Viscount Olivier hesitated, “Your Highness, but if there are too many orders prohibited from sale, factories will struggle to survive…”
Joseph smiled and waved his hand, “Please rest assured, the association will not interfere with the vast majority of orders. Only a few buyers who may threaten national security will be banned, which might occur once in a few years.”
The factory owners all heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing this—under such terms, there were practically no restrictions.
Compared with the benefits brought by the new technology—significant improvement in the quality of iron ingots and an increase in the production of fine steel—this was completely acceptable.
In fact, they hadn’t noticed the “quality evaluation” clause. And this was the main means of controlling the steel factories.
The so-called quality evaluation was an assessment carried out on a company, equivalent to rating the company.
How prestigious the three major rating agencies in the future United States were, was common knowledge—if they took a dislike to you and downgraded your rating, your stocks could be blown instantly.
These factory owners had yet to experience such manipulation. Just imagine, if all other steel factories were rated A++ and only yours was B, who would buy your products?
In the future, wouldn’t these factory owners have to cooperate sincerely with the Crown Prince?
Joseph threw out another bait, “Oh, before long, the association will also announce a new iron smelting technology using new fuel, which can further reduce the impurities in iron ingots and increase production.”
He was referring to using coke to smelt iron.
One of the by-products of distilling coal gas, which had been put into use with gas lamps, was coke.
This material, as a fuel for smelting iron, had advantages like low impurities and high calorific value. It was ideally suited for development as part of the gas lamp’s accessory industry.
It was young Mr. Gregoire who first became restless, “Your Highness, Gregoire Brothers Steel Company sincerely hopes to join the Steel Technology Association.”
Viscount Olivier and the other factory owners immediately followed suit, “Your Highness, Hilker Steel Company also applies to join the association!”
“And the Red Furnace Ironworks…”
“And Wilhaurite Steel…”
Joseph gestured for Ramo, the development zone manager, to distribute the association’s prepared regulations and application forms to everyone, “Please fill out the applications and submit them to Mr. Ramo. Afterwards, the association will send technicians to teach you the new smelting technology, which might take some time due to the various procedures involved.”
In truth, there were no such procedures, but Joseph had yet to file a patent for “hot blast iron smelting,” and the technicians also needed to convert his principles into blueprints, all of which required time.
The factory owners didn’t mind waiting a few more months since, by the standards of the era, implementing anything new was never too swift.
Joseph cautioned them, “Oh, right, you might want to start purchasing some refractory bricks, and steam engines to drive the blowers, as these will be needed later.”
The factory owners busily instructed their technicians to take note.
Joseph stayed in Nancy for three days, sorting out various aspects of industrial enterprise development, then set off southward, heading to Saint-Etienne.
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The newly established industrial development zone there had been officially in use for four months—owing to its closer proximity to Paris, its scale was by no means smaller than that of Nancy.
Joseph naturally needed to visit there too, and he was also planning to bring the steel factories there into the “Steel Technology Association.”
The visit to Saint-Etienne was very similar to Nancy. After Joseph left the development zone and prepared to continue eastward to Lyon, France’s textile industry center, to promote the newly replicated automatic loom.
It couldn’t be helped; currently, all industrial sectors in France needed him to create a framework and lay down advanced concepts before gradually handing them over to people like Mirabeau. Recently, he had been incredibly busy, barely keeping his feet on the ground.
However, when he arrived east of Lyon at Folei, he encountered a messenger waiting for him there.
The latter delivered a letter from the Royal Armory into his hands.
The letter said that the mass-produced type of the automated loom had encountered some problems, mainly due to the insufficient precision in the craftsmen’s workmanship, and that Louis XVI had to instruct each one of them in person, resulting in the completion of the first batch of ten looms being delayed until the end of next month.
Joseph helplessly took out his itinerary, looked down at it, and finally decided to return to Paris first to apply for the patent for “hot blast iron smelting.”
Before he could set out, however, he received a report from the National Intelligence Agency, which was the upgraded Police Affairs Department.
He opened the sealed letter and passed it along with the codebook to Eman.
The latter expertly and quickly deciphered the code and then turned to look at Joseph:
“Your Highness, a coup occurred in Tripoli six days ago.”
Joseph frowned, took the translated report, and saw that it read: On March 18, Ottoman officer Ali Benjiur launched a coup in Tripoli with the support of nobles dissatisfied with the Pasha.
The Pasha of Tripoli, Ali I, fled to Egypt. Benjiur declared that Tripoli was once again under Ottoman rule.
There were signs that the British were involved in the coup, including the provision of weaponry and funds for the insurgents, most of which came from England.
The British? Joseph immediately became alert. The British would not meddle in the affairs of a small Mediterranean country with just a few hundred thousand residents without cause; they were most likely targeting France.
It seemed that, although he had been very restrained, having limited France’s influence in North Africa to the small region of Tunisia and not directly capturing Algiers as in history, he had still caught the British’s attention.
There was something fishy about this, and he could not afford to be careless.
Joseph picked up his itinerary again, looked at the last line, and sighed:
“It seems necessary to make a trip to Tunisia ahead of schedule.”
Tunisia, after the great chaos caused by the expulsion of the Imperial Guard, had largely restored order through governance over the past few months. He was originally planning to go there to address some issues and arrange subsequent development plans.
He looked at Eman:
“Murat’s Corps are still in Montpellier, right?”
The latter recalled and nodded:
“Yes, Your Highness, they have just completed the reorganization of the Moncalm Legion and probably have not returned to Murat yet.”
Joseph immediately wrote a letter, sealed it with a wax seal, stamped his private seal on it, and handed it to Eman:
“Send someone to Montpellier immediately, and deliver this to Colonel Andre.”
In the letter, he requested Andre to take two regiments and head straight for Toulon and then take a ship to Tunisia from there.
He wrote another letter and instructed Eman, “This one goes back to the Palace of Versailles, instruct the General Staff to issue a replacement order.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Now, let’s also head to the Port of Toulon to board a ship. Oh, if Her Majesty the Queen asks, just say I went to a ‘Domestic Province.'”
Hmm, after all, Tunisia is indeed a province of France now.