Chapter 386 The Inexperienced Crown Prince
Versailles.
In front of the Petit Trianon, thousands of nobles looked at the balcony of Queen Mary's tea room on the second floor, and from time to time they shouted sadly: "Your Majesty, are you going to abandon us?"
"For God's sake, please take a look at your loyal servants who are begging for a little mercy from you."
"Your Majesty, we just need the humblest traditional income that has not changed for hundreds of years..."
"Your Majesty, please have mercy..."
Since the land redemption plan was officially announced yesterday, it took these nobles less than a day to complete the series and start a massive petition.
Behind the more than a thousand petitioning nobles, there are more eyes staring here - as soon as Her Majesty the Queen's attitude shows signs of loosening, they will immediately rush in for reinforcements.
They can be so united because the redemption plan really touches their interests.
According to the provisions of the plan, the cost of the farmers' redemption of eight years of annual tribute will be paid to the original lord of the land.
Although this is much stronger than the previously rumored two-year redemption plan, which makes those nobles with other incomes reluctant to accept it, there are still many "poor" nobles who are beginning to worry about their source of livelihood.
In Queen Mary's drawing room, several noble nobles were pitifully complaining to her, even the king's brother, the Count Artois, was among them.
Queen Mary kept comforting several people, but finally she was so entangled by them that she had no choice but to signal to the maid Debeninac and whispered: "Please go find the Crown Prince. Oh, please don't Tell him to come here and wait for me in the study."
She guessed that it was probably because her son was eager to quell the riots that he favored the peasants in the redemption plan, which aroused criticism from the nobles.
She needs to discuss this plan with her son first, and then find a way to compensate the nobles.
It is normal for young people to make mistakes when doing things. Otherwise, what would parents do? Now it's time to take action to help my son deal with the aftermath!
Countess de Berninac had just left the drawing room for more than 10 minutes, then she turned back and whispered in the queen's ear: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is back."
The carriage came to a slow stop in the marble courtyard. As soon as Joseph opened the car door, he heard a noise like waves coming from the direction of the Little Trianon.
He just smiled calmly. This situation had been expected for a long time. It would be abnormal for the nobles not to make a scene.
Mirabeau, who had been looking forward to it for a long time, immediately came forward. Behind him, there was a monk in his fifties wearing black robes, who was the Archbishop Beaumont of Paris.
The two of them saluted Joseph one after another, and then followed his footsteps towards the Little Trianon.
"Are you ready over there?" Joseph turned sideways and looked at Mirabeau.
"Yes, Your Highness, make sure nothing goes wrong."
"You did a very good job." Joseph nodded and asked, "How many people came to the homes of the more than 300 'prodigal sons'?"
"At least one person from each family was present. Among them was an influential person like Count Ones."
"Well, I'm relieved about that."
Joseph turned to Archbishop Beaumont: "Thank you for traveling all the way in person."
The latter waved his hands with a smile on his face: "Of course I will take your instructions seriously. Moreover, the things you said are also what the church should do..."
In order for the old nobles to accept the land redemption plan, it will definitely not be possible to rely on royal pressure alone, let alone use national finance to support them.
Joseph knew very well that if you play politics, you have to kill a lot of your own people. His most solid political team is undoubtedly the capitalist aristocracy. So when he just returned from Luxembourg, he ordered Mirabeau to secretly contact important figures in the capital aristocracy and prepare to support the land redemption plan.
Moreover, according to his arrangement, the redemption plan was originally of great benefit to big capital. Mirabeau casually called for it, and the responders immediately gathered.
As for the church, Joseph has not touched the church's cake in order to reduce resistance to the land policy. Therefore, this time facing pressure from the old aristocracy, the church will naturally contribute.
Likewise, he will not let the church work in vain.
If you want others to do their best, it is undoubtedly the most effective to be motivated by profit.
The three of them chatted in low voices and soon arrived at the open space in front of the vegetable garden of the Little Trianon Palace.
Of course, the place was not empty at all at this time, and some nobles who came to petition were even squeezed so hard that they stepped on Her Majesty the Queen's vegetables.
The nobles immediately noticed Joseph and his party, and someone immediately shouted in his direction:
"Please help us persuade Her Majesty the Queen to revise the land redemption policy."
Joseph pushed aside the crowd, quickly came to the stone steps in front of the main entrance of the Little Trianon Palace, smiled at those people and said:
"In fact, I presided over the formulation of this land redemption plan. I don't think there is anything that needs to be modified."
As soon as Queen Mary walked to the balcony, she heard her son's words coming from below, and she suddenly thought something was wrong. Joseph is still too inexperienced. For things like this that cause dissatisfaction among the nobles, he should first put the responsibility on Brian and others, and then he can mediate from the side. It seems that I have to step forward to help him make amends...
As expected, there was an immediate commotion among the petitioning nobles.
Someone immediately turned their attention to Joseph: "Your Highness, nobility is the foundation of France, you can't abandon us like this!"
"You are so unfair to us!"
Joseph looked around at everyone, still smiling: "No, I always follow His Majesty the King's teachings and never forget you."
A nobleman said loudly: "Your Highness, your redemption plan will make our lives miserable!"
"Of course not." Joseph said in the direction of the man, "In fact, you will be richer than before!"
The noise of the nobles became a little louder, and the Crown Prince simply insulted everyone's intelligence. The annual tribute will be cut off after 8 years. How can we become richer?
Joseph said calmly: "Don't just focus on the land itself, there won't be much profit.
“You need to look further afield. Once farmers get farmland, they will cultivate it more diligently than before and produce more.
"Farmers want to increase production, but they don't have enough livestock and fertilizers, and they can't afford to repair water conservancy. Oh, you should know that a common steam pump costs 6,000 livres.
“Also, advanced farming techniques are very difficult to master and require someone to teach them.
"The food grown also needs to be transported to big cities for sale. Even if farmers know that the price of food in Lyon is 40% higher than in Tours, they cannot afford to transport the food."
He paused to let the nobles digest what he just said, and then continued: "So, someone needs to help them do this.
"Of course, this cannot be done by one or two people, but requires a company, a large-scale company!"
(End of chapter)