I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 433: The Franc and the Gold Standard
When the people in the Bastille Square heard that there was a monetary regulatory department, and that banks and chambers of commerce were involved, their concerns were immediately reduced to a large extent, and they began to nod and talk.

In fact, Joseph has absolute control over this regulatory meeting. The royal family and financial officials will speak according to his requirements. He is still the largest shareholder of the French Reserve Bank. Even the French Chamber of Commerce, which is currently controlled by the capitalist aristocracy, still follows his lead.

So he basically has the final say on monetary policy. This is not to establish a monopoly - at present, his financial ideas are more than 200 years ahead of the world, and it is better for him to do it in one step rather than letting current economists try randomly.

Of course, this regulatory agency will have to be standardized in the future to form a scientific and effective monetary management system. After all, he will get old one day, and it is impossible for him to rely on his "great prophecy" to manage finance forever.

The reporters present were writing with their pens flying and the crowd was talking. Although they knew that the government had announced an important economic policy, no one realized that this would be a landmark moment for the French economy.

The series of monetary policies announced by Joseph were the gold standard system that has been regarded as the golden standard by all the powerful countries in the world since the mid-19th century.

For ordinary people, it seems that they can only use paper money to buy things, and the previous livre is still used as usual. Nothing is different.

However, from the perspective of the entire country, the underlying logic of currency and economy has changed.

After this, all French currencies were denominated in gold.

The livre could be used for trading not because of its silver coin properties, but because the French government stipulated that 1 livre could be exchanged for 0.3 grams of gold.

In other words, if the French Treasury announced that the livre could no longer be exchanged for gold, then people would have to sell their silver coins as silver for francs in order to circulate them.

This may seem commonplace to people in the 21st century who are accustomed to relatively stable currencies and mature exchange rate systems, but in the 18th century, it was an innovation that was enough to significantly improve the national economic environment!
You have to know that in this era, there was almost no concept of national legal tender. Whether it was livres, florins, ducats, or North African rials, or Ottoman akçes, as long as you had real gold and silver, they could circulate freely in the French market. Even pound notes were accepted because they could be exchanged for gold coins at the Bank of England.

So you can imagine how chaotic trade was at that time.

For example, someone said that this batch of goods should be paid in ducats, but when I paid, I found that half of it was in riyals and some écu. Okay, don't do anything else today, just convert it slowly.

Different places have different exchange rates for different currencies. For example, in the provinces along the Mediterranean coast, 1 riyal can be exchanged for 22 livres, after all, it can be used directly to buy things from North Africa. But in northern France, it may only be worth 20 livres and 10 sous - purely based on its gold content.

As a result, southern merchants were extremely reluctant to sell goods to the north. Even two towns not far from each other were reluctant to do business with each other because they used different currencies. This seriously affected the country's commercial operations.

Don't underestimate this impact. Business relies on the circulation of money and goods. If the circulation is slightly blocked, the trade volume will be cut in half again, not to mention the situation where there are blockages everywhere.

In addition, the gold standard can eliminate things like currency wear and tear, undervalued currency, and the impact of fluctuations in the exchange rate between gold and silver on the value of currency.

At present, in the whole world, except for the United Kingdom, which has implemented some gold standard models under the leadership of Newton, yes, the Lord Newton with Apple A as the head, all other countries still use precious metals for transactions.

It was Newton's operation that made Britain's business environment the best in Europe. Coupled with their excellent tax policies, it paved the way for them to build the British Empire. Now, Joseph is about to introduce a complete version of the gold standard system to France. The crown of the best business environment in Europe may soon change hands.

In addition, the implementation of the gold standard gave the government more ability to regulate the financial market, and the exchange rate was very stable. Therefore, until the 20s, many countries were still using the gold standard.

Joseph had been planning to implement the gold standard for a long time, and the reason he chose this time point was also well considered.

First of all, France has recently gained a large number of overseas markets. According to the news sent back last week, Moreau and Ney's army has completely controlled the city of Tripoli and continued to march eastward.

70% of Tripoli's population is concentrated in Tripoli and its surrounding areas, and the eastern part is relatively desolate. Moro and his men should not encounter any decent resistance. It is estimated that they should have arrived in the eastern area of ​​​​Surte by now [Note 1].

Together with the Annaba region of Tunisia and Algiers, France now has a solid foothold in central North Africa. Although these places are not large in area, they are all fertile and rich in resources. They are also transit points for Mediterranean trade, with a considerable trade volume.

In addition, in the Wallonia region of the Southern Netherlands, French investment has recently begun to take shape, with a large number of coal mining and refining companies established. Moreover, as a rich European region, its economic capacity is almost equal to that of the entire Tunisia.

At the same time, after more than a year of continuous promotion by Joseph, France's industrial development had also achieved remarkable results.

At present, Lyon has more than 200 automatic looms and nearly 3000 spindles, and the number is still increasing. With the supply of New Zealand wool and Russian cotton, the cost of textiles in Lyon has been reduced to about 120% of that of the British.

You should know that this figure was at least 150% a year ago. If you take into account France's fashion appeal and advantages in style design, Lyon's textiles can already snatch a large piece of meat from the UK in Europe.

There are also winemaking industries in Bordeaux and Champagne, steel and steam engine industries in Nancy, papermaking, luxury goods, and machinery industries in Paris, etc., which have all made great progress. Gas lamps, chemicals, furniture and other industries are also waiting to be "put online".

There are now a large number of factories and immigrants waiting eagerly for funding.

Joseph could take advantage of this opportunity and let the bank issue a large amount of banknotes as loans.

Afterwards, the factories will use these francs to buy equipment and raw materials, or to pay workers’ wages, while immigrants will use them to buy daily necessities from locals, or to hire locals.

In this way, it won't be long before the franc's popularity reaches a very high level.

【Note 1】At the end of the 18th century, the relatively rich Benghazi region was still under the control of the Egyptian Mamluks, so it did not belong to Tripoli. The territory of Tripoli ended at Surt to the west of Benghazi, and the area was not very large.

(End of this chapter)