Chapter 20 Budget (Seeking Investment)

Castri's face turned green as he glared and exclaimed, "Your Highness, how can you say that? The fleet is France's sharpest spear, we absolutely cannot..."

Calmly, Joseph looked at him, "Marquis of Castries, may I ask how many ships the British can build while we build one battleship?"

"Well," Castri seemed to lack confidence, "about one and a half..."

Seeing the Crown Prince smile without responding, he became somewhat annoyed and said, "Two. The Brits do indeed launch new ships at a very fast rate, even more than two!"

Joseph nodded, "That is to say, no matter how hard we try to build ships, we will never beat the British Navy."

He had uttered a truth that everyone present knew but dared not openly acknowledge, and suddenly there was complete silence.

Joseph continued, "If that's the case, why should we waste vast resources on shipbuilding? For escorting merchant ships, the current fleet is sufficient."

He certainly knew the importance of the fleet and would definitely not oppose expanding the navy. What he opposed was continuing to waste money on large and useless old-fashioned sailing warships.

England held a huge advantage in shipbuilding, with numerous shipyards, skilled craftsmen, ample funds, and, being an island nation, the ability to allocate army resources to the navy, something France could not afford.

If it was a mere contest of shipbuilding numbers, France was destined to fail. The Battle of Trafalgar more than a decade later proved this, as even with France's utmost efforts to produce warships, combined with Spanish and Dutch fleets, they were still thoroughly defeated by the British Navy on the high seas.

After that defeat, France's maritime trade routes were completely blockaded by Britain, leading Napoleon into a decline, while Britain eventually became the empire "on which the sun never sets."

Thus, there was only one way out—abandon the popular multi-decked sailing warships and leverage the advanced technology in his mind to move directly to ironclad ships, equipped with steam engines and stronger artillery, to launch a dimension-reducing strike on British warships.

However, he couldn't disclose these plans at the Cabinet meeting, especially since someone like Orleans could very likely leak the information.

"But..." Knowing full well that the Crown Prince was sophistically arguing, Castri did not immediately know how to refute him and was only worried that Queen Mary would really listen to him and slash all the new ships.

Brian gave Joseph an approving look; the young man knew how to haggle! And he had just taken office, yet he already was contributing to the financial cutback schemes, which might indeed prove him to be a valuable assistant.

He cleared his throat and pretended to be serious, "Your Highness, although our finances are a bit tight, we absolutely cannot give up on naval development. Cutting even one ship of the line is already the limit."

Mono joined in advising, "Our overseas colonies also need warships for oversight, otherwise the rioters there will cause trouble every few days."

In the end, Queen Mary made the final decision, "Joseph, reducing expenses should not be too radical. Marquis of Castries, for now, let's follow Archbishop Brienne's plan and cut back one ship of the line and two second-rate ships. However, for the construction of the other new ships, I hope you can also carefully review them and eliminate wasteful spending."

Castri's new ships were nearly obliterated; he weakly nodded, having narrowly escaped disaster, "Yes, Your Majesty."

He silently lamented: the Crown Prince was still too young to understand the significance of the navy to the nation, focusing solely on cutting expenses. He must communicate more with him in the future to change his perspective.

With the troublesome Navy now taken care of, Brian felt much relieved and moved on to read the subsequent cost-cutting plan, "I believe everyone has heard about the situation in the Netherlands. The Patriot Party resisted for less than a month before being crushingly defeated by the Prussians. In light of this, I think we can halt our support to the Dutch Patriot Party, which will save the treasury 250,000 livres a month."

Joseph frowned slightly, remembering the information about the Dutch Patriot Party movement.

It was a rebellion initiated by the new Dutch capitalists and citizens aimed at overthrowing William V. With the support of France, they had successfully expelled the Stadtholder William V from the Netherlands and established the States General.

Later, under the scheming of William V's wife, Prussian Princess Wilhelmina, the Prussians intervened with troops, the Patriot Party collapsed, William V was restored, and the French people's initial investment was entirely lost.

One by one, the Cabinet Ministers expressed support for abandoning the Dutch Rebel Army; after all, twenty thousand regular Prussian troops had already marched into the Netherlands, and the Patriot Party's forces were no match; it was best to cut losses as soon as possible.

Queen Mary looked around the room, "Any other opinions?"

"I think..." Joseph stood up.

Minister of War Saint Priest had wanted to struggle a bit more since France had invested a lot in the Netherlands, but seeing the Crown Prince speak out, he immediately felt disheartened—judging from his recent move to scrap all new ships from the navy, he must be part of the anti-war faction, and with the Queen's favoritism towards him, assistance to the Dutch was surely doomed.

Joseph said loudly, "Your Majesty, I think we must not only continue supporting the Patriot Party but also need to increase our aid and even display an attitude willing to confront Prussia with troops. We absolutely cannot allow the Patriot Party to collapse!"

"Oh?" The Queen was quite surprised, "Tell me your reasons."

"Firstly, the Netherlands is the mouth of the Rhine River to the sea. If we control it, we can effectively restrain Prussia.

"Secondly, the Netherlands has a well-developed commerce. Incorporating it into our sphere of influence, we could recoup the aid through trade alone.

"Finally, we will inevitably have a war with Prussia in the future, and the Netherlands could tie down a large number of Prussian troops on the western front."

"If we allow Prussia to control the Netherlands, all of this will become an asset for Prussia!"

In fact, Joseph left out two points.

First, the Netherlands has a significant reserve of coal and iron, and now with the starting gun of the industrial revolution fired, whoever holds more coal and iron resources in the future will have a greater advantage.

Second, the Patriot Party is adept at inciting trouble; they would flood into France after being driven out of the Netherlands by Prussia. Historically, they frequently caused disturbances in France during the Great Revolution.

No sooner had he finished speaking that the expressions of all the Cabinet Ministers changed slightly.

The Crown Prince was indeed very reasonable, but while he was adamantly against constructing warships, here he was supporting aid to the Dutch, especially with his mention that "a war with Prussia is inevitable"—could it be...

They all lowered their heads, forcing themselves not to consider the worst possibility.

Brian was the first to speak up, "Your Highness, our financial situation no longer permits us to give more money to the Dutch."

Joseph said, "Didn't we just save a sum intended for building warships? Let's allocate some of that to them."

Navy Minister Castries nearly cried, "Thank you, Your Highness."

The Minister of War, however, was overwhelmed with joy, "Thank you so much, Your Highness."

"This..." Brian again felt relieved that the financial decision-making power remained in his hands.

Queen Mary helped him out, "Joseph, your reasons are well-founded, however, even if we provide more aid to the Patriot Party, I fear they might still be unable to withstand the Prussian army."