The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 118

Chapter 118: The Old Nobles with Unyielding Hearts

As the ships loaded with potatoes from Metz, Lorraine, and other regions began their journey south, Joseph was in his office at the Royal Industrial Planning Bureau in Paris, flipping through a thick stack of reports.

A fifty-something official, his face marked with numerous smallpox scars and wearing glasses, stood quietly to the side.

He was the Agricultural Financial Affairs Commissioner, under the Ministry of Finance, and these reports were the ones he had just delivered.

The contents of the documents were the numbers of manor owners and farmers from various provinces who had agreed to plant potatoes, along with their proposed planting area figures.

Because the Minister of Finance, Brienne, was currently in Caen negotiating trade with the British, these files had been sent to Joseph, the Deputy Minister of Finance. Normally, such matters would be handled by the Minister of the Interior, but Brienne and Joseph had both agreed that the promotion of potatoes was too important to let someone like Morneau—who had the ability to twist things—interfere too much.

Joseph had barely made it halfway through the files when his brows began to furrow.

Despite launching an intensive public relations campaign nationwide to promote potatoes—including spending over forty or fifty thousand livres on pamphlets—the results were far from optimistic. The church had been relatively cooperative, with churches across the country sending out copies of the updated "Last Supper" to their parishes, encouraging people to see potatoes not as "the devil from the earth" but as "a gift from the Lord."

However, the willingness to plant potatoes across the regions was discouraging.

Outside the northern regions of Lille, Valenciennes, and those provinces near the Rhine River, where acceptance of potatoes was relatively high, the amount of land willing to switch to potatoes was less than 2% of the total arable land...

As Joseph flipped through more reports, he saw that the further south he went, the more resistance there was. By the time he reached regions like Foix and Béarn, near Spain, it seemed almost no one wanted to grow potatoes.

This was far from what he had anticipated. If only 2% of the land was used for potatoes, it would hardly do anything to prevent droughts or hailstorms.

Suddenly, Joseph noticed a new issue in the reports. He quickly re-read the sections about the groups willing to adopt potato cultivation and then looked up at the Agricultural Financial Affairs Commissioner. "Viscount Nassien, why are there so few large manor owners willing to plant potatoes?"

The vast majority of those willing to switch were self-sustaining farmers, with a few feudal farmers, and fewer than twenty estates across the country were willing to dedicate any land to potato cultivation. The owners of these estates were Duchess of Villars, Count Morneau, and others.

Nassien hesitated for a moment before bowing slightly. "Your Highness, from what I’ve heard, the estate owners are discussing that they will only consider planting potatoes if the land tax is reduced."

Upon hearing this, Joseph’s eyes narrowed. These estate owners were the land-owning nobles.

He had thought that the land tax issue had been settled, but it seemed these old nobles were still not giving up, trying to use resistance to government policy as leverage to negotiate lower taxes.

A reduction in land tax was out of the question. Once that door was opened, not only would the nobles demand more, using all kinds of threats to pressure the government for tax cuts, but it would also severely undermine royal authority.

Nassien added, "Your Highness, also, since potatoes can be consumed directly and don’t need to be ground into flour, their cultivation would directly affect the income of the mills. So..."

Joseph nodded silently.

According to current French law, ordinary tenant farmers were required to take their grain to mills for grinding and pay a "mill tax." The owners of these mills were also the old nobles. The mill tax provided a significant income for them.

Given these various factors, it was no surprise that the nobles were strongly resisting potatoes.

Joseph’s frown deepened. He hadn’t anticipated such resistance to his potato plan even before it had begun to take off.

These old nobles held vast amounts of land and controlled many tenant farmers, relying on feudal privileges to exploit them. They were the biggest obstacle to industrialization. At the same time, they kept obstructing government policies and interfering with national development. They were a huge menace!

To resolve France’s problems and develop the economy, it was essential to eliminate this parasitic class of old nobles.

Joseph sighed deeply. It was still too early to think of drastic solutions. One step at a time—first, the most urgent issue was how to deal with the famine and keep the country from descending into chaos.

Relying solely on purchased grain was far from enough; the potato cultivation had to be spread across the entire country.

But how could he break through the power of the old nobles?

Nassien carefully reminded, "Your Highness, the first batch of potatoes to Bordeaux has already departed. Given the current planting enthusiasm, should we consider reducing the amount for the subsequent batches?"

Joseph’s thoughts were interrupted as he heard the mention of "Bordeaux." An idea suddenly sparked in his mind.

The people of Bordeaux cared most about one thing: winemaking. It was not only the backbone industry of the region but also a crucial export for all of France, generating enormous yearly revenue.

Currently, the "pasteurization" technique had not been invented, so Bordeaux’s wine industry suffered significant losses every year due to lactic acid bacteria contamination—sometimes as much as a quarter of their wine was ruined. Even the wine that managed to be produced often had a slight sour taste, drastically reducing its quality.

If Joseph could offer a solution to the souring of Bordeaux’s wine, all the vineyard owners there would surely go wild with gratitude. At that point, he could make a few requests, such as asking them to plant potatoes, and he was certain they would not refuse.

Spring sowing was fast approaching, and there was no time to lose. With this thought in mind, Joseph immediately stood up and addressed Eymond, "Please prepare everything. We need to depart for Bordeaux as quickly as possible."

"Bordeaux?" Eymond was momentarily stunned, then bowed and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Joseph then looked at Nassien. "Send a notice to the northeastern provinces to continue shipping potatoes south. No reductions in the quantity."

As Eymond prepared to leave, Joseph made a quick trip to Versailles Palace to find the newly appointed Minister of Justice, Baron Bréteuil. He entrusted him with recommending Berthier to the Minister of War.

Joseph had asked Bréteuil to handle the matter in order to keep the connection between Berthier and the royal family discreet and avoid the possibility of military nobles rejecting him.

...

The next morning, a convoy of seven or eight carriages, escorted by over sixty guards led by Kessold, departed Paris and headed south toward France.

In the Crown Prince’s carriage, Perna sat across from Joseph, diligently taking notes and occasionally asking questions.

Joseph was explaining the function of red blood cells—although he had only learned a little about it from popular science videos, it was cutting-edge medical knowledge for the late 18th century.

Yes, Perna, the doctor, had learned that the Crown Prince was heading to Bordeaux, and immediately expressed concern about the cold weather, which could aggravate lung diseases, so she volunteered to accompany him south.

Joseph felt a little guilty for affecting her circulation lessons, so he casually chatted with her about basic medical knowledge.

This, however, would be tough on Dr. Lamarck—when they returned, his daughter would surely scold him, saying, "A lot of what you taught about circulation was wrong!"

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