As the ships loaded with potatoes from Metz, Lorraine, and other areas began to sail south, in the office of the director of the Paris Industrial Planning Bureau, Joseph was flipping through a thick stack of reports.
A fifty-something official with many smallpox scars on his face and wearing glasses stood solemnly to the side.
He was the Commissioner of Agricultural and Financial Affairs, reporting to the office of the Finance Minister, and these were the documents he had just delivered.
The content of the documents was the recently compiled number of manor owners and farmers in each province who were willing to grow potatoes, as well as the data on the planned planting area they had proposed.
Since Finance Minister Brian was currently in Caen conducting trade negotiations with the British, these documents were sent to his deputy, Joseph. In fact, this kind of matter was usually the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior, but Brian and Joseph had previously agreed that the promotion of potatoes was so important it was best not to let Mono, that old slick, get overly involved.
Joseph had not even reached the halfway point of the documents when his brow began to furrow more and more.
Though he had initiated an intense public relations campaign across the country to promote potatoes, spending forty to fifty thousand livres on printing propaganda pamphlets alone, the Church had also been somewhat cooperative.
Local churches had begun to distribute the new version of “The Last Supper,” proclaiming to their parishioners that potatoes were not “the Devil’s apples” from underground but rather “a gift from the Lord.”
However, judging by the planting intentions around the provinces, the prospects for the propagation did not look optimistic.
Apart from the areas around Lille and Valenciennes in the north of France, as well as the provinces near the Rhine River where the acceptance of potatoes was relatively high, the rest of the places willing to switch to potato cultivation amounted to less than 2% of the total arable land area…
As Joseph continued to review the subsequent documents, he found that the further south he looked, the more intense the resistance to potatoes became. Near the areas close to Spain, like Foix and Bayonne, almost no one wanted to plant potatoes.
This was far from what he had anticipated. With only 2% of the planting area, it would hardly serve any purpose in preventing droughts and hail disasters.
He suddenly noticed a new problem in the documents, hastily reviewed the types of people accepting to change to potato cultivation, and then looked up to ask the Agricultural Finance Commissioner standing beside him, “Viscount Nassien, why are there so few large estates willing to grow potatoes?”
The majority who accepted the change to potato cultivation were subsistence farmers, with only a small portion being tribute farmers. Nationwide, less than twenty estates had declared that they would allocate some cropland for potato cultivation. The owners of these estates included people like Duke Vilar, Count Mono, and others.
Nassien hesitated for a moment before bowing slightly and saying, “Your Highness, from what I’ve heard, those manor owners are all discussing the matter. They demand a reduction in land tax before they would consider planting potatoes.”
Upon hearing this, Joseph’s eyes narrowed; the so-called manor owners were none other than the land aristocracy.
He had thought the matter of the tax legislation had already ended, yet these old nobles were still holding out hope and looking to leverage government policies to bargain over land tax by boycotting government affairs.
The land tax definitely could not be reduced. Once that door was opened, not only would the nobility take much more from an inch in the future, extorting the government for tax cuts over various matters, it would also be a severe weakening of the Royal Family’s authority.
Nassien added, “Moreover, Your Highness, potatoes can be eaten directly without needing to be ground into flour, so if potatoes are cultivated, it would also affect the revenue of mills. Therefore…”
Joseph simply nodded in silence.
According to the current laws of France, ordinary tenant farmers must take their grains to mills to be ground into flour and pay a certain “mill tax.” The owners of these mills are also the same old nobility. The mill tax is significant income for them.
Considering all these factors, it’s no surprise that they would resist potatoes so vehemently.
The frown on Joseph’s forehead grew even deeper as he realized his potato plan had encountered so many obstacles before even taking its first step.
These old nobles, who held vast amounts of land and tenant farmers, only knew how to brutally exploit these tenants relying on feudal privileges and posed the largest obstacle to industrialization. Simultaneously, they constantly hindered the government’s policies at every turn, interfering with the nation’s development, a veritable scourge indeed!
In order to thoroughly resolve France’s various issues and successfully develop industry, the old nobility, this group of bloodsuckers, must be dealt with.
Joseph couldn’t help but let out a sigh. It was still too early to think about these things; one has to eat one bite at a time. The most pressing issue at hand was how to deal with the famine and keep the nation from descending into chaos.
And relying solely on purchased grain was far from enough to solve the problem. It was imperative to spread the cultivation of potatoes throughout the country.
But how could one break through the barrier of the old nobility…
Nassien cautiously reminded from the side, “Your Highness, the first batch of potatoes heading to Bordeaux has already set off. Considering the current willingness to plant, would it be better to reduce the following batches a bit?”
Upon hearing the word “Bordeaux,” a thought suddenly struck Joseph.
When speaking of what people in the Bordeaux region value most, without a doubt, it’s winemaking. This is not only the pillar industry of Bordeaux but also one of France’s important export goods, bringing in huge income every year.
And at the moment, Pasteurization had not been invented, winemaking suffered annual losses due to lactobacillus contamination, amounting to a quarter or even more of the wine. Even the successfully fermented wines often had a faint sour taste, seriously reducing the quality of the wine.
If he could come up with a solution to prevent the wine from turning sour, all Bordeaux vineyards would go crazy for it. At that time, if he proposed some conditions, like planting some potatoes, he believed they would hardly refuse.
Spring planting was imminent, and there was no time to delay. With that thought in mind, Joseph immediately stood up and said to Eman, “Please help me prepare to leave for Bordeaux posthaste.”
“Bordeaux?” Eman paused for a moment, then bowed and responded, “Yes, Your Highness.”
Joseph then turned to Nassien, “Send a message to the northeastern provinces to continue sending potatoes to the south. There’s no need to cut back.”
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While Eman was preparing for the trip, Joseph also visited the Palace of Versailles to see the newly appointed Justice Minister, Baron Breti, and asked him to recommend Bertier to the Minister of War.
The reason he used Baron Breti as an intermediary was to avoid drawing attention to any connections between Bertier and the Royal Family, thus preventing Bertier from being ostracized by the military nobility.
…
The next morning, a convoy of seven or eight carriages, escorted by more than sixty cavalry guards led by Kesode, set off from Paris and headed south through France.
On the Crown Prince’s carriage, Doctor Perna was taking notes seriously, interjecting with questions from time to time.
Joseph, seated opposite her, was explaining the working principles of red blood cells—although he only knew a bit from science popularization videos, in the late 18th century, this constituted the cutting-edge of medical knowledge.
Indeed, when Doctor Perna learned that the Crown Prince was heading to Bordeaux, she immediately stated that the current cold weather was very detrimental to lung diseases and required constant checks. Thus, she volunteered to accompany the Crown Prince on his journey south.
Joseph felt a little guilty for disrupting her classes on blood circulation, so he casually shared some knowledge about it with her.
However, this made things difficult for Doctor Lamark—upon returning, his daughter would certainly tell him with a stern face, “Much of what you taught about blood circulation is wrong!”