I am the Crown Prince of France

Chapter 210: The Great North African Development Plan

As the nobles in the Hall of Mirrors finished paying their respects and the words of praise gradually subsided, Queen Marie turned to Joseph, her expression full of affection and pride:

"And now, to my brilliant son, your Prince! As everyone knows, it was he who first proposed the plan to go to North Africa and fight the Barbary pirates, and it was he who provided many key suggestions for its execution. In the end, we achieved this great victory!"

Yes, she had mentioned her husband first out of courtesy, but the real praise was reserved for her precious son from the start.

As she recalled all of her son's outstanding achievements, she couldn't help but smile. First, he had suggested collaborating with America to fight the pirates, saving France a great deal of money and earning the gratitude of both America and Russia. Then, just last month, he proposed deploying the newly formed Berthier Corps to North Africa. She had thought they were just going to assist the navy, but this small corps of 3,000 men had not only wiped out the pirates' base but also helped the young King of Tunis reclaim his throne, securing significant benefits for France in the process.

Yes, the Queen only knew about the 3,000 men in the Berthier Corps that were sent to North Africa. As for the 1,100 police cadets, that was something the Prince had funded himself, allowing them to go on a foreign "vacation" without informing her.

The nobles in the Hall of Mirrors immediately bowed to Joseph again, showering him with even more extravagant compliments:

"The Prince will bring a bright future to France!"

"Praise be to the Son of God!"

"The most outstanding heir of France..."

"The embodiment of talent and wisdom..."

Even with nearly a year of "practice," Joseph still felt goosebumps all over from the endless praise. Meanwhile, Louis XVI was beaming with pride, patting his son's shoulder. He was clearly happier about the praise for Joseph than for himself. The Queen, of course, was even more pleased, her thoughts circling around one idea: Her son's exceptional judgment and talents truly reflected her bloodline...

The young noblewomen in the hall looked at Joseph with adoration and infatuation—Prince Joseph was still the most outstanding, most handsome, and most dreamy prince! Moreover, compared to last year, the Prince had gained something extra. Yes, he had clearly grown taller, become more robust, and even his Adam's apple was more pronounced! Clearly...

The young ladies blushed at these thoughts. The Prince was "mature" now. So, how could they be the first to lure him into bed? After all, he didn't have an official mistress yet!

They had already stopped paying attention to little Princess Clementine, who was trying to act tough beside the Prince. After months of observation, they knew the Tuscan princess was just loud and boisterous on the outside but was actually quite easygoing and, most importantly, not very cunning. So, the young ladies' ambitions were once again stirred—after all, the long-standing tradition at Versailles was that the Prince's wife was the Prince's wife, and a mistress was a mistress. Surely, they could all get along...

As the waves of compliments finally died down, Louis XVI and Queen Marie moved to the center of the hall and began the opening dance to Handel's Water Music.

In the back of the hall, a young nobleman in a brown coat, watching the grand celebration, murmured to himself in confusion, "All this for capturing a few more pirates? Was such a grand ceremony necessary? They didn't do this before when pirates were caught..."

A middle-aged nobleman nearby heard his remark and quickly corrected him, "This celebration isn't just about defeating the pirates. Look, France barely spent any money, sent only 3,000 soldiers, and yet gained enormous benefits in North Africa."

"That's true," agreed a stout man beside him. "According to the reports, we will be able to buy land in Tunis and open factories there. And France now enjoys the most-favored-nation status on Tunisian tariffs[Note 1]."

He smiled and added, "You could say, except for not having the right to appoint officials, Tunis is practically a French colony."

The nobleman in the brown coat widened his eyes. "I see! That really is worth celebrating. Ever since the Seven Years' War, with the British interference, France hasn't been able to gain any overseas benefits for a long time!"

The stout man continued, "And Tunis is quite a good place—fertile land, iron production, olives—it's a prosperous region."

"It seems that in a few years, it will bring considerable revenue to France. Our finance minister must be thrilled."

"Ha! Truly, God bless our King and God bless France!"

"God bless our King!"

Unlike most people in the hall, a small group of nobles with military backgrounds standing near the orchestra were not so pleased. One officer whispered, "Does anyone know the origins of this Berthier Corps?"

Another person beside him also spoke quietly, "It seems Berthier was once under General Custine, and later, he was recommended by Breteuil to take up a position in Paris. After the incident with the French Guards, he took over part of the troops and formed this corps."

"It seems he must be very wealthy; otherwise, how could he rise so quickly..."

A fifty-something officer with deep lines at the corners of his eyes interrupted, angrily saying, "I don't care about his background. I just want to know, how dare he lead troops to North Africa without notifying us? I heard even the Marquis de Saint-Priest was unaware of his deployment!"

These military nobles had long formed a "community of interests," monopolizing military resources. Any significant military movement had to be discussed among them before it could proceed. Otherwise, either the troops wouldn't move, or the involved officer would face ostracism, or you'd end up spending five times the budget to get the same results.

"The order came directly from the royal family," another officer added. "It didn't go through the Minister of War."

"How can that be allowed?!" The general with the wrinkled eyes was visibly agitated. "We cannot set this precedent! I mean, letting the royal family use force as they please..."

The others quickly gestured for him to be quiet, thankful that the music was loud enough that no other nobles overheard. Even without considering the political implications, if their men had been sent to North Africa, they would have at least pocketed a hundred thousand livres from the operation. But Berthier had gone behind their backs, and that money was lost.

The other generals nodded in agreement. "The royal family is trying to bypass us."

"We need to prevent the royal family from controlling the army!"

A slightly younger officer tried to calm them down. "General Astou, there's no need to be too worried.

"That was just a small corps of 3,000 men; it can't do much on its own.

"Look at this time—they got lucky because of the Tunisian coup. With such few men, they wouldn't have been able to enter Tunis otherwise.

"In future large-scale battles, the royal family will still have to come to us. When that time comes, we can negotiate with them about the status of Berthier's corps. That should solve all our problems."

After the King and Queen finished their opening dance, it was Joseph's turn to follow tradition and perform the second dance. His partner, of course, was Clementine.

Still dancing the simplest sarabande, the two, with their noticeable height difference, politely exchanged glances and twirled around each other in awkward poses. It was the most cringe-worthy sight in the entire room.

When the dance finally ended, Joseph quickly retreated to a quiet corner. It wasn't long before Mirabeau, who also wasn't fond of dancing, came over to discuss investment plans for Tunis.

Originally, this task was supposed to fall under the Ministry of the Interior, but Joseph knew Monnot's limitations. So, he had asked Mirabeau to take the lead on the planning, which would later be submitted directly to the cabinet for approval.

However, when Joseph heard Mirabeau mention a plan to "send 50,000 people to Tunis over three to four years," he couldn't help but frown slightly.

In Joseph's vision, it would be ideal if large quantities of grain could be harvested from Tunis next year to alleviate France's grain shortage. And if some industrial and trade revenue could also be generated on a significant scale, that would be even better.

But if it would take three or four years to relocate 50,000 people, that wouldn't have much impact at all.

"Can't we speed up the process and scale up the number of immigrants?" Joseph asked Mirabeau.

"Your Highness, this is the fastest plan we could come up with after careful consideration," Mirabeau replied with some hesitation. "You see, even though land in Tunis is cheap, buying large plots still requires a significant amount of money. Plus, the cost of traveling to a foreign land and settling there is considerable. For the first six months, there's no income, so only people with substantial savings can afford to go there.

"But wealthy people are rarely willing to leave France. After all, the environment in North Africa isn't exactly comfortable. Only if the first settlers make money and the news gets back to France will more people be willing to take the risk. But that will take time to reach a significant scale."

Joseph fell silent, realizing he had underestimated the challenge.

The real world isn't like a game where you can just drag and drop thousands of people at once. Convincing real people to take their savings and move to an unfamiliar land to start over isn't something most would be eager to do.

So, does this mean the progress in North Africa won't translate into immediate benefits?

As Joseph racked his brain for examples of successful migration, he suddenly had an epiphany. The massive westward expansion in America a century later would be the perfect model to follow. Why not launch a "Great North African Development Plan," similar to the American westward expansion?

Joseph gathered his thoughts and said to Mirabeau, "Perhaps we can approach this from a different angle."

"What do you mean?" Mirabeau asked.

"Since the rich aren't willing to go to North Africa and endure hardships, we should send the poor instead!"

Mirabeau was taken aback and shook his head. "Your Highness, that might be difficult... The poor can't even afford the necessary travel expenses."

"We'll have the government provide loans," Joseph replied, following the American model and adapting it to France's current situation. "Travel expenses, money for seeds, tools, and even the first six months of living expenses—everything will be loaned to French farmers by the bank. Do you think 300 livres per person would be enough?"

"That... shouldn't be necessary, Your Highness. About 200 livres per person should suffice. If we organize large-scale transportation by ship, the cost could be even lower."

"Very good," Joseph nodded. "As for the land, the bank will buy it from the Tunisians and give it directly to the farmers to cultivate. After ten years, the land will belong to them. During that time, they'll only need to pay a portion of their harvest to the government each year.

"The land in Tunis is fertile; they should be able to repay the loans with their harvests soon enough."

Mirabeau was astonished. "Your Highness, but this would require the government to spend a lot of money... likely tens of millions of livres."

"It's worth it!" Joseph replied.

He knew that droughts in the next two years would cause a massive drop in crop yields, leading to unavoidable famine by mid-next year. The government would end up spending a lot of money to buy grain for relief efforts. It would be better to invest some of that money in Tunis now; the increased grain yield could help prevent the famine. Plus, this would be a stable food source—Tunis had plenty of sunshine and rain, so they could harvest three crops a year without much effort.

"It won't take long for the abundant resources in Tunis to pay back the initial investment."

Mirabeau thought it over and slowly nodded. Indeed, as the Crown Prince said, if the French population in Tunis increased, the large amounts of iron, olives, and livestock there could be developed, given the market demand. These could then be sold throughout North Africa.

Suddenly, he thought of another issue. "Your Highness, but with such a large investment, our finances might not be able to..."

"I'll figure that part out," Joseph sighed, thinking he might need to create a Tunisian development fund to attract private investment. He wasn't sure how much domestic capital would be interested in North Africa. If that didn't work, he might have to issue high-interest bonds. Fortunately, France's debt had somewhat stabilized, and the current financial situation could barely support this. But that would likely cause interest rates on national debt to rise again.

Ah, money, why is it so hard to come by?

Britain, London.

In the council chamber at St. James's Palace...

"It's clear that the French successfully deceived us," a bespectacled parliamentarian sneered at Foreign Secretary the Duke of Leeds. "We threw 400,000 pounds into fortifying our 'neighbor' Algiers' coastal defenses and provided dozens of cannons, only to watch France reap almost colonial-level benefits in Tunis."

Under the table, the Duke of Leeds clenched his fists. These Whigs were criticizing him now, but they had been lounging in luxury in London while he was out at sea, eating salted meat and drinking sour wine.

His eye twitched, but he forced a smile. "Mr. Jameson, you might be mistaken—it was 360,000 pounds. I didn't use up the entire budget."

Note 1: Most-Favored-Nation Status means that if Country A has MFN status with Country B, any trade benefits or exemptions that B gives to any other country must also be given to A. In simple terms, this means that B's import tariffs for A will be lower than for anyone else.

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