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Chapter 993: French Industrial Development Plan (Part 4)

Salicin itself possessed no curative properties; rather, it had to be broken down and converted into salicylic acid by the intestinal flora within the human body to become effective.

If one could ingest a salicylic acid compound directly, the drug's utilization rate would increase significantly.

Consequently, Joseph had instructed the pharmaceutical factory to conduct numerous experiments on the mass production of salicylic acid several years ago. However, it was only early this year that a scholar named Antoine de Fourcroy successfully converted salicin into salicylic acid through an oxidation process.

Testing by the pharmaceutical factory revealed that the efficacy of sodium salicylate was three to five times higher than that of salicin!

It was easy to imagine that once this drug went into production, it would inevitably bring enormous profits to the factory.

The previously inexpensive Crown Prince's Blessing had generated an annual profit of over 300,000 francs. The external price for the Enhanced Blessing was set at two francs per tablet; if sales remained steady, profits would surge to more than 1.5 million francs.

Generally speaking, a drug with superior efficacy would surely see much higher sales than its predecessor.

At the same time, the Enhanced Blessing served as excellent promotion for French pharmaceuticals. The original Crown Prince's Blessing and the intravenous glucose known as "Life of Source" had already made the Paris Pharmaceutical Factory famous throughout Europe. This upgraded version would further solidify the brand's image.

As a result, other established medicines produced by the factory—such as quinine, calendula tincture, painkillers, and colchicine tincture—would also become more popular.

Joseph estimated that once the large-scale double-blind experiments being conducted by the Medical Bureau were completed, more herbs proven to be effective would be added to the product list.

By then, the market size of the French pharmaceutical industry would reach the tens of millions of francs.

Of course, one had to take things one step at a time.

Currently, sodium salicylate had only completed laboratory preparation. Much work remained before mass production could begin.

Joseph's requirement for the pharmaceutical factory was to strive for mass production by the end of the year.

In the subsequent meetings, Joseph discussed the development of textiles, sugar refining, carriage manufacturing, cosmetics, and furniture with the officials.

The conference stretched into the following afternoon, finally covering every industrial project in France.

Mirabeau looked at the thick stack of drafts for the Industrial Development Plan in his hands, his heart filled with emotion.

Just a few years ago, French industry had been on the verge of a total collapse under the immense competitive pressure from Britain and the devastating blow of the foolish Eden Treaty.

Back then, he would have been satisfied just to find a tiny space for French industry to live degradingly under the fierce British onslaught.

Who could have known that today, French industry would not only survive but also develop with such powerful momentum?

Even in the sectors where the British had always led—such as textiles, coal, steel, and mechanical processing—France was gradually catching up.

At the same time, France had developed dominant industries in papermaking, chemicals, furniture, cosmetics, and sugar refining. In these fields, the British couldn't even see France's shadow.

Of course, aside from the sugar industry, the sales revenue of these other sectors was far below that of textiles or steel. However, the Crown Prince had also built the pharmaceutical, medical device, and synthetic dye industries for France.

According to the Crown Prince's plan, the combined revenue of these industries could reach more than half of that of the textile industry!

Mirabeau performed a final check of the draft Development Plan:

Coal Industry: Planned investment of 57 million francs over three years. Aiming to increase annual coal production to over nine million metric tons. Main development directions include coke for steelmaking, coal gas from dry distillation, coal for steam engines, and domestic fuel in the form of honeycomb coal.

Steel Industry: Planned investment of 75 million francs over three to four years. Aiming to increase annual iron ingot production to over 100,000 metric tons and refined steel production to nearly 10,000 metric tons. Main development directions include steam engine manufacturing, iron bridge construction, automatic textile machinery, precision processing machinery, and agricultural tools.

Sugar Industry: Planned annual investment of 3.3 million francs. Construction of 15 new sugar refineries to reduce refining costs by more than one-third. Promoting the cultivation of triploid sugar beets in the German region, aiming to occupy 80 percent of its total planting area.

Furniture Manufacturing: Planned annual investment of 1.8 million francs. Building two new composite board processing plants in the Rhineland. Establishing four furniture assembly plants in South Germany and Eastern Europe. Opening 25 new "Livable" furniture stores in major cities...

Chemical Industry: Planned investment of 10 million francs over four years. Increasing the annual production of sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and soda ash by 300 percent, 450 percent, and 200 percent respectively. Raising annual phenol production to 25 tons. Building a new aniline black factory with an annual capacity of eight tons...

Medical Device Manufacturing: Planned investment of 5 million francs over three years. Building new medical device factories. Annual production of 250,000 syringes, 80,000 stethoscopes, and 350,000 scalpels...

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Planned investment of 7.5 million francs over three years. Expanding the Paris Pharmaceutical Factory and building a new factory in Lyon. Annual production of 1.25 million tablets of the Crown Prince's Blessing, annual production of glucose...

Papermaking: No further expansion of capacity. Gradually shifting the production of crushing and boiling pulp to the areas around Modena and Florence.

Fertilizer Industry...

The entire Industrial Development Plan was like a magnificent tapestry. Through these pages, Mirabeau seemed to see a prosperous and powerful France.

If this plan could be fully implemented, France's industrial scale would completely catch up to Britain's in four to five years.

This was assuming Britain could maintain its current momentum; otherwise, France might achieve industrial parity even sooner!

One had to remember that France's agricultural scale far exceeded that of Britain. For instance, the wine France exported annually brought in a massive revenue of sixty to seventy million francs.

In other words, if France's industrial scale equaled Britain's, its overall national strength would already surpass its rival.

Joseph took the draft plan from Mirabeau, his attention immediately focusing on the investment figures.

To develop industry, funding was an obstacle that could not be bypassed.

He rubbed his shoulders, which were sore from the continuous meetings, and looked toward the new Finance Minister, Godan. Following the reform of the administrative system, Archbishop Brienne would focus on his duties as Prime Minister, giving the Ministry of Finance greater independence. Godan, the man who would historically create the Bank of France and reform French currency, had become the true manager of the French Ministry of Finance upon Mirabeau's recommendation.

"To ensure the industrial plan can be smoothly implemented, we also need to formulate a corresponding investment plan."

The ministers, who had thought the meeting was about to end and were beginning to relax, immediately sharpened their focus again at his words.