about where Joseph wanted the grain piled at the Port of Le Havre to be transported domestically.
Joseph massaged his temples. Transportation was also an extremely vexing problem. Ultimately, it all came down to money.
One had to understand that transportation capabilities were quite poor in this era. Even with the cheapest river transport, freight costs would double the price of the grain.
He had previously seen in Varennes's report that nearly half of the five million livres spent on purchasing potatoes in provinces like Alsace and Lorraine had been spent on transportation.
This was even with the government having ordered governors along the route to cooperate fully; otherwise, the costs would have been even higher.
Mentioning river transport, Joseph suddenly remembered that the severe drought this year would cause some waterways to dry up. At that point, land transport would become necessary for moving the grain, and costs would increase severalfold.
Historically, during the Feuillants' rule, to alleviate Paris's grain shortage, they used many methods to requisition grain from outer provinces. However, the exorbitant land transportation costs prevented timely delivery of grain into Paris.
The Parisian public's lack of bread was one of the major reasons for the Feuillants' dismal downfall.
Therefore, while river transport was still viable, it was imperative to transport the grain from the Port of Le Havre to various regions as quickly as possible.
This was another considerable sum of money.
Joseph pondered. Paris Fashion Week was about to open, and it should bring in some money, but the shortfall remained substantial.
A large portion of the Paris Angel Company's income was currently allocated to subsidize the Crown Prince's Guards Corps, leaving only a little over 200,000 livres each month.
The paper mill was still under construction; it would be at least three months before it generated profit.
The brewing industry itself didn't yield much in patent fees, and it wasn't yet the season for large-scale brewing.
Nancy's industrial development zone, needless to say, still required continuous investment. Profits were out of the question for now.
Joseph watched the street scenes whizzing past the carriage window, sighing inwardly. 'Money was so easy to spend, yet so hard to earn.'
It seemed he still needed to intensify efforts to boost revenue and cut costs.
He had continuously worked on increasing revenue. The remaining projects required significant investment and long lead times, making it difficult to generate profits in the short term.
Another avenue was what all the current European powers were doing: colonization.
From the Age of Discovery onward, colonies had been nations' economic lifelines. In the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, they provided vast amounts of resources while also serving as dumping grounds for manufactured goods.
Therefore, colonization was an indispensable path for any nation seeking wealth and power.
France's current financial difficulties were largely due to ceding large tracts of colonies to the British after the defeat in the Seven Years' War, causing overseas revenues to plummet.
Joseph naturally began to ponder suitable locations for colonial development.
The Far East was certainly beyond France's current capabilities to intervene in. Historically, it wouldn't be until nearly a century later that France, having completed its Industrial Revolution, would once again venture into the Far East.
America was currently almost entirely within the spheres of influence of Britain and Spain. While fertile, it was too distant to project power easily. For now, merely maintaining the French colonies in the Caribbean Sea was considered a success.
After surveying the options, he realized that the French choice throughout history was still the most rational one: North Africa.
Close to France, boasting vast tracts of fertile land, and, crucially, Egypt, a strategic location of global importance. If France could secure Egypt and threaten Britain with the development of the Suez Canal, it would gain immense strategic initiative.
However... Joseph's brow furrowed immediately. Britain regarded France as its mortal enemy and meticulously scrutinized France's every move.
The moment France showed any inclination to seize North Africa, the British would undoubtedly interfere. Historically, Emperor Napoleon had barely landed in Egypt before the British severed his sea supply lines.
Therefore, to make a move on North Africa, the most crucial aspect was how to deceive the British.
He pondered for a long time but still couldn't grasp the key, so he decided to shelve the idea for now.
Since increasing revenue wouldn't be easy to achieve in the short term, Joseph began to contemplate how to cut costs., řAň{öβЕЅ
Recalling France's current major expenditure items, he was astonished to discover that the largest outgoing expense was actually interest on debts.
Over 200 million livres in interest had to be paid annually!
If he had that sum of money, famines, industrial development – none of it would be a problem.
However, the agreements signed when borrowing were crystal clear, and as time passed, the interest would only continue to accrue.
Joseph knew that in just two years, the interest payable by the French government would exceed 400 million livres...
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