Chapter 1041: The Prodigal Emperor and the Stingy Minister
"Your Excellency Fuld, Minister Baros has already given his opinion!
What do you think about this?"
Jérôme Bonaparte looked at Achille Fuld, with a hint of persecution in his words.
Obviously, the emperor was leaning towards Baros from the beginning... no, it should be said that it was Baron George Haussmann's plan.
Thinking of this, Achille Fuld couldn't help but feel a little sad and angry.
He worked diligently in his post as finance minister, sometimes even working late into the night.
And the reason why he works so diligently is to keep the empire's finances in balance.
In Achille Fuld's view, excessive spending would only lead to the country's fiscal predicament in 1789.
However, His Majesty the Emperor held a disapproving attitude towards this guarantee. He always believed that the empire's wealth was inexhaustible and inexhaustible.
Whenever there is a little surplus in the national finance, he always wants to spend all the surplus.
He is simply a complete loser!
And the ministers who gathered around him (except Fuld himself) also tried every means to drain the empire's savings, for fear of leaving nothing behind for the empire that was about to go bankrupt.
"Your Majesty!" Achille Fuld looked at Jérôme Bonaparte with a serious expression and said word by word, "Minister Baros's plan is indeed very good, but I still suggest waiting!
A large-scale renovation plan will inevitably increase the financial burden on the empire and can easily lead to a fiscal deficit!
What's more, the French economy is still in a sluggish state.
So, I personally recommend waiting for a while.
When the French economy returns to normal (1818-1853), we will implement the plan again!
If it is enforced, the government may have to appeal to the French people and banks (to put it bluntly, it means issuing bonds to the French people and the Bank of France).”
Jérôme Bonaparte could still understand Achille Fuld's polite refusal.
France is indeed in an economic downturn right now.
However, Jérôme Bonaparte did not agree with Achille Fuld's approach of "returning the economy to normal before implementing the plan."
He vaguely remembered that the French Empire's economy had not completely emerged from the downturn until around 1866.
It was not until 1868, the third year after the Civil War ended, that the empire's economy barely returned to an upward trend.
Investigating the reason, Jérôme Bonaparte speculated that it was probably due to the rise in cotton caused by the Civil War, which in turn caused the price of French cotton textiles to rise.
However, the wages of people at home and abroad have not increased along with the increase in textiles, and their purchasing desire has also declined.
With the purchasing power of consumers declining, the French economy will naturally maintain this low growth state.
According to Achille Fuld, France's renovation plan will not be officially implemented until at least 1866.
However, historically 1866 was the beginning of the Austro-Prussian War.
Even if the Austrian Empire has not suffered heavy losses in the same period of history, as long as the Kingdom of Prussia still refuses to give up its hegemony in the North German region, the war between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire will not be eliminated. At most, the fight for hegemony will be postponed.
(The Kingdom of Prussia did not seek hegemony over all of Germany from the beginning, but hoped to use negotiations to take North Germany from the hands of the Austrian Empire. However, the Austrian Empire was unwilling to give up its hegemony over North Germany, and the Prussian-Austrosian War broke out.)
Therefore, Jerome Bonaparte must seize every minute and every second to completely repair the roads in Alsace and Lorraine.
Only in this way can his army enter Germany faster than at the same time in history.
However, it was impossible for him to say these words to Achille Fuld.
Because Achille Fuld simply did not believe that the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire would have a large-scale war, just like he did not believe that the United States of America would have a world war two years later.
Let alone him, it is impossible for any wise politician to predict what will happen five years from now.
"Minister Fuld!" Jérôme Bonaparte said firmly, "What if I insist on carrying out this plan?"
"Then please ask your Majesty to remove me!" Achille Fuld also replied uncompromisingly to Jerome Bonaparte, "I believe that your Majesty will be able to find someone more suitable to serve as Minister of Finance than me!
"
Jérôme Bonaparte and Achille Fuld had a pointed conversation, which made Bemini, the president of the Bank of France, who was sitting next to him, feel an unprecedented pressure.
As a bank president who was single-handedly promoted by Achille Fuld, Bemini still did not want the relationship between Achille Fuld and the emperor to become so rigid.
After all, the person who dominated the entire French Empire was the emperor.
Once Achille Fuld is removed from office, his tenure as the governor (president) of the Bank of France will probably come to an end.
As for the instigator, Baros, he had already broken with Achille Fuld because of the plan, and now he wished that the emperor would directly dismiss Achille Fuld.
After the emperor and Achille Fuld looked at each other for a while, Achille Fuld finally said nothing.
A capable finance minister is really important to a country.
Furthermore, Achille Fuld's idea of maintaining a balanced fiscal balance was not too wrong in this era when credit money was not yet fully popularized.
In order to break the awkward atmosphere, Jerome Bonaparte had no choice but to speak by himself. He lightly shrugged his shoulders, spread his hands and said with a hint of helplessness in his tone, "Okay!
Chancellor Fuld, my loyal butler! You win!"
Bemini, who was on tenterhooks, couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Judging from the results, His Excellency Achille Fuld still succeeded in forcing the emperor to accept his suggestion.
There was a hint of despair in Barosh's eyes. He never expected that Achille Fuld could win a complete victory in the conflict with the emperor.
This also means that Achille Fuld retains a higher status in the emperor's heart.
As for Achille Fuld, the moment he heard that Jerome Bonaparte gave up, he was also very happy in his heart.
He finally stopped the emperor from continuing to "squander the family".
After the short-term joy, Achille Fuld also regretted whether his behavior just now was too irrational.
If the emperor had a grudge against him because of this incident, then Achille Fuld's future financial work would be difficult to carry out.
"Your Majesty, I am very sorry!" Achille Fuld immediately apologized to Jerome Bonaparte.
"My great steward, what do you have to apologize for!" Jérôme Bonaparte seemed to have forgotten the previous conflict and his attitude was still harmonious. "What you said does make sense. The empire's finances really need to be slowed down.
Got it!"
"Your Majesty!" Asheer Fuld felt moved in his heart.
However, before Achille Fuld could finish being moved, Jérôme Bonaparte's following dialogue directly made Achille Fuld's move disappear.
"Minister Fuld, I remember that the annual salary given to me by the empire is 2,000 francs, right?" Jérôme Bonaparte responded to Achille Fuld in a gentle voice.
Achille Fuld was a little confused. He didn't understand why the emperor suddenly talked about annual salary.
"Yes! Your Majesty! According to the laws of the Empire, as the highest-ranking public official in the Empire, you have an annual salary of 20 million francs!" Achille Fuld replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Immediately afterwards, Jerome Bonaparte asked Bemini to call Basilio over.
"Your Majesty!" Basilio saluted Jerome Bonaparte respectfully. He did not understand why the emperor asked him to come here.
"Basilio!" Jérôme Bonaparte asked softly, "Tell me honestly how much money the royal family has left every year in addition to basic expenses and banquets!"
After Basilio calculated carefully in his mind for a while, he said to Jerome Bonaparte, "Your Majesty!
Excluding the annual royal banquets, expenses, charity, and princely rewards for those who do not hold public office, the annual balance is about 3 million francs!"
"Then... what is the market value of Norinco?" Jérôme Bonaparte continued to ask.
"This..." Basilio thought for a moment, then bowed and apologized to Jerome Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, I'm sorry!
Because of my negligence, the palace did not conduct a detailed calculation of the market value of the group.
However, according to my estimation, the market value of Norinco Group is about 40 million francs."
"So much?" Jérôme Bonaparte touched his chin and said with emotion.
"Because the Norinco Group now covers all aspects of France, from essential oils for hair growth to rifles, artillery, and even steel plates for warships, they are all produced by the group company and the subsidiaries controlled by us!" Barisi
Austrian replied to Jérôme Bonaparte, "40 million francs is only the value of the company itself. There are also a large number of patents in the group!"
"If Norinco were to issue shares to the outside world, wouldn't it be able to expand several times in a short period of time?" Jérôme Bonaparte continued to ask.
"Theoretically so!" Basilio replied to Jérôme Bonaparte.
Immediately afterwards, Jérôme Bonaparte turned his eyes to Bemini and asked lightly.
"Mr. Bemini!
What if I use Norinco and my own annual salary balance as collateral to borrow from the Bank of France!
How much money can the Bank of France lend me, and what is the annual interest rate?”