Chapter 611 Cake and Contradiction
And thanks to the sales volume of the smuggling trade, the output of factories across France has increased significantly, which has also increased the tax revenue by a large amount.
But Joseph also knew that the smuggling business would definitely not last long. At present, they are taking advantage of a loophole that the British have not yet paid attention to. Once the British react, under the strict investigation and blockade of their fleet, the amount of smuggling will definitely decrease rapidly.
Joseph estimated that the dividends from the "Special Trade" would only last for another year at most. Without strong naval support, Britain still cannot defeat Britain at sea.
Of course, France has completed its tax reform, abolished local taxes and most tolls, and the development momentum of industry and commerce is good.
Therefore, even if these two "abnormal revenues" are missing, this year's fiscal year can at least ensure that there will be no deficit.
When tax reform was mentioned, Joseph suddenly felt tremendous pressure again.
He has carried out a large number of very radical reforms in France in the past two years. He would not be naive enough to think that the reform would be complete as long as it could be implemented.
This is just the beginning!
Any reform will involve a substantial redistribution of benefits.
In other words, while most people benefit from the reform, many people, or even a certain class of people, lose their vested interests.
These people do not accept their fate easily.
Although they are temporarily dormant and licking their wounds under the pressure of royal power, they will not hesitate to jump out and cause trouble whenever an opportunity arises.
Just like a group of tax collectors. Although the big tax collectors were beheaded, each of them had thousands of subordinates who depended on them for food, or even more.
After the fall of the big tax collectors, the lives of these people must be worse than before. They must be extremely dissatisfied with the French government in their hearts, but they just dare not show it.
Similar to this are the old aristocratic groups, the old military groups, and even the old police force.
In other words, France's current development momentum is pretty good. These people can enjoy the development dividends, which conceals the contradictions.
Once the development momentum slows down, various contradictions will immediately break out.
By then, even if the army can be used to suppress it, France will suffer huge damage. If another foreign force takes advantage of the situation, the consequences will be disastrous.
Joseph’s ears were filled with the cheers of the ministers, but he fell into deep thought:
Therefore, France must maintain its rapid development, continue to make the cake bigger, and offset the dissatisfaction of various forces with the temptation of sharing the cake.
As long as this situation lasts for more than ten years, France will rebuild a new balance of interests.
Even if someone still wants to settle old scores, others will suppress them for their own rights without taking action themselves.
The so-called "making the cake bigger" is nothing more than two ways - internal development and external expansion...
After Brian completed his report, Industry Minister Mirabeau stood up Later, he could not hide his smile: "Last year, our country achieved great development in industry, and the overall scale expanded by 76%!"
This number sounds extremely alarming, but it was possible at the beginning of the industrial revolution.
You must know that France is still an agricultural country and its industrial stock is very low, so just building some factories can significantly increase the industrial scale.
However, the rapid growth of France's industrial scale was partly due to the crazy expansion of production in order to produce the goods for the order scam.
Later, "special trade" utilized these production capacities, which made the growth rate become so exaggerated.
Mirabeau then happily introduced his achievements last year - the machinery industry grew by 110%...
The steel industry grew by 72%...
The coal industry grew by 265%...
The chemical industry grew by 175%...
The brewing industry grew by 12% ……
Paper industry...
Furniture manufacturing industry...
Pharmaceutical industry...
Among them, the terrifying growth rate of the coal industry is mainly due to the application of gas street lamps.
The distillation workshop in Paris alone uses as much coal as the entire greater Paris area, including the Palace of Versailles and surrounding towns, for 12 days every day!
Such an astonishing demand has greatly stimulated the development of the French coal industry.
Now the wooden track from the Nancy coal mines to Paris has been built. After the steam engine lifted the coal from the mine, it could be transported directly to Paris without changing the carriage.
At the same time, due to the huge amount of coal shipped to Paris, the freight has been greatly reduced, and the price of coal has also dropped.
Many households that previously burned wood began to choose to burn coal, further promoting the coal industry.
Currently, the coal mines in Wallonia in the Southern Netherlands have not been opened for mining. When cities such as Lyon and Reims also install gas street lights, coal from Wallonia will continue to flow into all parts of France.
By then, the scale of France's coal industry is likely to surpass that of the United Kingdom.
As for another amazing industrial growth point - the chemical industry, the main reason is that France's first factory using the "Royal Soda Production Method" to produce soda ash has been officially put into use, with a daily production of 2,000 kilograms of soda ash. At the same time, the cost is very low, only one third of the original alkali production method.
France currently sells soda ash at 70% of the market price and has almost monopolized the entire European soda ash market, including the United Kingdom.
Although the demand for soda ash is not too high because the industries in various countries are not very developed, there are still millions of francs in revenue every year.
And thanks to the falling price of soda ash, the costs of French soap, paper, dyes, pharmaceuticals and other products have also been significantly reduced, and their international competitiveness has rapidly improved.
Especially in the South German region, which has a trade agreement with France, the above-mentioned products account for at least 70% of its market!
When these countries signed the agreement, they never imagined that France would even engage in dumping of soap, so they did not set protective tariffs on such products.
After the Queen took the lead in congratulating Mirabeau, Minister of Agriculture Venio began to speak eagerly.
“The beet sugar factory in Valois was put into operation at the end of last year and produced 80,000 pounds of white sugar that month. Based on the current planting scale and the construction of the sugar refinery, it should be able to reach 60,000 pounds per month this year. A production of 10,000 pounds!”
Although 600,000 pounds is not much, less than the production in Santo Domingo in a week, sugar can be produced in Europe, which will subvert the entire sugar trade pattern. The role of sex.
Vergniaud then excitedly introduced the fertilizer production in France and the olive cultivation situation in Tunisia and other places.
At present, France has built 4 "stone fertilizer" crushing plants in places such as Marseille and Paris to crush and grind phosphate ores shipped from Nauru and Tunisia, and then use them in agriculture The service consulting company sells to farmers.
Compared with farmers soaking "stone fertilizer" directly in water and using it, the crushed phosphate ore is less likely to be lost and its fertility is more than 30% higher.
(End of this chapter)