I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 475: Honest Person
Second floor of the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph watched Brian's back disappear, then looked at the annual financial report on the table, and couldn't help shaking his head and sighing.

Although France's industry and agriculture are currently booming, the growth rate of France's debt has increased significantly again after a brief decline at the beginning of last year.

Total fiscal revenue last year was 5 million francs, an increase of 8 million francs over the previous year.

But at the same time, expenditures also surged to 5 million, plus the annual fixed interest on national debt of nearly 4 million francs, the deficit was as high as more than 1 million!
As of the beginning of this year, France's total debt has reached a historical high of 22 billion francs.

Of course, the situation is much better than the historical debt of nearly 1790 billion francs in 30. And the increase in debt last year was mainly due to large-scale investment in Wallonia in North Africa, Luxembourg and the Southern Netherlands, especially in infrastructure construction, which not only cost a lot of money, but also did not see any benefits in the short term.

In addition, the wars in North Africa, the Southern Netherlands and Silesia were also big spenders. According to the financial data submitted by Brian, last year's military expenditure exceeded 4 million francs!

This is even more terrifying because Austria bore a large amount of the expenses of the last two wars. Otherwise, the figure would be even more terrifying.

In addition, due to the food shortage last year, the country's strategic grain reserves were consumed in large quantities, and huge investments were needed to replenish the grain reserves. After all, until 1795, the climate in Europe was not very stable. Although there was no famine as severe as the hail last year, small-scale harvest failures still occurred frequently, so we had to be prepared.

This cost nearly 10 million francs to purchase food.

In summary, if there had been no war and no stockpiling of food, the long-awaited balance of revenue and expenditure should have been achieved.

But Joseph was not at ease at all.

Because he knew very well that many of his previous reforms were based on eroding the interests of the nobility. Especially the old nobility, from their control over the national economy to various privileges, to feudal rents and taxes, almost all of them were cut off.

The reason why there is no major turmoil in French society at present is that the profits from the "Industrial Development Fund" and the "King's Fund" are used to stabilize the nobles.

Once the income of these funds is insufficient, the old aristocracy will be dissatisfied, and the accumulated resentment towards the royal family will burst out. As for the result, although it will not be like Austria where the reform was abandoned halfway, after all, the capital aristocracy group has already reached a certain scale, it is entirely possible that the country's development will stagnate or even regress for a few years.

Among these, the profitability of the Industrial Development Fund is particularly important.

According to Joseph's original plan, with the help of the dividends of the Industrial Revolution, the return on investment in industry should be above 30%. After industrialization begins to show results, this figure can even reach 200%!

In history, Britain took advantage of this wave of take-off and built the British Empire.

With such income, it is entirely feasible to incorporate the old aristocracy into the overall national industrialization and achieve the transition from land aristocracy to capital aristocracy.

However, France's current industrial yield rate is less than 10%, and this was achieved only with the help of a lot of "black technology" by Joseph.

After all, France's current social system is still that of the feudal era. From the tax system to administrative management, it has seriously hindered industrial development.

Joseph couldn't help but shook his head and smiled bitterly: "In fact, a thorough revolution is the simplest and most effective solution."

The British took advantage of the Glorious Revolution to develop a complete set of political and economic models suitable for industrial development. Take the tax reform that is giving him the most headaches. Historically, France fired all tax farmers and nationalized the tax they paid. This was a simple and crude solution to the problem. Yes, that's right, it was the work of the Jacobins.

But Joseph had to do the same thing while maintaining national stability, which was many times more difficult.

To abolish the tax-farmer system, there are two key difficulties: money and people.

In terms of money, it would be best if the tax farmers could lend the original tax money to the government in the form of a loan and charge some interest. In this way, the government can gradually repay the money with the taxes it receives in the future.

Of course, Joseph knew that most tax farmers would not agree to lend money. After all, you are touching their cake and you still expect them to cooperate with you?
So first of all, we need to get a large amount of funds to support fiscal expenditures. It is estimated that at least 2 million francs will be needed.

The second is people. Tax officials are the most vulnerable to corruption. Louis XIV was so frustrated by tax corruption that he had no choice but to adopt the tax farmer system.

Joseph took out the previously prepared tax reform planning document from the drawer and began to revise it carefully.

At this moment, outside the house, there was a sound of Herman knocking on the door: "Your Highness, Mr. Robespierre is here."

Joseph immediately smiled and said, "Please let him in."

The door opened, and a blond, slightly plump young man followed Emman into the room. He glanced at Joseph nervously, then immediately touched his chest and saluted: "It is an honor to be summoned by you, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Joseph stood up and gestured to the sofa: "I'm glad to see you, too. Please take a seat."

After solving the Chartres inheritance lawsuit last time, Robespierre did not go to work in the Notarial Investigation Bureau. Instead, he used the influence of the case to become a trainee prosecutor at the Paris High Court.

Robespierre sat down awkwardly and asked hurriedly, "Your Highness, how can I help you?"

Joseph immediately coughed lightly and said in a very serious tone: "Mr. Robespierre, are you willing to fight desperately for France, for His Majesty the King, and for all the people, even in the face of great dangers?"

He prepared several opening remarks, but finally decided that this most immature one might be more suitable for Robespierre.

Sure enough, the latter immediately stood up again excitedly, nodded vigorously and said: "Yes, Your Highness, I am willing to sacrifice my life for France!"

"Very good." Joseph continued, "You are the most noble and incorruptible person I know, so only you can accomplish this task."

Robespierre did not expect that the Dauphin would have such a high opinion of him. He felt dizzy and said without hesitation: "Please give me your orders. I will never let you down!"

Joseph maintained a solemn expression: "I hope you can serve as the Inspector General of the newly established National Tax Bureau."

Joseph knew that if there was only one official in France who was not corrupt, that person must be Robespierre.

(End of this chapter)