Chapter 20 Budget (Seeking Investment)

Castrie's face turned green, and he glared and shouted: "Your Highness, how can you say that? The fleet is the sharpest spear of France, and we must not..."

Joseph looked at him calmly: "Marquis Castrie, how many warships can the British build while we build one?"

"This," Castrie seemed to lack confidence, "About one and a half..."

He saw that the crown prince smiled but did not speak, and said angrily: "Two. The British are really fast in launching new ships, and there are even more than two!"

Joseph nodded: "In other words, no matter how hard we build ships, we can't beat the British Navy."

He said something that everyone present knew, but they would never dare to say it openly, and there was a dead silence.

Joseph continued: "If that's the case, why waste a lot of resources to build ships? If it is to escort merchant ships, the current fleet is enough."

He naturally knew the importance of the fleet, and he would definitely not oppose the expansion of the navy. What he opposed was continuing to waste money on large and useless old sailing warships.

Britain has a huge advantage in shipbuilding. Not only does it have many shipyards, skilled craftsmen, and sufficient funds, but it is isolated overseas and can transfer the resources of the army to the navy, but France cannot.

If the competition is simply the number of ships built, France will lose. The Battle of Trafalgar more than ten years later is proof that France did its best to produce warships and joined forces with the Spanish and Dutch fleets, but was still pressed to the bottom of the sea by the British navy.

After the friction, the French maritime trade routes were completely blocked by the British. Since then, Napoleon has gradually entered a period of decline, and Britain has finally become "the sun never sets".

Therefore, there is only one way out - abandon the popular multi-layer sailing warships, use the advanced technology in his mind, directly go to the ironclad ships, equip steam engines and stronger artillery, and strike down the British warships.

But he can't say these plans at the cabinet meeting, at least Orleans is likely to leak the news.

"But..." Castries knew that the prince was sophistry, but he didn't know how to refute it for a while. He was only worried that the queen would really listen to him and cut all the new ships.

Brian gave Joseph an approving look. This young man knows how to bargain! Moreover, he has just taken office, but he knows how to help his fiscal cuts. Maybe he will be a good assistant.

He coughed lightly and said pretentiously: "Your Highness, although our finances are a little tight, we must not give up the development of the navy. Reducing one battleship is the limit."

Monnot also followed suit: "Our overseas colonies also need warships to look after them, otherwise the mobs there will make trouble every few days."

Finally, Queen Marie made the decision: "Joseph, don't cut spending too radically. Marquis of Castries, temporarily follow Archbishop Brian's plan and cut one battleship and two second-level ships. However, I hope you can also carefully review the construction of other new ships to prevent waste."

Castries' new ship was almost destroyed, and he nodded helplessly after surviving the disaster: "Yes, Your Majesty."

He sighed in his heart: The Crown Prince is still too young, does not understand the significance of the navy to the country, and only cares about reducing spending. In the future, he must communicate with him more to change his mind.

Brian successfully defeated the most difficult navy, and felt relieved. He then read out the subsequent reduction plan: "I believe everyone has heard about the situation in the Netherlands. The Patriot Party resisted for less than a month before being defeated by the Prussians. In view of this, I think that the aid to the Dutch Patriot Party can be discontinued, which will save the treasury 250,000 livres every month."

Joseph frowned slightly and recalled the information about the Dutch Patriot Party movement.

This was an uprising launched by new capitalists and citizens in the Netherlands to overthrow William V. With the funding from France, they successfully drove the Archon William V out of the Netherlands and established the Federal Provincial Parliament.

Later, under the planning of William V's wife, Prussian Princess Wilhelmina, Prussia sent troops to intervene, the Patriot Party was defeated, William V was restored, and the French's early investment was all wasted.

The cabinet ministers expressed their agreement to abandon the Dutch rebels. After all, 20,000 Prussian regular troops had already entered the Netherlands, and the Patriot Party's troops were no match at all, so they should stop the loss as soon as possible.

Queen Marie looked around: "Any other opinions?"

"I think..." Joseph stood up.

War Minister Saint-Priest wanted to struggle again, after all, he had invested a lot of money in the Netherlands. When he saw the Crown Prince speak, he immediately felt cold in his heart - judging from his move to cut all the new ships of the navy just now, he should be an anti-war faction, and the queen doted on him very much, so the Dutch aid would definitely be gone.

Joseph said loudly: "Your Majesty, I think that not only should we not interrupt the aid to the Patriot Party, but we should also increase the intensity and even take the stance of sending troops to Prussia, and we must never let the Patriot Party collapse!"

"Oh?" The queen was very surprised, "Tell me your reasons."

"First, the Netherlands is the outlet of the Rhine River. If we can control it in our hands, it will be able to effectively contain Prussia.

"Secondly, the Netherlands has developed commerce. If we bring it into our power, we can earn back the aid in trade alone.

"Finally, we will have a war with Prussia in the future, and the Netherlands can tie down a large number of Prussian troops in the west."

"And if Prussia is allowed to control the Netherlands, all of this will become a boost for Prussia!"

In fact, Joseph didn't say two more points.

First, the Netherlands has a large reserve of coal and iron. Now the starting gun of the industrial revolution has been fired. Whoever has more coal and iron resources in the future will have a greater advantage.

Second, the Patriots are very good at inciting trouble. After being driven out of the Netherlands by Prussia, they will flood into France. Historically, they have made trouble in France under the orders of the Great.

As soon as he finished speaking, the expressions of all the cabinet ministers became a little strange.

What the Crown Prince said was indeed very reasonable, but he strongly opposed the construction of warships, but he supported aiding the Dutch here, especially his sentence "There must be a war with Prussia". Could it be that...

They all bowed their heads and tried not to think about the worst possibility.

Brian was the first to speak: "Your Highness, our financial situation does not allow us to give the Dutch more money."

Joseph said: "Didn't we save some money on building warships just now? Give some to them."

The Minister of the Navy Castries almost cried, thank you, Your Highness.

The Minister of War was overjoyed and shed tears, thank you so much, Your Highness.

"This..." Brian began to feel fortunate that the power of financial decision-making was still in his hands.

Queen Marie came to his rescue and said, "Joseph, your reasons are very sufficient, but even if we give more aid to the Patriot Party, they may not be able to stop the Prussian army."

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