Chapter 273: Glimpse of New Zealand
Joey, however, seemed a bit regretful:
"If those tens of thousands of Janissaries could also be used for road construction, the King's Highway between Tunis City and El Alia might have been completed by now."
Currently, various parts of Tunisia were mimicking France, building "King's Highways," "local roads," and "branch roads." However, they couldn't possibly be as opulent as those in France; here, a "King's Highway" was merely a dozen meters wide.
"The Janissaries?" Joseph looked at Joey, having almost forgotten about that group.
"Yes, Your Royal Highness. Although many Janissaries fled to Anatolia during the Great Uprising, over 30,000 remained in Tunisia. They have all been confined to Djerba Island."
Djerba Island, a small island off eastern Tunisia, had a terrible natural environment. Without supplies from the Tunisian mainland, the island couldn't possibly sustain 30,000 people.
Joey continued, "These men aren't like the captives from Algiers. They're very familiar with Tunisia and even have some connections. If we put them to work on roads, many would quickly escape."
Joseph's eyes narrowed at the mention. So many people — what an immense fortune in this era!
Lest there be any misunderstanding, he had no intention of selling the Tunisian Janissaries into slavery. He disdained such a despicable act, a sin that would incur divine wrath.
Joseph pondered for a moment, then told Joey, "Leaving these people to die on the island is too inhumane. We must find a way out for them."
"You mean?"
"In the Pacific, there's an undeveloped golden island—New Zealand. We could send the Tunisian Janissaries there to work and live."
Joey recalled, then hesitated:
"Your Royal Highness, I recall the British have a colonial claim there..."
Joseph merely smiled:
"They only discovered it a few years ago and haven't established any settlements whatsoever. New Zealand is currently still under the dominion of the Māori natives."
In fact, the Dutch were the first to discover New Zealand; "Zealand" is a city in the Netherlands. After British explorers visited, they deemed the island extremely desolate and its natives exceptionally fierce, thus they didn't consider colonizing New Zealand until 1837.
Joseph, however, intended to apply the principle of "The Swiftest Foot Arrives First." After all, New Zealand was an important source of wool. Its natural conditions were so ideal that one merely needed to herd sheep onto the pastures, and send people to collect wool annually, with hardly any need for shepherds. Before Australia developed, New Zealand was the world's largest wool producer!
Compared to Britain, France's textile industry had two major shortcomings: a lack of vast colonial markets and a scarcity of wool-producing regions.
Britain itself was Europe's largest wool producer. If France wished to compete with Britain industrially in the future, its textile industry absolutely couldn't fall behind, which highlighted New Zealand's immense value.
In this era, Europeans were generally reluctant to seek a livelihood in the distant Pacific. When Britain colonized New Zealand in the 19th century, only about 2,000 people went there. Yet, Joseph had over 30,000 people at his disposal!
While many among them were elderly, infirm, or disabled, at least half could be actively engaged in production. By simply deploying a few thousand French people to manage them, the colonization of New Zealand could be swiftly initiated.
Of course, how to deal with the indigenous Māori of New Zealand was also crucial for successfully taking over the islands. Joseph, being aware of the various lessons learned from the later British colonization of New Zealand, naturally felt confident in this regard.
Joanne, being merely a local official in Tunisia with no particular expertise in the nation's Pacific strategy, simply followed the Crown Prince's instructions. He nodded and declared:
"Your Royal Highness, I will arrange to transport food to Djerba Island for now, and send people to count the numbers. Once the naval transport ships arrive, they can be directly loaded and taken away."
"I appreciate your effort then," Joseph said. "However, it won't be the navy picking them up, but the Gemini Company."
He had originally intended to involve the Dutch in establishing a joint East India Company and entrust the development of New Zealand to that venture.
However, ever since the Netherlands had been thoroughly beaten by the British in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War a few years prior, they had remained somewhat fearful of Britain. Consequently, they had procrastinated and still hadn't resolved to cooperate with France.
That lucrative opportunity, then, could only be handed over to the Gemini Company.
Since incorporating the ships of the Tunisian navy, the Gemini Company's transport capacity had dramatically improved. Over seventy percent of the Franco-Russian trade was now handled by them, in addition to their involvement in trade with Nauru, the Caribbean Sea, and the United States, making it a considerably large enterprise.
Pondering this, Joseph couldn't help but sigh. Compared to the Dutch, the "Russkies" were indeed more direct in their dealings. Furthermore, they possessed another advantage: if they considered you a friend, they would genuinely go all out to help. Aleksey had secured almost every possible concession from the Russian side for the Gemini Company, significantly boosting the Franco-Russian trade volume.
Of course, even among close allies, clear accounts must be kept. The Gemini Company could handle the trade and transport to New Zealand, but the people settling on the island absolutely had to be French.
The main course for dinner was still Joseph's beloved tajine. However, as he had arrived in a hurry this time, he hadn't brought his court chefs, so the taste was slightly inferior to what he had at Versailles. Nevertheless, the meal also featured some local Tunisian specialties: roasted camel meat, nut sausages mixed with yogurt, and... a plate that appeared to be fried meat moths.
Joseph naturally ignored the last dish, enjoyed a hearty meal, and then returned to the conference hall.
Only then did he finally hear Joanne discuss the important matters he had intended to address before coming to Tunisia.
"Your Royal Highness, these rumors first appeared around last month," Joanne reported. "Besides people spreading gossip in the streets, there's also a pamphlet circulating about it."
He gestured to an aide to fetch a pamphlet, then presented it to Joseph with both hands.
"The central argument claims that most Tunisians originate from Egypt, as descendants of the Prophet. Meanwhile, the Berbers have lived in desert regions since ancient times and have no connection to Rome. Furthermore, the rumors fabricate numerous stories of Europeans, particularly the French, persecuting Tunisians, advocating that Tunisians should kill us or drive us out of North Africa."
"Oh?" Joseph looked at the pamphlet in his hand, a hint of surprise in his expression. These rumors were clearly an attempt to disrupt French rule over Tunisia, falling squarely into the realm of cognitive warfare. Anyone who could conceive of such a strategy in the 18th century was undoubtedly a political genius!
However, when it came to cognitive warfare, even a super genius of this era was far inferior to an ordinary person who had personally experienced 21st-century great power cognitive warfare.
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