Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2340 Francois' worries

April 1698, 3, sunny.

Today's weather is good. Clement Francois, the new French ambassador to the east coast, went out for a day and returned to the Golden Lily Shop at [-] twilight.In fact, he was planning to play polo, but the polo field in Qingdao County was closed due to the death incident yesterday.I had no choice but to go out and hang out.

The person who died in the county polo hall was an official from the Austrian embassy. It is said that he was born in a branch of the Leopold family and loved playing polo.As a result, in a fierce competition, he was unfortunately knocked off the horse and trampled to death by the horse's hoof.If this kind of thing happened in Europe, it would be another diplomatic disturbance if it was not kept together—of course, in London, the French and Swedish ambassadors fought openly because of a dispute over who would go first. The French ambassador killed the Swedish ambassador with his own hands and almost triggered a war—but On the east bank, the Austrians wisely did not say anything, but negotiated compensation with a son of an official on the east bank who caused the accident, and then there was nothing, which made Ambassador François sigh.

Austria was coquettish in front of the French, but it turned out to be so cowardly in front of the people on the east coast. It's ridiculous!

But don’t talk about the second brother. The “disappearance” of a French embassy official a while ago also made Ambassador François lose a lot of face.It was a nobleman from Brittany who disappeared because he went to the Hailing Port military base to spy on the legendary iron-clad battleship.Ambassador Francois inquired for a long time in private, but did not get any news about this person.Later, some people said that they had seen this young man in a certain coal mine, but he was a little different, because he was unshaven and extremely thin, and he was completely different from the previous appearance of a tree.Ambassador Francois then sent someone to investigate, and finally saw the poor man. It turned out that he had been arrested by the Bureau of Statistics and Investigation of Syphilis Patients.Because the evidence was not very complete—the poor man was even caught as soon as he approached the restricted military zone—so he was convicted of a crime indiscriminately, sent to the coal mine for hard labor, and the French embassy was not notified.

The young man cried to the embassy officials that he is living a bad life now, the food is poor, the daily work is very heavy, and the inmates in the same cell are dangerous felons, and he wears thick underwear when he goes to the bathroom to take a shower. He didn't want to live a day like this anymore, so he asked the ambassador to fish him out.Ambassador Francois negotiated with the East Bank government, but failed. The East Bank Justice Department insisted that this person must serve the remaining year and a half of his sentence before he could be released.Obviously, the people on the east coast did not buy France's account, which made Ambassador Francois very angry, but he was helpless.

The French embassy is also facing the problem of relocating recently.They have already purchased a piece of land in Beicheng District, Luoyang Prefecture, and the construction of the new embassy has almost been completed. It is currently undergoing interior decoration and is expected to be ready for occupancy in half a year.Ambassador Francois did not intend to delay. The Golden Lily Shop was originally a borrowed chamber of commerce. It had limitations, so it was better to go to the new embassy to work as soon as possible.This evening, he found the official in charge of moving the embassy and discussed the details with him for two hours before making himself a pot of coffee and taking a rest.

After two years of peace, the Kingdom of France finally breathed a sigh of relief.In the end, the foundation is strong. If the country’s tax revenue is converted into the legal currency of the East Coast, there are already about 4000 million yuan—about 1.2 million new livres, and the inferior livres cast during the war have been discontinued—but this is still not enough!The king raised a huge army and navy, and he also paid a lot of money to the allies of the Ottoman Empire every year, as well as the salaries of the bureaucracy system, which was also not small. one-sixth of income.

A fiscal deficit of 2000 million yen a year, how amazing is this!Fortunately, the king is aware of this problem. In the past two years, he has dismissed a considerable number of troops that he considered weak or unreliable. The total number reached more than 1698, which saved a lot of money. In 5, more than 35 people will probably continue to be demobilized. The ultimate goal is to reduce the size of the army from 20 at its peak to around [-], so that the country's finances can breathe.

However, the army was abolished, but the navy was not-well, it may not be accurate to say that, because the navy did demobilize some personnel, but the warships were not sealed-Louis XIV still made great contributions to this army that had made great contributions during the war. The huge fleet has high hopes.Because they were the ones who guaranteed the foreign trade of the Kingdom of France during the war. At the same time, they took advantage of the momentum of defeating the Anglo-Dutch coalition twice to plunder the merchant ships of the British, Dutch, Spanish and other enemy countries, and also harassed the overseas colonies of the enemy countries.Because of the good command of the naval commanders, they reaped huge profits in these pirate-style battles, which slightly supplemented the national treasury.

In France now, compared to before the war, their trade volume in Africa, the Caribbean, the East Coast, Southeast Asia, and China has directly quadrupled, and they have grabbed a large amount of business from the Netherlands, England, and Spain.Therefore, the navy has almost become the pinnacle to maintain the sound operation of France's finances. Once the main force of the fleet is wiped out, the lucrative overseas trade will be greatly affected. Naturally, the French government will not be able to collect enough taxes from the trade. This is Louis X Four intolerable.

The French also now realized the enormous role experienced sailors could play in warfare.They learned about the practice of the British in detail, and established detailed files for the sailors according to the initials of their surnames, where each person lived, how old he was, how long he had served, and what his military rank (if any) was before he retired. It is recorded in the book so that when a war breaks out, a large number of people are killed and injured, and retired personnel need to be recruited, the gap in battle damage can be quickly made up.

It can be seen from this that the French Navy has now implemented the employment system, and it is no longer the temporary capture of merchant sailors to fight on board a dozen or 20 years ago.Armed merchant ships rarely go to the frontal battlefield, and everything is developing towards regularization.There is no way, the intensity of the war is getting higher and higher, and the requirements for warships and sailors are getting higher and higher, and it is impossible to be like before.

"Finance is still very difficult. The wounds caused by the war will take a long time to heal, but is there really that time?" Ambassador François, who was free, thought of the current situation in the country and couldn't help but sighed deeply. , I don’t know what to say.

Great luck for the British!The isolated overseas islands prevented the war from burning to the mainland (if you ignore the French army’s two invasions of Ireland), and during the war, French agriculture continued to fail, famine spread, and a large number of people starved to death, but Britain only suffered a one-year harvest failure. And it was quickly resolved by importing grain from Russia, without causing too bad an impact.In addition, a large number of Huguenots fled abroad. Most of these people were craftsmen, businessmen, military officers, lawyers or intellectuals. It doesn't get any worse than that.

The Kingdom of France is still burdened with huge debts.These debts come from Germany, some from Italy, and even some from the Netherlands (magic, right?), and it is a nightmare to repay the principal and interest of the debt every year.Moreover, the means of taxation in the Kingdom of France is very backward. Last year (1697) the largest tax was still the ancient poll tax, which was about 1200 million yuan, provided by 50 taxpayers, and they actually collected more than 1700 million yuan. Yuan tax, the remaining 500 million yuan was stuffed into their pockets, which caused a great burden on the people, and the cost of tax collection is very high in Western European countries.

Fortunately, the church is more sympathetic to the king (perhaps because of the cleansing of the Protestants), and they donated all the tithes and special tithes (in fact, an additional tax) to the king to support the king's war against Protestant countries .But it's still not enough!Ambassador Francois heard that the king ordered the sale of government positions last year, and at the same time apportioned to the Paris General Chamber of Commerce, and obtained an additional cash of about 1600 million yuan to fill the fiscal deficit and repay debts.

In addition, the king also stopped several royal garden projects and cut subsidies for himself and other royal family members. This move will save more than 600 million yuan in cash every year, and this money will be reflected in the fiscal expenditure in 1698. It really gave the government finances a breather.However, it would be great if the 400 million won funds supporting the Ottoman Empire could also be stopped!But Ambassador François also knows that this is impossible, at least not in the short term.

"The king has realized that the country is overwhelmed by debt, and at the same time cut unnecessary expenditures, which makes the people admire the wisdom and courage of the king even more. But what is needed most now is time! If the next battlefield is within five years If it breaks out, it is impossible for the Kingdom of France to prepare for war, unless it does not plan to repay the debt!" Thinking of this, Ambassador Francois was shocked, he felt that there was really a possibility of not keeping the balance!Now it owes a huge debt of more than [-] million yuan to Dutch, Spanish and Italian merchants, and it will only be worse if the interest is included.If war breaks out and these countries are enemies, then the Kingdom of France is likely to declare the debt void and stop repaying the debt!This is much better than going bankrupt and directly reneging on debts. It is really possible that the king will do this!

Thinking of this, Ambassador Francois had another headache.Instead of this, it is better not to break out of war, but to repay the debt honestly, that may be better for the country!After all, if there is a war, the cost will be incalculable. It is far from being able to fight with [-] million yuan, and [-] million or [-] million yuan may not be enough!If you take into account the casualties caused by the war (pensions need to be paid), the shrinkage of industrial and agricultural development (there is not enough labor for production), and the decrease in overseas trade (the enemy's privateer fleet will also act), the loss will be even worse. !

"I hope the next war will come later. The Kingdom of France needs too much breathing time, and I hope His Majesty the King can hold back." Ambassador Francois lamented.

(End of this chapter)