Admiral Jervis continued:
“Furthermore, Algiers will need an army to deal with the situation if the French people forcefully land and succeed.”
“As far as I know, their Imperial Guard only indulges in drinking and seeking the company of courtesans, their combat strength won’t be too strong.”
“We can recruit Albanian mercenaries,” said the Duke of Leeds, smelling the aroma of the tea, and spoke with an easy demeanor, “Those people are very fierce, and they also speak Arab. Most importantly, they are cheap.”
Peter nodded slightly and looked at Jervis again, “How many mercenaries do you estimate we need to defend Algiers?”
“At least 10,000, but it would be better to have 15,000.”
“Duke, please be careful,” Consul Stuart’s voice interrupted the Duke of Leeds’ reverie. The latter quickly focused and walked over the gangplank, stepping onto the port of Mitidja.
After another two hours by carriage, Duke of Leeds and his party were finally able to have a secret meeting with the current Dey of Algiers, Mansur – there were many French spies here, so they had to act covertly.
Mansur seemed very enthusiastic towards the British. After all, they were there to bring benefits; who wouldn’t welcome that?
Last time, the Duke of Leeds had brought him almost free-of-charge cannons and dozens of engineers. This time he brought contracts for mercenaries.
Initially, Mansur was very averse to letting thousands of Albanian mercenaries enter Algiers, especially since he was expected to bear one-third of the cost.
However, he quickly saw the decree from the Ottoman Sultan Hamid I brought by “Sultan’s Advisor” Mr. Stuart, urging him to strengthen his military and use the mercenaries to resist potential foreign invasions.
Actually, the decree from Hamid I was more of a guarantee than an order – the main content was to assure that these mercenaries would heed the orders of the Algiers government, and they would withdraw immediately once the threat had dissipated.
The next day in the Algiers Council, the attendees engaged in heated discussion.
The Pirates, that is, the naval forces, as well as the local Berbers were rather in favor of accepting the mercenaries. After all, the intelligence brought by the British indicated that France was likely to attack the base of the Algiers Navy.
On the other hand, the Imperial Guard was worried about the mercenaries posing a threat to their own power and strongly opposed their entry into Algiers.
In the end, with Mansur’s promise to allocate sixty percent of the British aid to the Imperial Guard and the firm insistence of the Navy, the Imperial Guard reluctantly agreed to allow the mercenaries to come and be stationed there.
Upon receiving the news, the Duke of Leeds was overjoyed and left Tor to handle the matters in Algiers while he himself, satisfied, embarked on the British warship heading back to England.
He had been traveling around the Mediterranean for more than two months, spending just over 400,000 British Pounds, yet had successfully thwarted the French in their attempt to expand into North Africa. This was undoubtedly a huge strategic success! Keep in mind, England had previously waged a war and spent nearly ten million British Pounds to achieve similar strategic goals.
The world was now entering the Industrial Age, and only a great number of colonies could bring markets and raw materials to support the nation’s development. Over the past years, more than half of the Empire’s income came from colonies in the Far East and America.
And France, lacking in colonies? Ha, it will never have the strength to compete with the Empire!
…
France, Paris.
In an office on the second floor of the Tuileries Palace, Joseph was carefully examining the reports on the strategic grain reserves from various places – due to the rapid expansion in industry, and after the Minister of Industry took office, the number of officials in the industrial system had increased significantly, and the original Industrial Planning Bureau was clearly no longer sufficient.
Continue your adventure at empire
Thus, Joseph simply allocated a small area in the Tuileries Palace for the new Planning Bureau office. After all, there were many guest rooms here, which were never fully occupied anyway.
The data in the report made Joseph frown slightly – the grain reserves for July and August had only a slight decrease, but from September, the reserves dropped by tens of millions of pounds.
This accounted for 17% of the total reserves!
He knew that this was because there had been some grain reserves among the people, but with the hailstorms causing complete crop failures, many people’s reserves were exhausted, and they had to rely on the government’s reserves to get by.
Luckily, he had started buying grain from abroad since the beginning of the year; otherwise, France might have already been in chaos by now. Historically, it was from this time that the French Government was unable to deal with riots happening everywhere, and had to announce the convening of the Estates-General the following year, thus ushering in the prelude of the Great Revolution.
Joseph sighed softly at this thought. Although the situation was barely stable for now, vigilance must not be relaxed.
First, because of the severe drought, this year’s second-half crop yield would definitely be much lower than usual. According to the Church’s estimates, it might only be 70% of the previous years’, or even lower.
Keep in mind, France was still an agricultural country – a reduction in grain harvest by thirty percent was basically the equivalent of losing thirty percent of the nation’s vitality!
Moreover, after the large-scale grain purchases from abroad last year and droughts in other countries as well, the international grain prices had already risen by 60% compared to last year and were still rising.
Countries like England, Prussia, and the German states had already issued decrees strictly restricting grain exports; now, even if you had the money, you couldn’t buy it.
What’s more, France didn’t have much money at this time…
Joseph had just looked over the financial system report, and his previous maneuvers had indeed greatly eased France’s debt crisis; at least it wouldn’t collapse on a whim like before, but the fact was the current state was still a deficit.