I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 386 The Inexperienced Crown Prince
Palace of Versailles.

In front of the Petit Trianon Palace, thousands of nobles looked at the balcony of Queen Marie's tea room on the second floor, and cried out sadly from time to time, "Your Majesty, are you going to abandon us?"

"Please take a look at your loyal servants, they are begging for a little mercy from you."

"Your Majesty, we just need the most humble traditional income that has not changed for hundreds of years..."

"Your Majesty, please have mercy..."

Since the land redemption plan was officially announced yesterday, it took these nobles less than a day to connect with each other and start a massive petition.

Behind these more than a thousand petitioning nobles, there are even more pairs of eyes staring at this place. Once Her Majesty the Queen shows signs of softening her attitude, they will immediately come to reinforce.

They were able to unite like this because the redemption plan really touched their interests.

According to the plan, the cost of the peasants' redemption of the eight-year annual tribute would be paid to the original owner of the land.

Although this was much better than the previously rumored two-year redemption plan, and was reluctantly accepted by those nobles with other sources of income, many "poor" nobles still began to worry about their source of livelihood.

In Queen Marie's reception room, there were several noblemen who complained to her pitifully, even the king's brother, Count Artois, was among them.

Queen Marie kept trying to comfort them, but she was finally unable to do anything. She signaled to her maid, De Berninac, and whispered, "Please go find the Dauphin. Oh, don't let him come here. Go to the study and wait for me."

She guessed that her son was probably eager to quell the riot, so he was too biased towards the peasants in the redemption plan, which aroused criticism from the nobles.

She needed to discuss the plan with her son first, and then find a way to compensate the nobles.

It is normal for young people to make mistakes when doing things. Otherwise, what are parents for? Now it is time for me to help my son clean up the mess!

Countess de Berninac had just left the reception room for more than 10 minutes when she returned and whispered in the Queen's ear, "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is back."

The carriage slowly stopped in the marble courtyard. As soon as Joseph opened the door, he heard the noise of the sea waves coming from the direction of the Petit Trianon Palace.

He just smiled calmly. This situation was expected long ago. It would be abnormal if the nobles did not make a fuss.

Mirabeau, who had been looking forward to it, came forward immediately. Behind him was a monk in his fifties wearing a black robe. He was none other than Beaumont, the Archbishop of Paris.

The two men saluted Joseph one after another, and then followed his footsteps towards the Petit Trianon Palace.

"Is everything ready on your side?" Joseph turned and looked at Mirabeau.

"Yes, your highness, make sure everything goes well."

"You did a great job." Joseph nodded and asked, "How many people came to the homes of the more than 300 'prodigal sons'?"

"At least one person from each family was present. Among them was an influential person like Count Ornes."

"Well, I'm relieved about that."

Joseph turned to Archbishop Beaumont and said, "Thank you for coming all the way here in person."

The latter waved his hands with a smile on his face: "I will take your instructions seriously. Moreover, the things you said are also what the church should do..."

It would not be possible to get the old nobles to accept the land redemption plan by simply relying on the pressure from the royal family, and it was even more impossible to support them with the national treasury. Joseph knew very well that to play politics, he had to have as many of his own people as possible.

His most solid political team was undoubtedly the capitalist aristocracy. So as soon as he returned from Luxembourg, he instructed Mirabeau to secretly contact important figures of the capitalist aristocracy to prepare for supporting the land redemption plan.

Moreover, according to his arrangement, the redemption plan was of great benefit to big capital. Mirabeau simply called a meeting and many people responded immediately.

As for the church, Joseph had not touched the church's cake in order to reduce the resistance to land policy. So this time, facing the pressure from the old nobles, the church naturally had to do its part.

Likewise, he would not let the church work in vain.

If you want others to work hard for you, using profit as a motivator is undoubtedly the most effective way.

The three of them chatted in low voices and soon came to the open space in front of the vegetable garden of the Petit Trianon Palace.

Of course, the place was not empty at all at this time. Some nobles who came to petition were even squeezed and stepped on the vegetables of Her Majesty the Queen.

The nobles immediately noticed Joseph and his party, and someone immediately shouted to him, "Your Highness, please help us persuade Her Majesty the Queen to revise the land redemption policy."

Joseph pushed through the crowd and quickly walked to the stone steps in front of the main entrance of the Petit Trianon Palace. He smiled at them and said, "In fact, I was the one who drafted the land redemption plan. I don't think there is anything that needs to be modified."

As soon as Queen Marie walked onto the balcony, she heard her son's words from below, and immediately thought to herself that something was not going well. Joseph was still too inexperienced. For something like this that caused dissatisfaction among the nobles, he should have put the blame on Brian and others first, and then he could mediate. It seemed that he had to come forward and help him make amends...

As expected, there was an immediate commotion among the petitioning nobles.

Someone immediately turned his attention to Joseph: "Your Highness, the nobility is the foundation of France, you can't abandon us like this!"

"You are being so unfair to us!"

Joseph looked around at everyone, still smiling: "No, I always follow the teachings of His Majesty the King and never forget you."

One noble shouted, "Your Highness, your ransom plan will make our lives hopeless!"

"Of course not." Joseph said in the man's direction, "In fact, you will be richer than before!"

The noise of the nobles became louder. The prince was insulting everyone's intelligence. The annual tribute would stop after 8 years. How could they possibly become richer?
Joseph said slowly: "Don't just focus on the land itself, there is not much profit.

“You need to look further ahead. Once farmers have farmland, they will certainly cultivate it more diligently than before, and the output will be greater.

"And the farmers wanted to increase production, but they didn't have enough livestock and fertilizer, let alone repair water conservancy projects. Oh, you should know that the most common steam pump costs 6 livres.

“In addition, advanced farming techniques are also very difficult to master, which requires someone to teach them.

“The crops grown also need to be transported to big cities for sale. Even if farmers know that the price of grain in Lyon is 40% higher than in Tours, they cannot afford to transport the grain there.”

He paused, letting the nobles digest what he had just said, and then continued: "So, they need someone to help them do this.

"Of course, this cannot be done by one or two people. It requires a company, a large-scale company!"

(End of this chapter)