I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 610 New year, new hope
After talking with George III for nearly two hours, Pitt the Younger finally had an idea in his mind.

The king still supported him.

He saw the familiar figure of Dr. Willis appear at the door and said hurriedly:
"Your Majesty, I will resolve the situation regarding the gas lamp as soon as possible. However, as for Lord Fox..."

He was talking about James Fox, leader of the opposition Whig Party.

"Our focus is on our strategy towards France, and this requires a stable cabinet. As for the Whigs, I will advise them not to cause trouble."

Before George III finished speaking, Dr. Willis came over and bowed, saying:
"Your Majesty, it is time for you to undergo treatment. There will be a leech and mustard healing treatment tonight, which will help your spirit relax further."

George III has been living in Windsor Castle for treatment recently because he suffers from porphyria, which causes brain problems from time to time.

Treatment items included - binding, scolding, whipping, beating, bloodletting, poisoning, etc.

Well, it must be said that the King of England had good physical fitness. He endured all these "tortures" and the suffering of mental illness and lived to be 82 years old.

George III's legs could not help but tremble slightly, but he still gritted his teeth to calm down, and finally told little Pitt:
"If all else fails, then draw people's attention abroad, Mr. Prime Minister."

……

Time always flies fast in peaceful days.

Shortly after Christmas, the early spring breeze began to blow across France.

The conference hall of the Palace of Versailles was warmed by the fireplace. The cabinet ministers sitting around the conference table all had smiles on their faces and whispered to each other from time to time.

Apparently, everyone is quite satisfied with their performance in the past year. Today's cabinet meeting was about the statistical data submitted by various departments for last year.

In the past, Joseph would discuss the areas of responsibility of each minister individually, but he has been presiding over cabinet meetings for more than half a year, so this year he simply held the annual summary here.

On the one hand, departments can compare with each other to increase everyone's sense of competition.

On the other hand, it can also strengthen cooperation between different departments. For example, the Minister of Trade will formulate this year's work plan based on the growth rate of industry.

Queen Marie sat down at the head of the table. After everyone had saluted, she smiled at Brian and said:

"Archbishop Brian, then please begin."

Although she was no longer in charge of specific affairs, she was always worried that these unruly ministers would disobey the crown prince, so she insisted on coming to "take charge" for her son.

Brian bowed to the Queen and the Dauphin, and after some formalities, he went straight to the point:
"...According to the arrangement of the agenda, I will first explain last year's financial situation."

Upon hearing this, all the ministers picked up the "National Financial Report of 1791" which had been placed on the table and started to read it.

Brian's mouth corners kept rising, and he couldn't suppress it:

"With the blessing of God, under the careful governance of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the country's total fiscal revenue reached 7 million francs last year. An increase of 4 million francs over the previous year!"

In fact, the ministers had heard about the huge increase in fiscal revenue in advance, but they did not expect it to increase so much. They were all extremely excited and nodded to Brian to express their congratulations.

This is an annual growth rate of 17%! Even in the era of the Industrial Revolution, it was an extremely brilliant achievement.

Brian's smile deepened. He didn't even look at the document. It was obvious that he had memorized it by heart.
"Last year's total fiscal expenditure was 6 million francs. "That means we have a huge surplus of 4 million francs!"

After he finished speaking, he felt a little choked up, and he lowered his head and took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

It is no wonder that he was so excited. He could not remember how long it had been, probably since the late reign of Louis XIV, when France's finances had been plagued by the nightmare of deficits, and all successive finance ministers had been accused of incompetence.

Finally, this year, a historic turning point was achieved.

This is definitely a great achievement that will still be mentioned by the French more than a hundred years later!
Queen Marie immediately stood up excitedly and applauded Brian:

"Thank you for your outstanding and productive work! You have opened a new chapter for France and made the country full of hope again!"

The others also stood up and applauded Brian.

Brian looked at Joseph and said seriously:

"All this stems from the major financial and tax reforms led by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. I am just following His Royal Highness' instructions."

He is definitely not being modest.

His ability is only average among recent finance ministers. If it were not for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's frequent unexpected moves, he might have stepped down countless times due to the debt crisis in the past two years, let alone a fiscal surplus.

All the ministers looked at Joseph at the same time, their eyes clearly saying - it is true.

Joseph smiled and said, "The French finances will always be in surplus under your leadership, Archbishop Briand. No one will ignore your huge contribution. Congratulations to you, and to France!"

He was also generous in praising Briand, after all, he was an old subordinate and the latter was quite loyal to him.

Everyone immediately followed suit and shouted "Congratulations to France" and "Congratulations to Archbishop Brian", and then praised Joseph for a long time before sitting down again.

Briand continued: "This year our total debt will be reduced to 19 billion francs.

"If the debt replacement plan is implemented smoothly, this year's fixed interest expenses can be reduced to 8 million francs."

The "replacement plan" he mentioned is to raise funds by selling low-interest government bonds to buy back previous high-interest loans, thus replacing high-low loans. However, this requires a prerequisite, that is, the public is optimistic about France's development, so that the government bond interest rate can be lowered.

Brian apparently felt that there was no need to worry about the sales of government bonds because he had already looked at last year's industrial and agricultural reports.

The crowd cheered and applauded again. Although France's total debt is still extremely high, the interest rate is already close to a healthy range - if this momentum is maintained, France will be able to completely get out of the debt shadow in four or five years at most!

However, compared to the jubilation of others, Joseph seemed relatively calm.

He is well aware that last year's high fiscal surplus was just a special case and would be difficult to replicate in the future.

First, a large number of tax farmers were dealt with at the beginning of the year and their property was confiscated, which resulted in a revenue of tens of millions of francs.

In fact, due to the lack of expertise of the tax bureau, tax revenue even declined. The situation did not improve until the implementation of the value-added tax system.

The second is the booming "special trade", which contributed tens of millions of francs to the treasury in just about four months.

(End of this chapter)