083 How to solve the financial crisis more quickly and economically
That night, the French King and his family were escorted back to Paris by the National Guard and moved into the Tuileries Palace.
The people who surrounded the Palace of Versailles also followed the National Guardsmen escorting the king and returned to the city in a mighty manner.
The king entered the city, and the gentlemen of the National Assembly spent the whole night discussing what they should do, and finally decided to move into the city.
So Lafayette sent people to clear out the Royal Equestrian Field next to the Tuileries Palace, capture all the horses and find another place to keep them, shovel the horse manure, and then find a carpenter to build a set of stepped stands.
It was transformed into a meeting place.
When he first went to this new venue, Dandong complained all morning, saying that he smelled of horse manure.
An Ning actually smelled it a little bit, but he had experienced the test of college dormitories and could quickly ignore the peculiar smell of the nearby environment.
Without this skill, there is no way to survive in the boys' dormitory.
At the end of October, the National Assembly finally settled in the original Royal Equestrian Arena.
At the first meeting in the new venue, the topic was a rather explosive issue: how to solve France's current financial crisis.
Although the Declaration of the Rights of Man was revolutionized and feudal privileges were promulgated and abolished, and although the harvest of food appeased the people of Paris, France's financial crisis was not alleviated.
France already has a debt of four billion livres, and the national treasury simply cannot come up with the money to repay the debt.
What's worse is that now, according to the August Decree, farmers have completely ended their feudal obligations and no longer need to bear numerous exorbitant taxes. They simply don't pay any taxes at all.
Not only do farmers not pay taxes, many urban civilians also refuse to pay old taxes and fees, refusing to acknowledge the "legacy" of these old systems.
The result is that France is so big that it cannot collect any taxes.
Nowadays, the salaries of the National Guard basically rely on the sponsorship of big nobles and big businessmen. There have been cases in towns outside Paris where the local Self-Defense Forces are unable to pay their military salaries.
What is even worse is the situation of the original kingdom's army. Because the kingdom has been completely shut down, these armies have not been paid for a long time. News of soldiers' mutinies spread to Paris from time to time.
An Ning even received a letter from Napoleon, in which the young second lieutenant complained that the wages he received in the army were less than before, only a basic salary, and he had to spend extra money to mend his uniforms.
If the financial problem is not solved, the newly born constitutional monarchy of France will die in its infancy, without even waiting for the promulgation of the first constitution of a constitutional monarchy.
Therefore, the representatives of the National Assembly had to interrupt the original constitutional issue and discuss how to solve the financial crisis.
Lawyer Barnave was the first to speak - he gained considerable reputation for his support of violent revolution after the revolution, and is now one of the most important figures in the Parliament, second only to Mirabeau and Mounier.
Barnave stood on the brand-new podium, holding on to the new railings of the podium with freshly painted paint, and shouted loudly: "To solve the financial crisis, there is the simplest way! That is to let all the great nobles here, and
Big businessmen and bankers donate generously!
"You have so much property, so naturally you should bear more responsibilities!"
There were boos from the delegates' table.
Big nobles, big businessmen and bankers expressed their opposition in this straightforward way.
But Barnave did not give in: "I think a one-time patriotic bond should be issued! Subscribed by everyone based on the principle of voluntariness and equality. As long as a bond with a face value of one billion livres is issued, our finances can be completely solved."
difficulty!"
"Fantasy!" A pot-bellied representative immediately stood up and refuted, "One billion livres, do you think this is a small amount? Are you going to bankrupt us?"
Barnave still did not give in: "The problem now is that the army can't even pay the troops! You have also seen the March on Versailles in October. It was done by the people who were too hungry to survive. Think about poverty.
What will the soldiers who can't live with it do? In fact, I can always hear news of soldiers mutiniing recently!"
After Barnave finished speaking, the opposition that had been fierce just now suddenly subsided.
The rich people looked at each other, obviously they all thought of a terrible thing.
Barnave continued: "Do you want to see soldiers rushing over to loot your property? The angry people can impale the Marquis of Delaunay on a spear and parade him through the streets, and the angry soldiers can do the same thing! Who of you?
Do you want to parade in that way? Is it you? Or you? Or is it you?"
Barnave named several people in succession, but no one dared to answer.
For a time, the entire equestrian arena - the former equestrian arena fell into silence.
Barnave was very proud: "Yes, that's it. None of us want things to become like that. So I propose to vote for the issuance of patriotic bonds!"
Speaker Mounier stood up: "Is there any objection? If there is no objection, the vote will begin now."
Half an hour later, the voting results came out.
More than half of lawmakers disagree with the issuance of patriotic bonds.
Barnave angrily beat the railings of the podium: "You will regret it! You will definitely regret it when you are sent to the gallows by the rebels!"
With that said, he angrily stepped down from the stage and returned to his seat.
At this time, a figure wearing a black priest's uniform stood up and signaled that the speaker wanted to speak.
At first, An Ning didn't pay much attention to this person.
The people wearing black in the Parliament are generally conservatives, mainly a group of die-hard priests and petty nobles. Almost all of them wear black, so they have a black party.
Usually when these people dressed in black stand up and talk, they are just like the old three. They are just trying another way to fight for the lost feudal power.
Some priests in the Black Party even advocated the restoration of tithes, which can be said to be reactionary to the extreme.
But after An Ning saw clearly who the man in black was, he immediately became energetic.
This man is Talleyrand.
An Ning guessed that this chameleon was probably going to make a shocking suggestion that betrayed his class.
Talleyrand stood on the brand-new podium, stroked the new paint on the armrests with his hands and spoke slowly: "Actually, there is a good way to solve the financial crisis. Rather, there is a ready-made way to solve the financial crisis.
It's there, why didn't you gentlemen think of it?"
Talleyrand looked around the room.
Someone shouted unconvinced: "Stop bragging, can you still conjure money out of thin air?"
"Although I can't conjure money out of thin air, I can tell you where you can get it." Talleyrand said slowly, then glanced at the leader of the Black Party, Father Molière, "The church has accumulated money over hundreds of years.
A lot of wealth, as long as we confiscate the church's wealth, the financial crisis will be solved."
A burst of noise immediately erupted in the venue.
Father Molière of the Black Party stood up directly and said angrily: "What did you say? Talleyrand, you traitor to the church! Are you worthy of the church's kindness in raising you?"
Talleyrand shrugged: "The church is indeed kind to me, but now that I am a member of the National Assembly, France is in danger, and I have to stand up!"
An Ning is convinced. This is the real leader of the fence faction. Look at how upright and awe-inspiring this sentence "France is in danger" is.
Just when An Ning was impressed, the entire hall became noisy with all kinds of sounds.
At this moment, Mirabeau stood up and suppressed all the discussions with his rich voice: "Everyone! I think this is a good idea! According to the constitutional principles we have established, natural human rights, everyone is equal, and the church's
Privileges will be permanently revoked!
"In the future, France should have a new, nationalized religion, just like the Church of England. Priests no longer need those luxurious robes and gold and silver instruments, all of which can be confiscated!
"There are also church properties and churches that are large enough to accommodate people, all of which can be nationalized.
"In this way, France will gain billions or even tens of billions of wealth, enough to support us to establish a new tax system!"
Mirabeau finished speaking, and the noise rose again. Everyone was expressing their own opinions on this explosive statement.
There is only peace and quiet.
Dandong was having a heated discussion with others when he suddenly noticed that An Ning was silent, so he leaned over and asked, "Why don't you express your opinion?"
An Ning curled his lips: "The confiscation of church property can indeed temporarily solve the financial crisis, but... in the long run this may lead to a split in the church and even lead to rebellion."
An Ning actually read the script and spoiled it directly.
But in Dandong it sounds like this is the outlook for the future.
Dandong: "No...that's it?"
"Why not? Think about it, in backward areas, such as Vendee and other places, the church priests are the organizers of local community life, and the priests are very prestigious among the local farmers. Now you want to copy
What will the peasants do to these priests’ homes?”
Dandong pursed his lips and fell into deep thought.
Robespierre, who was next to him, also turned his head and said to An Ning: "If you say so, it is true... but there is no other better way to solve the financial problem. We can't just take advantage of it. Fortunately, it only belongs to the farmers.
The rebellion should be suppressed soon by the National Guard."
An Ning looked at Robespierre: "What if the farmers get help from Britain from the sea?"
Robespierre also fell silent.
An Ning sighed: "However, you are right. Now there is no solution to the financial crisis except expropriating the church's property. I support the expropriation of the church's property."
Later that day, after heated discussions, the parliament passed a bill to comprehensively expropriate church property by a vote of 568 in favor to 346 against.
As an incident to the expropriation of church property, the Parliament also decided to take back the two papal enclaves in France, Avignon and Conta-Furnessen.
No one expected that this decision would ignite the civil war.