I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 492: The Church is the King of Money (Recommended, please help!)

Beaumont had previously promised the Dauphin that he would cooperate with him in his efforts to clean up the bureaucracy, and he has been paying close attention to this matter over the past period of time, publicly condemning those officials on trial for corruption whenever he gets the chance.

At the same time, at his request, churches from all over the country would occasionally carry the portrait of Gehazi around the city for exhibitions and speeches. Gehazi was a man in the Bible who was punished by God for his greed for money and suffered from severe leprosy, turning his body extremely pale. At least the image in the painting was very visually impactful.

However, as the situation gradually calmed down, the church has not mentioned this matter much recently. Beaumont suddenly talked about this at this moment, in fact, just to show off in front of Joseph.

Fouché took the wine from the priest, glanced at Beaumont who was talking nonstop, snorted disdainfully, and muttered:

"Oh, those officials are not as greedy as you."

Joseph looked back at him curiously: "What do you mean?"

Fouché realized that he had said something wrong, but under the gaze of the Dauphin, he could only whisper:

"Your Highness, many people in the church know that Archbishop Beaumont's fortune is three or four million francs. This money..."

He was born a priest, so he knew a lot of information inside the church.

Hearing this, Joseph exhaled, frowned and nodded.

He also knew that as a first-class clergyman, how could he not be greedy? Especially since France had strictly restricted the church's power to interfere in the secular world, the only thing left for those in the church was to make money.

However, for now he can only choose to cooperate with the church temporarily. After all, the church is more honest than the aristocracy and more dependent on the royal family, so it is easier to control.

If one wants to carry out reforms at the national level, one must win over forces that can be used for one's own benefit and differentiate between the first and second estates, that is, cooperation between the clergy and the nobility.

Once the reforms in France are basically completed, the rectification of the church will inevitably be put on the agenda.

Apart from anything else, the fact that one-tenth of the country's land was in the hands of the church made it impossible to just sit there and do nothing.

You know, historically, after the success of the French Revolution, the National Assembly relied on confiscating the church's land and using these lands as anchors to issue paper money "assignats", which barely survived the initial financial crisis.

In addition, the church is still collecting tithes. Although the actual tax rate is not as high as 10%, but around 7%, it is still a huge burden on the country's economic development.

After everyone received the Holy Communion, Beaumont stopped criticizing the corrupt officials and turned to wink at the priest beside him.

The priest quickly took out a piece of paper with patterns and densely printed words, and held it up to show everyone.

Beaumont smiled and said, "This is the 'wealth protection voucher' launched by the church in accordance with God's revelation. After purchasing this voucher, you will be blessed and avoid being harmed by greedy people."

Joseph's eyes widened in shock. The church really knows how to draw inferences from one instance. They can even think of making a coupon for such a trivial matter!

But he could only watch.

After all, in order to cheat the church out of its grain reserves, he had promised to let the church sell "improved indulgences".

This shows that the church has been issuing various coupons to make money over the past year.

Joseph smacked his lips subconsciously, and felt more excited about what he would gain from reorganizing the church.

……

Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica.

In the room on the second floor of Senator Girolamo's house, Bartolio, also a Senator, pushed a few pieces of paper to the center of the table, then looked around at the people in the room and said, "This is from Mr. Ennio from Charleston. Oh, he went to the United States four months ago on my behalf."

Another Corsican member of parliament picked up the top sheet of paper in confusion and read:
“There have been only three Mrs. Massimo in Charleston’s Nabothtown in the past 30 years, two of whom are still alive and one who died earlier this year.

"The deceased Signora Massimo had never mentioned having any Corsican relatives, and was very poor, with all her assets totalling no more than $30.

"But people in the town saw that after her death, a man with an Italian accent contacted her nephew, her only relative, and then her nephew began to claim that she had been to Corsica."

"so……"

Bartolio slammed the table and said angrily, "So Mrs. Paulie doesn't have any American aunt at all! Even if she did, she would only leave her a legacy of $30, not $1!"

"Please take another look at this."

He pulled out two documents from the papers and handed them to the congressman next to him.

The latter could not understand English and handed the document back to him.

Bartolio poked the two pieces of paper with his finger and said:
"These are certificates issued by Charleston City Hall. This one is a villa on the west side of Charleston, and this one is a huge cotton estate in the southern suburbs. They both belong to Mrs. Pauley."

"Didn't you say that Mrs. Paoli didn't inherit the property?" Girolamo, the insider, immediately pretended to be puzzled.

"This is not an inheritance at all. Look at the transfer date written on it." Bartolio gritted his teeth and said, "The end of April, which means this is a new property purchased by Mrs. Paulie!"

Girolamo pointed to the price on the certificate and said in surprise:

"The house and the land together are worth $10. Where did she get so much money?"

All seven members of the parliament in the room immediately looked gloomy.

Oscar Paulie has always claimed that he is devoted to restoring his country and that he has no property at all. The house he lives in London was given to him by his supporters. But now a huge sum of $10 suddenly appears.

Without anyone reminding them, they immediately thought of the 2 pounds of funding, or 5 US dollars, that was accidentally burned a few months ago.

The properties that Poly purchased in the United States, plus the $1 his wife inherited in the Netherlands, exactly match this figure.

"I think it's clear now," said Bartolio. "Paoli betrayed us."

Someone raised the question: "But, he has no reason to do this..."

"No, he did." A thin brown-haired man who had been silent before said, "In fact, we received intelligence at the beginning of the year that the British seemed to be negotiating in France and might no longer provide asylum to Mr. Paulie."

The person who spoke was an official in charge of the Corsica Restoration Organization's intelligence agency. He took a deep breath and continued:

"I reported this to Mr. Paulie, but he said he was not afraid of the French and told me not to worry about it."

Girolamo immediately replied: "It seems that Mr. Pauli has been preparing to leave England since then."

He was originally going to say it himself that the British no longer protected Paulie, but unexpectedly someone beat him to it.

The brown-haired man pondered, "No, not just leaving England. I think he might have made a deal with the French."

(End of this chapter)