Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

"Thank you for your information," Joseph nodded to the British banker, "You have won me at least half a month of preparation time."

Godemid immediately revealed a smile, "It's my honor to be of service to you."

He was extremely relieved at his original decision. By being a "double agent" in the Tax Farmers Association, he had successfully avoided significant income losses due to France's tax reform, and he had also established a connection with the Crown Prince, which would undoubtedly provide him with plenty of opportunities in France in the future.

If handled well, he could even truly take control of French finance, just as the Wallenberg family had done in Sweden. By then, Godemid would become one of Europe's top surnames.

He was about to "take credit" and ask the Crown Prince for some favors when Joseph said, "Oh, you must have heard about the Tax Bureau auditing the Tax Farmers' accounts, right?"

Godemid nodded in response, "Yes, Your Highness, all of France has been paying attention to this matter."

"So when you go back, return any improperly collected taxes as soon as possible, and compensate where necessary," Joseph said. "Then I can pretend these things never happened.

"Oh, and if the tax office receives any complaints against you, I'll have them hold off for a while. You had better hurry."

Godemid paused, then remembered he was a Tax Farmer himself, and not a small one at that. If the audits got to him, it would not be a laughing matter; after all, no Tax Farmer was clean.

He hurriedly stood up and bowed, saying with a lingering fear, "Yes, Your Highness, I will definitely handle it seriously. Thank you for your leniency..."

Joseph nodded, his tone softening, "I know you have some friends who want a government position. Although the finance department is definitely out of the question, I can let them become diplomats."

Godemid's spirits lifted from sadness to joy. Although the diplomatic system was far from finance, it meant he had his own confidants within the bureaucratic system, and it also indicated the Crown Prince's recognition of his importance.

"I am deeply grateful, great Crown Prince Your Highness."

Naturally, Joseph would not let this cunning and ambitious tycoon control senior officials, but he could give him the position of the French ambassador to England.

After all, the intelligence work there was now mostly handed over to the intelligence bureau, and with the current relations between France and England, there was little else for the ambassador to do other than talk tough.

And in the not-too-distant future, he might even have to take some blame. The real diplomatic talents needed to be protected.

Joseph encouraged Godemid a bit more and then sent him back. Continue your saga on My Virtual Library Empire

When Eman returned after seeing off the guest, Joseph immediately ordered him, "Please invite Count Mirabeau, Baron Ba Yi, Viscount Besancon, Mr. Dupont, and Mr. Castella to see me immediately."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Two hours later, a group of political and business heavyweights had already gathered in Joseph's office. The general manager of the Gemini Trading Company, Mr. Castella, had not yet returned from dealing with matters in Marseille, so his assistant manager Vorant came in his stead.

After Mirabeau and the others were seated, Joseph immediately said solemnly, "France will soon face a disaster, and I need you all to help me address it."

Everyone immediately stood up again and said in unison with their hands on their chests, "Please instruct us, Your Highness."

Joseph gestured for them to sit down and continued, "I have received information that those guys from the Tax Farmers Association are preparing to make some big moves to stop the Tax Bureau from auditing their accounts."

Joseph then recounted the situation reported by Godemid earlier, and Mirabeau immediately said, "Your Highness, since we already know their plans, we can certainly issue a prohibition order in advance to prevent it."

Paris added, "We could even assign liaison officers to the larger merchant convoys."

What he referred to as liaison officers were essentially tasked with supervising the convoys, with powers to confiscate goods or freeze transactions, and each was accompanied by several, or even a dozen, armed attendants.

Joseph shook his head, "If they really want to disrupt trade, they could find many ways, such as diverting all funds for other uses. Even with a prohibition order, it's not illegal for a convoy to run out of money and not be able to buy goods."

He then smiled again, "Moreover, I actually hope they can carry out their plans successfully.

"The bigger the fuss the Tax Farmers make, the more thorough the tax reform can be."

The people in the room looked at each other in astonishment upon hearing this.

Baron Ba Yi immediately stepped forward anxiously and tried to dissuade him, "Your Highness, if we let them disrupt commercial trade, it may have a very serious impact on the country."

That was precisely why the Tax Farmers Association was so confident. They were betting that the French Government would back down.

Once the trade lines halted, factory products would accumulate, and the weaker ones would quickly go bankrupt due to broken financial chains. If the merchant convoys stopped working for two months, they could cause the collapse of France's finances, and even one month would cause irreversible damage to the country.

Given the current scale of France's financial deficit, they dare not confront them head-on.

Factory bankruptcies would lead to a large number of workers being unemployed, and on the other end, people unable to buy goods would not take long for the country to fall into turmoil.

Joseph nodded, "You are quite right. So we must find a way to stabilize domestic trade."

Ba Yi anxiously said, "Your Highness, based on my calculations, the Tax Farmers Association can influence at least one-third of the national merchant convoys. With such a large scale, we simply cannot fill the gap quickly."

A third may seem like a small percentage, but that meant one-third of the country's goods would not be traded, which was enough to destroy a nation's economy.

Joseph looked at the president of the French Chamber of Commerce, "Mr. Dupont, how many merchant convoys do you think you can mobilize?"

The latter thought for a moment, his expression troubled, "Your Highness, my own convoys, plus those of the Chamber of Commerce and those without any ties to the Tax Farmers, I estimate there would be around twenty or so."

Because the Tax Farmers were extremely wealthy, they had significant influence in the Chamber of Commerce. Even as its president, Dupont could not guarantee that in a critical moment, the Chamber's people would definitely listen to him.

Joseph then turned to Mirabeau and Ba Yi, who indicated they could find some trustworthy friends' convoys, but not in large numbers.

Joseph nodded again and declared loudly, "Then we'll form the French Trade Alliance with these convoys and the Gemini Trading Company as the core.

"The Trade Alliance will take over all trades with merchant convoy vacancies within half a month."

Mr. Dupont and Ba Yi immediately shook their heads, "Your Highness, forgive my candor, but with such a number of convoys, half a month is completely insufficient to expand to the scale you need."

"Yes, Your Highness, if we had six months, perhaps we could give it a try."

Despite its strength, the Gemini Trading Company's regular convoy operations were not large because its main business was running Mediterranean trade and quietly bringing in some items from the Pacific Ocean.

Combined with the convoys that several people in the room could mobilize, the total size was only about one-tenth of the national convoys.