Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 978: Chapter 241: Losing Money Deal

As the Allied Forces continued to withdraw, the public security in France deteriorated sharply. The newly empowered Paris Revolutionary Government clearly lacked governance experience, and their measures were laughable at best.

For instance: the “Economic Recovery Law,” the “Employment Law,” the “Social Assistance Law”…

These measures seemed admirable, yet they overlooked feasibility. Whether it was economic recovery, employment boosts, or social assistance, all depended on one thing—money.

Unfortunately, France was broke. The continental wars had not only bankrupted the French government, but had also severely weakened civilian financial groups who were powerless to provide funds to the Paris Government.

Printing money was someone’s brilliant idea when there was none. Small denominations like 1 franc and 2 francs had long disappeared from history; since the success of the Paris Revolution, zeros on the francs had only multiplied.

In this France where everyone was a billionaire, carrying a bag of money to buy bread was no longer newsworthy.

No matter how hard ordinary people tried, they couldn’t keep up with the inflation. As The Times described, the franc added a zero every month.

The economy had already collapsed, but the Paris Revolutionary Government was still engaged in constant infighting. President Robert, the scapegoat, had long been ousted by the furious French populace, and now in charge was the seventeenth president of the French Republic—President Batiste.

Changing governments every two months truly embodied the notion of “everyone gets a turn to be emperor, next year it’s my turn.” Put simply, any political faction with a modicum of power had produced a president.

Alas, the ultimate outcome was always the same, no one in power lasted long, let alone controlled the situation.

Holding a cigar, and after a puff of smoke, President Batiste asked, “When can we expect assistance from the Continental Alliance?”

France was out of money, the only option left to escape the financial crisis was to seek international help. Unquestionably, the only players left capable of providing support were from the Continental Alliance.

Although the British also had money, taking John Bull’s money was like holding hot coals! The current dominator of Europe was the Holy Roman Empire; getting entangled with the British was akin to seeking death.

Foreign Minister Fernandes said regretfully, “I am very sorry, Mr. President. The Continental Alliance has issued their ultimatum already, ordering us to determine the candidate for king within a month to restore the monarchy.

If we cannot meet their demands, not only will we lose international aid, but we may also face sanctions from the Alliance.

Just yesterday morning, the chairman of the Food Committee of the Holy Roman Empire, Chekhov, issued the Grain Export White Paper, reducing our planned grain import for the second half of the year by one million tons.”

Theoretically, after giving up the Italian Area, France shouldn’t have lacked food. However, that was just in theory. Due to the war, French agricultural production had suffered devastating blows, and the nation had to rely on international imports.

Monopoly over the European grain trade by the Holy Roman Empire wasn’t a recent development, and with the birth of the Continental Alliance, this monopoly had reached new heights.

As an upgraded version of the European Union, the Customs Union was naturally indispensable. American countries wishing to export agricultural products to France had to pay hefty tariffs.

If these tariffs were collected by the French government, there’d be no issue. Unfortunately, as part of a debt repayment fund, France’s right to impose tariffs had long fallen into the hands of the Anti-French Alliance.

Evading taxes was impossible. The Vienna Government kept a tight watch on the import of foreign agricultural products and industrial goods. Even if someone wanted to smuggle goods, they’d have to take them from their own stock.

Under these circumstances, the reduction in grain exports by the Holy Roman Empire was undeniably a fatal blow to the Paris Government.

Once grain imports were insufficient, a severe famine could break out and devour the Paris Revolutionary Government in moments.

“Have all our efforts really been fruitless?”

With that, Batiste closed his eyes. The reality was stark; if several alliance countries had spoken for them, they wouldn’t have ended up in such dire straits.

As a member of the Republicans, Batiste simply couldn’t compromise on the restoration of the monarchy.

In fact, even if the Paris Revolutionary Government was willing to compromise, results wouldn’t emerge overnight.

Although it appeared that the Republicans held power, in reality, the Royalist Party was still the majority in the government. If not for the nearly equal strength and mutual checks of the Three Monarchical Parties, the Republicans wouldn’t even matter.

Foreign Minister Fernandes waved his hand helplessly and said, “It’s all because of the Bonaparte Dynasty; they offended all European countries, making our current diplomatic efforts difficult to advance.

Changing this situation isn’t something that can be done overnight. Unless the climax of a European revolution emerges again, otherwise…”

The Bonaparte Dynasty had offended many countries, and the Paris Revolutionary Government had similarly managed to offend numerous states. Merely the term “Revolutionary Party” was enough to provoke strong dissatisfaction.

Revolution was contagious, and the enthusiasm of the Continental Alliance to promote the restoration of France was essentially to curb the spread of revolutionary thoughts.

Batiste interjected, “Stop, now is not the time to export revolutionary ideas. If we start exporting revolutionary thoughts, the Russians outside of Paris will immediately come to kill us and send us to the guillotine!

It’s not that I’m scared, but currently, the monarchic feudal system is too powerful. We don’t have the capacity to clash with them yet, and there’s no need to make needless sacrifices.”

Prime Minister Michael warned, “Mr. President is right, it’s really not the time to face off against the enemy.

Right now, our most pressing issues are solving the refugee and unemployment crises. Especially the refugee crisis has become a malignancy threatening national security.”

Many local governments could no longer hold on. If we could not quickly come up with measures, they would direct the refugees toward Paris.

In fact, some places had already started to do so. I took a tour around Paris and the actual situation was ten times worse than we had previously anticipated.

The relief food distributed by the government simply couldn’t cover everyone comprehensively. Many places were in chaos; within just one morning, I personally witnessed three robberies.

This was still Paris; the public order in other domestic regions could only be worse. If we could not think of a way to quickly restore order, I feared…

The problem was right before our eyes, visible to everyone. Unfortunately, how to solve it left everyone dumbfounded. If it were easy to fix, France wouldn’t be frequently changing governments.

…

In the distance, a group of raggedly dressed people appeared on the horizon. Men, women, the elderly, and children alike; it was clear that this group resembling a “beggar army” was fleeing hardship.

The leading middle-aged man, panting, said, “Ahead is Paris; once we get there, we’ll have bread to eat!”

“Really? They won’t make us eat grass roots and tree bark again, will they?”

The youthful face of a teenager displayed a skeptical gaze, which embarrassed the middle-aged man greatly.

“Of course, it’s true. This is Paris, our capital. The richest place in all of France, we’re bound to find something to eat!”

In reality, the middle-aged man had no confidence in his heart. Along the way, they had faced too many hardships, almost becoming numb to them.

Local residents saw them as a calamity, and so-called local government relief provided merely a black loaf of bread or a potato each day—hardly enough for one meal, let alone a whole day.

For survival, they reluctantly fed on wild vegetables. Unfortunately, with the overwhelming numbers of refugees, wild vegetables were quickly consumed, leaving them to last on tree bark and grass roots.

Not wanting to sit and wait for death, the middle-aged man resolutely led his family towards Paris, their last hope.

The family of the middle-aged man wasn’t the first to head to Paris, nor would they be the last. Since the prime forces of the Anti-French Alliance had withdrawn, refugees had been flooding into Paris.

Outside the city of Paris, at the command center of the Russian Army, General Yevgeny suddenly let out a sigh.

“The number of refugees in Paris is increasing; I don’t know if the French government can hold on.”

His concern for the French government didn’t mean he favored France. In fact, General Yevgeny was a staunch anti-French figure.

The reason for this was that his father and brother had both met God during the battle in Crimea. National and personal grievances mixed together, prompting Yevgeny to join the stationed forces actively.

Rather than being concerned about the French government, it was more about the reparations the French government had to pay. Even though Russia would only receive a few million Divine Shields in the first year, this was still significant income for the Tsarist Government.

The fundamental purpose of Russian forces stationed in France was to ensure the regular payment of reparations. If France fell into chaos, General Yevgeny would not be able to complete his mission.

“Commander Sir, you are worrying too much. If the French government can’t endure, just let another take over. No matter who wins or loses, as long as they continue to pay the debt.

With this idle time, it would be better to think of ways to trade some specialties back to our country to make some spending money.

I think French mechanical equipment is pretty good. Seize the opportunity to confiscate a few factories and take their equipment back; it would definitely make a lot of money.

By then…”

Before the middle-aged officer could finish his words, General Yevgeny interrupted, “General Andrey, if your brain has waterlogged, go ahead and do it! This loss-making deal, don’t involve me. @@novelbin@@

Trading mechanical equipment, it’s impressive you could think of that. Do you not know that our domestic industrial standards are Austrian, who would buy French machinery if you brought it back?”

Industrial standards were a hard obstacle. It’s one thing whether domestic engineers could operate French machinery, but key issues included compatibility with the industrial chain.

Raw material specifications, spare parts replacement, whether products met market standards—these were all considerations.

If French machinery were really brought back home, it would necessitate moving the entire industrial chain, which was clearly impossible.

Relocation, installation, and production startup would not only require time but also significant capital investment. The funds needed to change the national industrial chain would be enough to bankrupt the Tsarist Government a hundred times.

Being unable to relocate the industrial chain meant treating just some industrial equipment as nearly worthless as scrap metal. Taking machinery from Paris to sell as scrap in Russia would surely be a loss.

Of course, low-tech industries with lesser demands on the industrial chain could still do this, though these industries were generally saturated.

Capitalists wouldn’t switch out machinery in their factories for cheaper plucked ones; this didn’t align with their interests.