The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 307

Chapter 307: The Art of Negotiation

Trade agreements cover a wide range of issues. Even a simple draft can fill a hefty stack of documents.

It took the delegates an entire morning just to skim through the contents—this, even after Austria had already shared the general framework with them. Otherwise, the whole day might’ve been spent just reading.

However, as they read through the terms more closely, everyone began to show signs of surprise, soon whispering among themselves.

"It says here that we can keep a 60% tariff on French wine imports, and a 38% tariff on Austrian iron goods. That seems... not bad at all."

"We can even impose an 80% tariff on French paper? That’s not what I originally expected."

"Other than having to match Britain’s tariff on French textiles, the rest of the terms aren’t too harsh..."

"In fact, one could say... they’re quite reasonable. Austria is only imposing a 10% tariff on most goods exported from Württemberg."

"It’s the same here—we’ll be able to enter the Austrian and French markets with very low tariffs."

Soon, it was time for lunch.

On the way to the dining hall, the Bavarian Minister of State, Pomenthal, pulled aside a few trade delegates from smaller states and whispered, "Although on the surface it looks like Austria’s proposal favors them, the reality is that our industries are nowhere near as competitive as those of France and Austria—especially France.

"For example, the draft stipulates that we can impose no more than a 12% tariff on French machinery and only 15% on chemical products. That puts us at a serious disadvantage."

The Württemberg plenipotentiary, Count Wenzengrode, turned and nodded. "Then what do you think we should do?"

"This trade agreement is a good opportunity," Pomenthal said, glancing around at the others. "It gives our goods a chance to enter the enormous markets of France and Austria, but more importantly, we need to stand united and push for more favorable terms.

"Specifically, we must speak with one voice when negotiating specific tariff rates. Oh, and rest assured—Bavaria will offer some concessions to your states in return."

The other delegates nodded in agreement. Just as Pomenthal had said, the draft's terms meant that France and Austria would impose barely any tariffs on them, giving their goods access to these markets—something that had been extremely difficult before.

So the focus of the next phase of negotiations would be on the maximum tariffs they could impose on French and Austrian goods. After all, these small states could only protect their markets against powerful foreign products through tariffs.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, the trade negotiations resumed.

Count Wenzengrode of Württemberg was the first to rise. Addressing the French Minister of Commerce, he said, "Honorable Monsieur Bailly, regarding your country's export of iron products to Württemberg, I believe a 12% tariff is far too low. As you know, Württemberg has many ironworks that need protection. Perhaps a tariff around 35% would be more appropriate."

The Bavarian delegates quickly followed his lead.

"Bavaria hopes to raise the tariff on French steel to 30%."

"Salzburg wishes to increase it to 30% as well..."

Bailly rose and made the usual diplomatic statements—that France also cared about protecting their industries—but did not yield a single percentage point on the tariffs.

Seeing that the situation had reached an impasse, Count Wenzengrode was about to use the threat of walking out as leverage, when Bailly motioned to the young official behind him. "Monsieur Bwanaba, would you please provide Count Wenzengrode with the trade data on iron goods between France and Württemberg?"

"Yes, sir."

Joseph Bwanaba immediately produced a few sheets of documents and politely placed them in front of the Württemberg delegate. He thoughtfully explained, "Your Excellency, if you’ll take a look—over the past five years, France’s average annual export of iron goods to Württemberg has been just 110,000 livres, with an average price of 16 sous per item.

"Meanwhile, the average price of domestically produced iron goods in Württemberg is 14.8 sous. In other words, French iron goods pose virtually no competition in your market."

Before the advent of technological innovation, iron smelting techniques across Europe were fairly uniform. And France, lacking abundant iron resources, had no advantage over smaller nations.

Count Wenzengrode was stunned. He had no idea about these detailed figures and couldn't imagine how the French had gathered such data.

In truth, as soon as Joseph began planning to expand into the German principalities, he had sent agents to investigate their industries and trade environments—spending hundreds of thousands of livres in the process.

Thus, this trade draft was anything but random. He had ensured that every tariff proposed was within acceptable limits for each country.

In future trade negotiations, it would be standard to conduct vast amounts of commercial research beforehand. But in the 18th century, people still acted on intuition, with no concept of such preparation—leaving them at a clear disadvantage during talks.

Joseph Bwanaba smiled and pointed to the next page. "Here is a survey conducted among 200 Württemberg residents. Only seven expressed a willingness to purchase French iron goods. So you really have nothing to worry about regarding your domestic ironworks."

Count Wenzengrode stared in disbelief at the signed survey sheets. They looked genuine.

He was at a loss for words and sat down in frustration.

Next, the Bavarians raised similar concerns about tariffs on French chemical products.

Bailly repeated the tactic—this time, having the official in charge of Bavarian trade research present extensive data to Pomenthal, demonstrating that a 15% tariff was more than sufficient to protect their chemical industry.

In this way, the negotiations continued into the third day. France used data to make its case and backed its arguments with surveys, successfully preventing any major changes to the tariffs on its exports.

Austria, on the other hand, gradually caved in to pressure from the smaller states, allowing them to raise their tariffs significantly.

Then, on the fifth day of negotiations, Bailly smiled and presented a new clause—on the "free navigation of inland waterways"...

...

Vienna.

Schönbrunn Palace.

Emperor Joseph II frowned weakly at his brother and asked, "Are you saying that Paris hasn’t confirmed anything about the marriage alliance?"

Leopold II responded grimly with a nod. "Antoinette’s letter made no mention whatsoever of the engagement. Your Majesty, you know full well—Clementine even lived in Paris for a whole year. For them to act this way is nothing short of an insult to the House of Habsburg!"

Emperor Joseph II was silent for a long time. At last, he sighed deeply and said, "It must be that our sister considered Clementine too young, and unable to bear children, so she made this decision."

It wasn’t without precedent. Even Louis XV had once been engaged to a Spanish princess, but due to her young age and inability to bear children, she was ultimately sent back to Spain.

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