I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 426 Tunisia Development

Just when Camelia was so nervous that she didn't know what to do, Perna, who had been hiding at the end of the corridor and peeking, saw the girl who was so beautiful that made her heart tremble run out of the Crown Prince's bedroom, and then returned to her own room. She waited for a long time before finally breathing a sigh of relief.

She didn't know why she did this. Anyway, ever since the girl named Camelia appeared, she had inexplicably felt a sense of crisis in her heart.

Especially as a personal doctor, she had not ridden in the same car with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince for a long time - His Royal Highness often worked in the car, and Mr. Emmans said that would affect His Royal Highness - and on the way out of Vienna, Camelia was always in His Royal Highness's car.

Perna turned around and pressed her back against the wall, silently shaking her head. No, she shouldn't have any other thoughts. But the next moment, the handsome face of the crown prince occupied her mind.

"Perhaps, I should be braver, otherwise His Highness will be..."

She seemed to be frightened by her own words. She suddenly shuddered and hurriedly lowered her head and fled back to her room, saying in her heart: God, please give me guidance!
From the next day, Joseph unexpectedly discovered that Dr. Perna seemed to be constantly finding excuses to stay around him.

After he coughed a few times, she even said she wanted to check whether her pneumonia had recurred and stayed in her carriage.

The carriage became a little crowded. Finally, Emand got out of the carriage reluctantly and followed the prince's carriage on horseback.

In the carriage, Joseph began to busy himself with a report on Tunisia's immigration policy. The two girls greeted each other politely, and then bowed their heads in silence.

In this strange atmosphere, Perna was so embarrassed that she could dig out a Versailles Palace with her toes, but she still gritted her teeth and insisted on sitting there, occasionally stealing a glance at the charming demeanor of the Crown Prince when he was seriously handling government affairs.

In this way, Joseph, under the protection of the two girls, finally made the bumpy journey to Paris without any "accident".

Perna didn't become "brave" after all, and Camelia still couldn't find the "trick".

Joseph was well taken care of, and he took Camelia to the Petit Trianon Palace in high spirits to report to his mother.

Queen Marie hugged Madame Delvaux's granddaughter, tears flowing like a stream, and then announced that Camelia would be her third maid.

However, Countess de Berninac immediately warned that Miss Delvaux's background was not suitable for being a maid to Her Majesty the Queen.

In the end, Queen Mary had to obey the palace rules and let Camellia become her maid so that she could stay by her side [Note 1].

When Joseph came out from his mother's house and arrived at the door of his own bedroom, he saw Brian waiting there.

The latter came forward from a distance, saluted him and said:

Your Highness, congratulations on your important diplomatic achievements in Vienna. Our alliance with Austria has been further deepened."

"This is all thanks to God." Joseph crossed himself skillfully and motioned the chief minister to come in. "Do you have any urgent business? Oh, please sit down and talk."

Brian nodded quickly and said:
"Yes, Your Highness. It's in Tunisia. The 'Tunisia Trade and Construction Plan' you formulated earlier has begun to be implemented, but due to the behavior of certain tribes, we have encountered some troubles."

Joseph frowned slightly when he heard this. After Moreau and Ney defended Tamirai, Scherer's Corps drove the Moroccan army back to Algiers, and Tunisia's security environment was greatly improved.

Later, under the government's propaganda, France started the second wave of Tunisia's development boom. Tens of thousands of commercial and agricultural immigrants flocked to Tunisia, showing signs of economic boom there. So Joseph prepared in advance and made a decree to cancel local tariffs and tolls between various parts of Tunisia, reduce commercial taxes, and start infrastructure construction such as widening roads and laying wooden tracks.

In Tunisia's political landscape, tribal forces dominate villages and towns. Previously, there was a problem of tribes refusing to pay taxes, which Joseph resolved with the "Versailles" model. Why did they cause trouble again this time?
He looked at Brian and said, "Please tell me the details."

“Yes, Your Highness,” Brian nodded, “The main problem is that the larger tribes do not allow certain foreign goods to enter the villages and towns.

“At the same time, almost all tribes are still charging high ‘security fees’ on the roads they control.

"In addition, they often extort merchants and farmers who come to open up the land."

He looked bitter. "You know, Tunisia's army is insufficient and can only be stationed near large cities. It is powerless to govern these tribes that are far away. Moreover, even if we send troops to deter them, they will say they will obey the law in person, and they will immediately return to the status quo after the troops leave."

Joseph's expression also became solemn.

Not to mention North Africa in the 18th century, even in the 21st century, it is difficult for governments of many countries to effectively manage local forces.

Especially for a tribe, which is a force maintained by blood ties, it is very difficult for external forces to intervene.

The Tunisian tribes were relatively accepting of taxation, which had existed since the Phoenician era, but now they were beginning to resist when they were asked not to charge random fees or allow goods to circulate freely.

Joseph originally planned to use Tunisia as a pilot to test local tax reforms, and then promote them in France. Unexpectedly, he encountered such great resistance.

Brian said carefully: "Your Highness, do you think we should implement the decree in the big cities first, and then expand the scope after the Tunisians are used to it."

Joseph immediately shook his head. He was still waiting for Tunisia's dividends to feed back to the French treasury. If he continued to do it this way, it might not be possible to promote it in ten or eight years.

This will also make the Tunisian tribes realize that the government cannot do anything to them, and any new laws in the future will still encounter various obstacles.

He couldn't help but fall into deep thought. Fundamentally, the reason why local forces disobeyed government management was transportation and communications.

The poor roads and the little contact between tribes and the outside world will inevitably form an independent "small world". Only when they have more exchanges with the outside world and form interest relations can they integrate into the whole country.

This requires building roads as soon as possible, but building infrastructure across Tunisia is not something that can be accomplished overnight.

The next step is to significantly increase the number of troops or police, and use the violent machine to monitor and intimidate the tribes at all times so that they dare not disobey the law.

But this would require a huge amount of money. Maintaining a military of more than 100,000 in Tunisia might solve the problem, but most of the tax revenue would be eaten up by military expenses.

Joseph was stunned when he thought of this. Wait, if you want to use the army to intimidate the tribe, you don’t have to station the army near the tribe...

[Note 1]: The queen's maid is a palace official position, usually held by nobles of high status and close to the queen. They can take walks with the queen, play games, etc. A maid is a simple servant who can only stand at the door.

(End of this chapter)