I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 634 The right choice
At 9 o'clock the next morning, the consultation meeting on accepting Britain as a new member of the Rhine-Seine Treaty officially began.

As the representative of Salzburg who proposed this motion, Viscount Schon glanced at Bailly with a complicated expression and was the first to stand up and speak:

"I believe you all know that as a major European country, the UK has a huge market..."

Before he finished his first sentence, he heard the sound of military drums outside the Karlsruhe Palace, followed by the shouts of thousands of soldiers:

"Long live His Majesty the King—"

A palace official hurried into the hall and bowed apologetically:
"It seems that a marching team for a military exercise is passing by here. Please wait for a moment."

It was a full half hour later that the military exercise team left the vicinity of the palace.

Shao En couldn't help but think of yesterday's exercise scene again, and he didn't seem as confident when he spoke.

Next, the representative of Austria will speak, followed by the representative of Bavaria.

French representative Bailly stood up only after representatives from other countries had finished speaking.

He cleared his throat and was about to speak when he heard more cannon fire outside the city.

This time, there were artillery sounds not only from the north of the city, but from all directions, as if Karlsruhe had been surrounded by the army.

The sound of the cannon continued for more than 20 minutes, and then there was the sound of heavy horse hooves passing by the west side of the palace. Thousands of horses stomped on the ground, making dense "thump thump" sounds, which made everyone's heart tremble slightly.

After an unknown amount of time, the cavalry on the exercise finally went away.

Baiyi seemed to be tired of standing, and waved his hand:

"It is too noisy. I will not say more. France does not approve of Britain's joining the treaty."

After saying that, he sat back in his chair.

The hall fell silent.

The French representative's speech was the shortest, so short that it was almost as if he had said nothing. However, the sound of artillery and cavalry galloping before him had already said all he needed to say.

Austrian representative Kobzl hurriedly stood up to save the situation, and kept repeating what kind of trade convenience Britain could bring to everyone, but all the southern German representatives were silently calculating in their hearts how long it would take for the French army to reach their own border from a non-combat readiness state...

In the 18th century, the threshold for starting a war was very low - it was entirely possible that France would declare war on them in order to protect a trade agreement.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, the Baden Finance Minister who was presiding over the meeting saw that no one wanted to speak, so he announced a recess amid the sound of artillery outside the city.

At the cocktail party that evening, Britain's second chancellor of the finances, Wilberforce, seemed extremely busy. He continued to negotiate privately with representatives from various countries and raised the price previously offered by a large margin.

There is no way. The pressure brought by the French military exercises to these small countries is too great.

The reception lasted until late at night. Kobzl pulled Wilberforce to a corner and muttered to him for a long time, obviously worried about the prospect of this bill.

The latter raised his glass to him and consoled him:

"Don't worry too much. The vote will be held tomorrow afternoon. Even if countries want to change their decisions, it's too late."

Kobzl nodded. In fact, the representatives of each country had already decided how to vote before they set off. Before that, Hesse and Augsburg had already promised the British to vote in favor, so even if their trade representatives had any concerns, they could not make the decision on their own.

At the lunch the next day, Kobutzl, Shaun and others stuffed food into their mouths quickly, as if they all wanted to finish eating quickly so that they could start voting.

However, when the banquet was halfway through, Lützker suddenly winked at his entourage, then drank a mouthful of the milky white pigeon stew, gargled it in his mouth a few times, and made foam.

Then, he slid off the chair, holding his stomach with a look of pain, and fell to the ground, with foamy pigeon soup overflowing from the corners of his mouth.

His followers immediately rushed over, helped him up and shouted anxiously:

"Master! Master, how are you?" Seeing that Lutzke was just groaning in pain, he looked around again:
"My master had severe dysentery a few days ago, and it should be a relapse now. Please call a doctor!"

The royal doctor of Baden arrived quickly and ordered his assistants to carry Lützker away on a stretcher and immediately performed bloodletting treatment on him...

The afternoon vote had to be cancelled because the representative from Upper Hesse fell ill and fell into a coma.

For the next three days, Lützker lay weak on his hospital bed, in a coma for most of the time.

Until the evening of that day, the attendant brought the reply letter from Duke Damsta. He immediately dismissed the servants on the pretext of needing to rest, then jumped out of bed and opened the letter to read.

Yes, after the cocktail party that night, he wrote a letter to the Duke of Damsta, the ruler of Upper Hesse, in which he described in detail the mobilization and assembly capabilities of the French army, as well as France's firm will to maintain the trade agreement, and suggested rejecting the benefits of the British and voting against it instead.

After all, no matter how big the British market is or how many benefits it offers, it is still very far away from Hesse.

The French army only needed 25 days to reach Marburg.

There is really no need to anger the French for a little trade benefit.

What's more, France's conditions were not unacceptable. With loan subsidies and steam engines, perhaps within a few years, Hesse's industry could be greatly improved, thereby reversing the trade deficit.

After dawn, the negotiation meeting of the Rhine-Seine Treaty, which had been suspended for many days, was finally reopened.

The Minister of Finance of Baden solemnly collected the votes of the representatives of various countries and said loudly:
"Regarding the vote on the admission of Britain to the Rhine-Seine Treaty—"

He opened the first ticket:

"France, objection."

"Austria, yes."

"Bavaria, yes."

"Go up to Heisen, objection."

Kobzl's face darkened when he heard this - although he had expected that Lützker's sudden "illness" would bring about changes, he was still filled with resentment and anger when he actually confirmed it.

"Augsburg, objection."

"Württemberg, against..."

Bailey stood up with a smile, and gestured to everyone with his hand on his chest:

"Thank you for making the right decision. I believe that the Rhine-Seine Treaty will bring us a more prosperous market and a bright future!"

He no longer needed to listen to the results of the subsequent vote, because as long as Upper Hesse and Augsburg opposed it, Britain would never be able to get enough votes.

France's market in southern Germany was thus preserved.

More than ten days later, the French United Steam Engine Company received an order of 100 million francs from Upper Hesse to purchase 140 LJ15 steam engines and matching parts for automatic looms.

……

Caribbean Sea.

Port Royal, Jamaica's largest port, welcomed a large fleet.

The first few large troop transports that arrived at the port carried 4 soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force, as well as a large number of war horses, cannons and other military supplies.

(End of this chapter)