I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 485 Royal University of French Administration

It's getting dark.

The Dauphin's carriage finally left France's No. 1 prison.

Joseph sat in the car, looking at the list of more than 30 officials in his hand, smiled, and threw it to Emman:

"Please put it in the storage cabinet in the study for me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Joseph did not want this list to purge officials.

Although the people on the list are involved in corruption and malfeasance, they have not stood up to oppose tax reform. So at least for now, it is not appropriate to touch them.

This is how politics works. The scope of the crackdown must be focused, so that officials know whether they are safe. In this way, people who are not involved will distance themselves from the target of the crackdown and support the royal family.

If the political purge spreads indefinitely, officials will panic and resort to various means to protect themselves, which may eventually lead to political turmoil.

However, it is entirely possible to use this list to give the bureaucrats a warning.

If you don't hurt these big shots who abuse their power, they will easily forget who they are and who is the boss.

The next day, Joseph brought Fouché to the First Prison again.

He personally "visited" an assistant governor who was captured by Marat. Fouché went to the cell of the municipal commissioner Caston according to his instructions.

Joseph had limited energy and could only take care of officials at the provincial level. The rest of the small shrimps were left to the Intelligence Bureau to deal with. In particular, many officials involved in the case had not been sent to Paris, and he could not travel around the country for such a small matter.

Joseph estimated that after "threatening" all the more than 40 officials, he would be able to obtain the revelations from thousands of officials.

France currently has only about 10,000 officials, not counting North Africa and Luxembourg.

The number of people who have obtained evidence is enough to initiate administrative reform.

Joseph looked at the assistant governor of Picardy who was busy writing the exposé materials, and silently planned in his mind:

First, we need to make the officials nervous.

Then, the royal family stepped in as savior and saved them at the critical moment.

These gentlemen who have been blessed will certainly not refuse to go to university to study professional knowledge and improve their business capabilities to repay His Majesty the King.

Joseph knew that the French bureaucratic system had been running for too many years and had very strong inherent inertia. If he copied North Africa's "civil service examination system", it would most likely cause strong opposition from the entire bureaucracy and even the nobles.

Therefore, he had to change the operation mode.

That was to set up a "Royal University of French Administration" with the king as the president, and allow a large number of high-ranking officials to study in the school.

In this way, "academic" officials will gradually begin to exclude colleagues with "unconventional backgrounds", forcing the latter to seek further studies in school as well.

At this time, the entrance examination can begin.

If you can't pass the entrance exam, sorry, your academic colleagues will marginalize you without the royal family's intervention. After that, it gradually evolved into a situation where people without a diploma from the University of Administration could not even think of entering the officialdom.

Eventually, even low-level positions such as clerk, secretary, and data clerk were included in the scope of university further studies.

At that time, the entrance examination of the Administrative University had already become the French civil service examination. Unknowingly, the most important step in the reform of civil service administration was completed!
The biggest difficulty in implementing this plan is how to get as many officials as possible to attend school for further studies.

This "large-scale corruption case" provided Joseph with an opportunity.

Joseph was thinking about the reform of the civil service system when the carriage slowly stopped. Emmanuel reminded him:
"Your Highness, we have arrived at Notre Dame."

Joseph nodded and looked out of the car window, and saw that the Archbishop of Paris, Beaumont, had already led a large group of priests and was waiting respectfully in the square in front of the main entrance of the church.

He immediately got out of the car with a smile, exchanged greetings with Beaumont who came to meet him, and then got straight to the point:

"Dear Archbishop, I need you to help me build a university."

Yes, when it comes to education, it is most appropriate to turn to France’s “Ministry of Education” - the Catholic Church.

The church not only has rich experience in running schools and can mobilize teaching staff at any time, but is also very concerned about the maintenance of royal power.

Moreover, the Administrative University is not like a police academy where you can just build a warehouse and a playground on wasteland and start classes. The Administrative University represents the face of the French bureaucracy, and it cannot skimp on the necessary things.

Upon hearing this, Archbishop Beaumont smiled brightly - the Crown Prince wanted to build a university, which meant that a large amount of funds would pass through the church, which was a rare and lucrative job.

He nodded quickly and said, "Your Highness, it is my great honor to serve you. I wonder what kind of university you want to build and how big it will be?"

"Royal Administrative University." Joseph walked towards the reception room behind Notre Dame with familiarity and said to Beaumont, "It mainly teaches courses such as economics, management, society, law, and engineering. Oh, of course, it doesn't have to be as in-depth as the University of Paris. All courses can be completed within a year, or even half a year."

He then briefly introduced the main functions of the university, and then said:
“As for the scale, it was initially built based on a scale of 1500 students, but space for expansion must be reserved.”

Archbishop Beaumont signaled his assistant to take careful notes, and then gave a lot of suggestions on school building. Finally, he rubbed his hands and smiled:
"Your Highness, the time you gave is too short, only three months. This may cause the construction costs to increase significantly..."

Joseph nodded indifferently: "Then I'll have to trouble the church to pay for it."

"Ah, thank you, Your Highness..." Beaumont responded subconsciously, but suddenly froze and exclaimed, "No, Your Highness, you said to let the church pay for it?

"This university may cost 50 francs to build. How can the church afford such a large sum of money..."

Joseph patted him on the back and leaned closer to him, saying, "The church's manor east of the Seine can be renovated and used. It shouldn't cost that much money and it can speed up the process."

Beaumont was about to get angry when he heard this: "Your Highness, this is not..."

Joseph smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice: "Archbishop, a large number of officials may be investigated recently. I think we can let people from the church fill some positions."

This civil service reform was like a major surgical operation for France. Joseph could not predict what unexpected situations he would encounter, so to be on the safe side, he decided to ask the church to stand up for him.

Although the church is not as powerful as it was during the reign of Louis XIII, it still has some political influence. At least by involving the church, they can avoid being involved with the bureaucracy.

(End of this chapter)