I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 566: Maybe you are just tired of seeing

Joseph was a little surprised and asked, "It seems that you need to call for a large amount of funds. Can you tell me in detail?"

"Oh, of course, Your Highness," Mirabeau said hurriedly, "In fact, the Development Fund has experienced a rare period of rapid development in recent months.

"This is definitely due to the good tax and market environment brought about by your reforms. The revenue of factories in Lyon, Nancy, Saint-Etienne and even the Southern Netherlands has increased significantly. You know, the order volume in March and April has doubled continuously, and all factories are increasing the number of workers on a large scale.

"As a result, the factory's production funds are tight. After all, to handle so many orders, it takes a lot of money just to purchase raw materials.

"Recently, the headquarters of the Development Fund is even more lively than a dance party. Every day, it is crowded with managers from factories all over the country, all of whom come to seek additional investment from the Fund."

He showed a helpless expression as he spoke: "But there are only more than 420 million francs left on the development fund's books, and this is for paying the next dividend..."

Joseph looked at him and said, "So, you want to use this money for investment, including the construction funds for the second phase of the University Palace?"

"I have this plan," Mirabeau nodded repeatedly, "If we inject capital into the factory now, we can get a very high return. And the development fund can promise subscribers to significantly increase the next dividend and postpone this period. I believe many people will be happy to accept it.

“As for the Palace of Great Scholars, the utilization rate of the completed part is only 12% at present, and this is because you have specially approved many academicians of the Academy of Sciences to move in.

"I have asked someone to evaluate that as long as the follow-up works can be completed before April next year, it should not affect the talent introduction plan. If the construction period is postponed, nearly 4 million francs can be mobilized.

"Together with the funds raised by the development fund from the private sector, a total of 1 million francs will be immediately invested in factories across the country for expansion. The resulting effect will at least increase the scale of our country's industry by 20% this year!"

Joseph looked at his excited expression and seemed relatively calm. With the in-depth reforms of the market and taxation, plus the new technologies he brought, it was not surprising that French industry began to explode.

He nodded and said, "Please prepare a plan for this matter and submit it to me as soon as possible."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The plans had been made long ago, so the next morning the documents regarding raising additional funds for the Industrial Development Fund were delivered to the Tuileries Palace.

Joseph looked through Mirabeau's plan and smiled.

The factory in Lyon received more than 4 million francs of new orders in April alone. Nancy's steam engines were exported on a large scale for the first time. Iron products, paper, wine, furniture, carriages and even Paris Coke all saw explosive growth.

He turned to the order trend chart at the back and saw that starting from mid-March, it had almost become a 90-degree straight line turning upward.

Seeing this, he was slightly startled and quickly found the page where the order came from.

On the order composition pie chart, Germany and Italy are like two huge folding fans, squeezing all the French orders into a small piece.

He immediately thought of something and looked at Mirabeau and said, "Do you know the domestic sales growth in the German region, oh, such as Austria and Bavaria, in the past six months?"

Mirabeau thought for a moment and replied, "If I remember correctly, it should be 2% and 1.6%, Your Highness."

"What about Sardinia and Tuscany?"

"3.5%, 3%, Your Highness." Joseph frowned immediately. "Their own sales growth is only this small, but they have ordered a large number of goods. Who are they going to sell to?"

Mirabeau hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, there are many possibilities. For example, the data collected by our intelligence agencies is quite biased."

In this era, there is no practice for government agencies to publish various national data in real time, and they may even classify it as confidential.

Therefore, intelligence agencies of various countries need to send people to investigate. Intelligence personnel in the target countries may also deliberately mislead. This may lead to the possibility that the information obtained is far from the actual situation.

Mirabeau continued, "In addition, it may also be that our products have eaten up the market share that originally belonged to other countries. For example, iron products. In the past, the German region was mainly dominated by Austrian and Bavarian products. Now our country has gradually occupied more than one-third of the market."

Joseph continued to look over the plan calmly, and soon noticed that the new orders in the past two months were mainly given to medium and large French companies, and small factories received almost no benefits.

He was increasingly feeling strange. It was OK in Austria, but even the Italians had such strong purchasing power that they no longer cared about cheap goods?
He closed the plan, looked at Mirabeau, and said seriously: "Don't inject a lot of capital into the factory for the time being. No, not only don't inject capital, it's better to let them slow down the production speed first. I always feel that something is wrong here.

"I will have someone conduct a detailed investigation before making any further decisions."

Mirabeau suddenly said anxiously: "Your Highness, this is a development opportunity given to us by God. If there is a lack of funds, many factories may not be able to complete the orders on time."

"No, we can't take that risk. Please do as I say."

What Joseph was thinking of at this moment was the usual tactics used by a certain financial empire in the future—

First, a massive amount of funds are released to stimulate a certain country's economy in a targeted manner, causing it to overheat in a short period of time. Then, interest rates are suddenly raised and liquidity is tightened, causing the target country's hot economy to suffer from a shortage of funds, thereby triggering an economic crisis.

When the target country is devastated by the economic crisis and a large number of companies go bankrupt, the financial empire will come back and buy these companies at extremely low prices.

The current situation in France made him smell a similar smell.

As the European continent is about to enter a situation of great power competition, he must be more cautious. Once the national economy is hit hard, there is no need to fight militarily.

But Mirabeau's concerns were not wrong. If he just thought too much, France might miss a good opportunity for take-off and even seriously undermine the enthusiasm of domestic factories.

Joseph gestured to Emmanuel, who was standing at the door, and said, "Please ask Director Fouché to come here."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Two hours later, after Fouché had listened to Mirabeau's explanation of the current situation, Joseph ordered, "Mr. Fouché, I need you to confirm as quickly as possible whether there are any problems with these transactions."

"This is my duty, Your Highness." Fouché immediately bowed and accepted the order, and then immediately continued, "However, as Count Mirabeau said, if the investigation is delayed too long, it will have a serious impact on a large number of factories."

Joseph nodded slightly: "So what is your opinion?"

(End of this chapter)