Chapter 270: Winds of Change in North Africa
Viscount Olivier hesitated. "Your Highness," he began, "if too many orders are banned from sale, the factories won't be able to sustain themselves..."
Joseph smiled and waved his hand. "Rest assured, the association won't interfere with most orders. Only a few buyers who might threaten national security will be prohibited, and that might happen only once every few years."
The factory owners all breathed a sigh of relief. If that was the case, it was almost as good as having no restrictions at all.
Compared to the benefits brought by the new technology—significantly improved iron ingot quality and increased refined steel production—this was completely acceptable.
In reality, they hadn't noticed the "quality assessment" clause. This was actually the main way to regulate the steel mills.
A quality assessment, as it was called, was carried out on a company, essentially giving it a rating.
Everyone knew how influential the three major rating agencies in later American history were—if they disliked you, a casual downgrade could instantly send your stock plummeting.
At present, these factory owners hadn't yet experienced such an operation. Just imagine, if other steel mills were all rated A++ and yours was only B-rated, who would still buy your products?
From then on, wouldn't these factory owners have to cooperate obediently with the Crown Prince?
He was referring to smelting iron with coke.
After the gas lamps were put into use, one of the byproducts of distilling coal gas was coke.
This substance, used as fuel for iron smelting, had the advantages of low impurities and high heat. It could perfectly be developed as one of the supporting industries for gas lamps.
This time, Gregor Jr. was the first to speak up. "Your Highness, the Gregoire Brothers Steel Company sincerely hopes to join the Steel Technology Association."
Viscount Olivier and the other factory owners immediately followed suit. "Your Highness, the Sirk Steel Company also applies to join the association!"
"And Red Furnace Ironworks..."
"And Weilhoury Steel..."
Joseph gestured to Rameau, the development zone supervisor standing nearby, to distribute the prepared association regulations and application forms to everyone. "Everyone just needs to fill out the application and submit it to Monsieur Rameau. Afterward, the association will send technicians to teach you the new smelting technology, though you might have to wait a while, as there will be quite a few procedures involved."
In reality, there weren't many procedures. It was just that Joseph hadn't yet applied for the patent for "Hot Blast Iron Smelting." Moreover, technicians were needed to convert his principles into blueprints, and all of this required time.
The factory owners didn't mind waiting a few months; after all, given the efficiency of this era, nothing new happened too quickly.
Joseph reminded them again, "Oh, right, you can first procure some firebricks and steam engines to power the blast furnaces. These will be useful later."
The factory owners hurriedly instructed their own technicians to make a note.
Joseph stayed in Nancy for three days, settling all aspects of industrial enterprise development, before heading south to Saint-Étienne.
The newly established industrial development zone there had officially been put into use four months ago—because of its closer proximity to Paris, its scale was by no means smaller than Nancy's.
Joseph naturally had to go there to inspect it and, at the same time, bring the steel mills there into the "Steel Technology Association."
The trip to Saint-Étienne was largely similar to Nancy. After Joseph left the development zone there, he prepared to continue eastward, to Lyon, France's textile industry center, to promote the newly successfully replicated automatic looms.
There was no other way. Currently, he had to first build the framework in all industrial sectors of France, then lay down advanced concepts, before gradually handing them over to Mirabeau and others to take over. During this period, he was so busy his feet barely touched the ground.
However, when he arrived in Forez, east of Lyon, he encountered a messenger waiting there.
The messenger handed him a letter from the Royal Armory. The letter stated that the mass-produced automatic looms had encountered some problems, mainly due to the artisans' insufficient processing precision, and King Louis XVI had to guide each one individually. This meant that the first batch of ten looms would not be completed until the end of next month.
Joseph reluctantly took out his itinerary and looked down, finally deciding to return to Paris first to apply for the patent for "Hot Blast Iron Smelting."
However, before he could set off, he received a report from the National Intelligence Bureau, which was the upgraded Police Intelligence Bureau.
He opened the encrypted letter and handed it to Eman along with the codebook.
Eman skillfully and quickly deciphered it, then turned to Joseph:
"Your Highness, a coup occurred in Tripoli six days ago."
Joseph frowned, took the translated report, and saw it read: 'On March 18th, Ottoman officer Ali Benjiur, in Tripoli, allied with disgruntled nobles to launch a coup against the Pasha.'
Tripoli Pasha Ali I fled to Egypt. Benjiur declared Tripoli's return to Ottoman rule.
There were indications that the British were involved behind this coup, with most of the coup leaders' weapons, equipment, and funds coming from Britain.
'The British?' Joseph immediately grew alert. 'The British would never interfere in a coup in a small Mediterranean country with only a few hundred thousand people for no reason. Most likely, this was aimed at France.'
'It seems that even though I've been very restrained, limiting France's sphere of influence in North Africa to a small Tunisia and not directly conquering Algiers as in history, I've still drawn the attention of the British.'
'Something is amiss. I absolutely cannot be careless.'
Joseph picked up his itinerary again, looked at the last line, and sighed:
"It seems necessary to make an early trip to Tunisia."
After the chaos of expelling the Janissaries, Tunisia had largely restored order through several months of governance. He had originally planned to go there to address some issues and arrange subsequent development plans.
He looked at Eman:
"The Moulins Legion is still in Montpellier, isn't it?"
Eman recalled for a moment, then nodded:
"Yes, Your Highness," he replied, "they just finished reorganizing the Montcalm Legion and should not have returned to Moulins yet."
Joseph immediately wrote a letter, sealed it with wax and his personal stamp, then handed it to Eman:
"Send someone to Montpellier immediately, to Lieutenant Colonel André."
In the letter, he requested André to take two regiments, proceed immediately to Toulon, and then take a ship from there to Tunisia.
He wrote another letter, instructing Eman, "Send this back to Versailles, and have the General Staff Headquarters issue a transfer order."
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Now, we will also go to Toulon port to board a ship. Oh, if Her Majesty the Queen asks, just say I went to 'domestic provinces.'"
'Well, that's absolutely not a lie; Tunisia is now a French province.'
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