I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 563 Steam Engine Shipboard Plan

Although Spain was already on the decline, it still managed to become one of the European powers thanks to its huge number of colonies.

Joseph also valued the Spanish fleet.

After all, it is a country that once had the Invincible Fleet. Even though it has fallen on hard times, the size of its fleet still ranks third in Europe.

If France wants to maintain the minimum trade needs, that is, the safety of the Mediterranean routes, it must unite with the Spanish fleet.

Joseph knew very well that the navy was the most expensive of all the military branches, bar none.

With France's current financial strength, it has no chance of winning a naval competition with Britain through traditional means.

Historically, during the Napoleonic Wars, Britain's military expenditures ranged from 10 billion to 12 billion francs per year. The navy's expenditure alone was as high as 3.8 million francs, which was not much different from France's total military expenditure of 4 million francs. [Note 1]

So when it comes to the number of warships, France always launches one ship while Britain launches two or more.

At the same time, Britain, which relied on maritime trade for its livelihood, trained a large number of elite sailors. Even if France had the same warships as Britain, the probability of winning the naval battle was very small.

The only way out for the French Navy is to overtake others by using new technologies, but new technologies require a large amount of capital investment and take a long time.

Until the navy had new warships, France had to join forces with the Spanish fleet to buy itself the time it needed.

However, when talking about new warships, Joseph suddenly thought of the new high-pressure steam engine that Murdoch was developing.

Although the power of this thing is far from enough to be used on heavy battleships, in battles in the Mediterranean, light galleys are always a combat force that cannot be ignored - the Mediterranean is calm all year round, causing the speed of heavy sailing ships to drop sharply, while galleys can use a large amount of manpower to row to make up for the power, thus having very high maneuverability in this sea area.

Although Murdoch's high-pressure steam engine only had an output power of 50 horsepower, this was more than dozens of rowers could match.

If two are installed, that is, 100 horsepower, the speed that can be achieved will definitely exceed that of human rowing.

Moreover, the continuous output capacity of the steam engine crushes human power.

No matter how good a rower you are, you will definitely be exhausted after rowing for two hours. Even if you bring a large number of reserve rowers, you can only travel at high speed for five or six hours at most. But a steam engine can run for several days without stopping.

In other words, if the steam engine can be successfully moved onto the paddle boat and the "kite flying" tactics can be properly utilized, the French Navy will have the ability to deal with the British in the Mediterranean.

At the same time, this process can also promote the technological iteration of ship-borne steam engines, paving the way for the use of higher-power steam engines to drive heavy battleships of level three and above in the future.

Joseph originally planned to wait until France's economic situation improved before starting the research and development of new warships, but now it seems that time is running out.

If the Mediterranean routes cannot be maintained, the vast North African provinces will be unable to provide support to mainland France and may even become a burden.

There is no way to enter Egypt and implement the Suez Canal strategy. It is very likely that they will follow the North African route that failed in the past.

Joseph immediately made a note to have Murdoch take his technicians to Brittany as soon as possible - it was the base of France's shipbuilding industry and one of the main sources of sailors.

Of course, since it involves a completely new concept of shipbuilding, he might have to go there himself.

Joseph turned his attention back from warships to diplomacy.

After Spain, the most important country is Russia.

He was not sure that he could form an alliance with Russia, after all, Russia's trade was too closely tied to Britain. If Britain really wanted to impose tough sanctions, Russia's trade gap could not be made up by France alone. This was also the reason why Napoleon's continental blockade policy could be implemented everywhere in Europe, except for Russia.

And using the Queen to make a desperate attack on Russia was not out of "overwhelming ambition" to unify Europe. The core purpose was to plug the loopholes in the trade fence.

But if Russia wanted to strictly implement the Continental Blockade policy, its own finances would have to collapse first. So the war between Russia and France was doomed to be inevitable.

So Joseph's bottom line is to ensure that Russia will not join the British camp.

On the one hand, the trade volume between France and Russia should be increased as soon as possible so that Russia cannot abandon France. On the other hand, the development of Donbass should be strengthened to deepen the interests of the two countries.

Of course, when necessary, the conflict between Russia and Austria in the Balkans can be exploited, but the strategy will depend on the specific situation later.

Next up is Austria.

At present, the relationship between France and Austria is relatively stable.

And according to Joseph's memory, Leopold II was a principled man with a good sense of the overall situation. He should not be willing to be involved in the vortex of the Anglo-French conflict.

However, Joseph also knew that Leopold II was a short-lived emperor and would probably pass away early next year.

The successor, Francis II, was a conservative, impulsive, and mediocre emperor.

No one can guarantee whether he will be bewitched by Britain.

If Austria really stands against France at that time, it would not be a bad thing in a sense.

The first is that France can take over Austria’s interests in Italy without any worries.

You know, the rich northern part of Italy is basically Austria's sphere of influence. And the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the south-central part of the peninsula is directly from the Habsburg family.

Currently, due to the marriage relationship between France and Austria, it is difficult for France to take action against Italy.

Once the two sides become enemies, the Austrian army alone will not be able to stop France from advancing into Italy.

In extreme cases, Joseph could even copy the course of history and make a deal with Sardinia, abandoning central and southern Italy on the condition of helping them unify Italy, and working with Sardinia to completely drive Austria out of the Apennine Peninsula.

After that, whether France attacks Austria from the direction of Italy or supports Sardinia to harass Austria's rear, both are good options.

As for Prussia and the Netherlands, they were basically Britain's designated allies, and Joseph did not consider putting any effort into them.

Of course, Napoleon's historical model of directly conquering the Netherlands is absolutely not advisable.

You have penetrated deep into northwestern Germany, which will inevitably arouse the fear of the German countries and make them firmly accept Prussia's call to fight against France.

If the Netherlands is really too aggressive, we can use a small number of elite troops to quickly raid Amsterdam and evacuate immediately after the Netherlands surrenders.

The Dutch warships had to be destroyed or taken back to France as trophies.

[Note 1] The total military expenditure of the United Kingdom counted here includes a large amount of military aid to the Allies, but the naval expenditure was all spent by the United Kingdom itself, and in the later period it even reached 5 million francs a year.

(End of this chapter)