The Crown Prince of France - Chapter 97

Chapter 97: Enormous Pressure

Di Boer sighed but did not rebut Liao. On the matter of opposing the Supreme Court, their positions were aligned.

However, the situation was stronger than the individual.

He glanced toward the door. The representatives of the Supreme Court were in the room across, shaking their heads as they spoke, "But no one imagined it would turn out like Count Vezinier's case..."

Before he could finish, several key officials and councilors' pupils contracted.

Just now, the Supreme Court's people had delivered a message, stating that, due to the strong demand of the people of Paris, His Majesty the King was considering a retrial of all major cases handled by the High Court in recent years.

Inside the High Court, systemic corruption had taken root. In other words, as long as one served as a judge there, it was impossible to avoid being entangled in corruption.

The people present knew their own hands were just as unclean as Vezinier's!

And they could not stop the retrial—at the moment, the people of Paris were in an uproar. As soon as the Supreme Court shouted, they could immediately summon thousands of people to surround the court, just like what had happened to Vezinier.

After a long while, it was still Di Boer who led, raising his hand helplessly. His expression serious as he said, "Register it."

His stance, however, differed slightly from the others. The Supreme Court had told him earlier that after the bill passed, they would fully support him in taking the position of Chief Justice of the High Court.

Of course, this was also Joseph’s suggestion. The more desperate the opponent seemed, the more important it was to play both sides, preventing them from destroying each other completely.

So, for Di Boer, even though the powers of the High Court would be greatly restricted in the future, his personal power would be compensated by the position of Chief Justice, and he could just about accept this.

Judge Vadié sighed deeply and raised his right hand. "I agree. Let’s end this quickly…"

Gleit and Aural reluctantly raised their hands as well.

Thus, the judges reluctantly passed the bill granting the royal Supreme Court the power to supervise the High Court.

As for the clause in the bill that proposed to abolish the High Court's authority over the press censorship agency, they barely noticed it—when the ox is dead, who still cares about a few hairs on the ground?

What was most surprising was that this highly significant bill had not stirred any ripples in the aristocratic circles.

From the nobles' perspective, the High Court was still the High Court, and the Nobility Assembly was still the Nobility Assembly—nothing seemed to change.

Oh, there was a new royal Supreme Court? Wasn’t that just the old Royal Full Authority Court? It had been around for more than a century...

In stark contrast to the nobles' indifferent reaction, the common people of Paris were extremely excited. The accumulated resentment toward the High Court was vented through Vezinier.

For several days, cries of "Long live the King! Long live the Full Authority Court!" echoed through the streets.

"Execute the shameless judges!"

Especially those who had been victims of Vezinier, who spread news of the King’s mercy and wisdom, praising the Full Authority Court for punishing the villains.

Soon, under the leadership of the Paris Business Gazette, articles such as "The Glorious Victory of His Majesty the Great King" and "The King's Just Ruling" began to appear in various Parisian newspapers.

Public opinion of the monarchy had started to shift for the first time.

...

Palace of Versailles.

When Joseph heard that the Supreme Court bill had passed, he wasn’t surprised.

Given the current situation, the High Court had no choice but to accept the bill.

However, with the High Court's hindrance removed, he felt much lighter. Finally, he could spread his wings and focus on more important matters.

Speaking of important matters, he immediately thought of the upcoming great famine and felt a headache coming on.

With over 20 million people in France, if the grain shortage was calculated at 30%, it would be a terrifying number. Moreover, he remembered that the poor harvest would continue until early 1790.

Joseph looked out of the tall arched floor-to-ceiling windows at the snowflakes drifting down. It was already mid-January.

There were only six and a half months left before the famine would explode in July. How could they possibly secure enough grain...

He had some ideas before, but the closer the issue came, the more he realized it was still far from enough.

For example, purchasing grain from abroad would require a huge sum of money. With France’s current financial situation, there was no spare cash available for such a purchase.

And to store that much grain, they would need storage facilities and also precautions against grain looting in the hardest times.

From what he had recently learned about the grain market, even buying from abroad wouldn’t be enough to fill France’s gap.

This was under the assumption that the grain market remained stable. If unscrupulous merchants took advantage of the situation, the gap would be even larger.

As for preventing hail in advance… Historical records indicated that the hail this year was as large as a grown man’s fist. Unless crops were covered in steel armor, there was no way to prevent it.

Joseph, thinking of the funds needed for purchasing grain, again thought of France’s financial situation.

Before he took charge of the finances, the burden hadn’t been so obvious, but now those billions weighed like a mountain on his chest, making it hard to breathe just thinking about it.

His carefully managed Paris Angel Company was now being sold off in full, and at most it would fetch 10 million livres, meaning he would need 200 such companies to fill this giant hole!

He couldn’t help but take a deep breath, hoping to relieve the pressure on his chest.

So to resolve the debt issue, it would have to fall on the Industrial Revolution.

On one hand, the massive industrial products generated by the Industrial Revolution would bring enormous economic benefits, directly filling the fiscal gap.

On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution would also significantly boost national power, leading to greater profits from war and overseas colonies, which would, in turn, feed back into industry, creating a positive cycle.

In fact, Britain faced a serious debt crisis in the early 19th century, and their situation wasn’t any better than France’s now, but they managed to break the deadlock by relying on the benefits of the Industrial Revolution.

Joseph picked up his warm teacup and took a sip. To push for industrial development, he would first need to gain control of the national industrial policy.

He couldn’t help but shake his head. France didn’t even have an industrial department, with the Minister of the Interior handling industry. With someone like Morneau, there was no hope for a successful Industrial Revolution.

But fortunately, he had recently gotten a few cards to play and could negotiate with Morneau to have him hand over the industrial sector.

Nightfall.

At the ball that was never lacking at the Palace of Versailles.

Joseph forced himself through a large group of young women, finally squeezing to Morneau’s side, urgently grabbing his arm.

The young girls had initially thought the Crown Prince was going to invite someone to dance, but now they saw him clutching the Minister of the Interior’s arm, with strange expressions appearing on their faces...

Table of content - Next Chapter >>>