Life of Being a Crown Prince in France-Chapter 713 - 622 Valentine’s Day is Here

Chapter 713: Chapter 622 Valentine’s Day is Here

“I’ll need a few more minutes to finish encoding. Extremely sorry.”

Utilizing Poland to align the interests of Prussia and Ao was England’s established strategic plan, so Jason, after a large number of conservative Nobles were arrested recently, immediately realized these people were of great use.

Thus, he made contact with Prussian officers in the Polish military—as Poland had been imitating Prussian military systems for a long time, their army had a large number of officers of Prussian descent.

Under the orchestration of Jason, these Prussian officers switched the soldiers escorting Pototsky, coordinating with British Spies to complete this “prisoner snatch” operation.

Pototsky clenched his teeth and said, “It must be those people from the Patriotic Party, and Poniatowski! They want to control the Congress and have thrown all the Nobles who won’t submit to them into jail. This is a crime, it’s treason!”

Jason nodded, his tone solemn, “But these traitors have taken control of the Congress and even command the army.”

“No, there are still those in the army loyal to tradition and faith,” Pototsky said. “Moreover, we are certain that Russia will not stand by and watch Poland’s order be disrupted!”

Jason’s interest was piqued, and he quickly asked, “Which army are you referring to?”

“We have already made contact with some officers; if someone could stand up and call on them, they would surely respond.”

“How many?”

“At least two to three thousand soldiers.”

“It seems there is still hope,” Jason’s eyes twinkled with amusement, “As for Russia, I will arrange for you to secretly meet with the Tsar.”

…

Paris.

A sleek and luxurious “Gem 7L model” carriage, escorted by guards, smoothly advanced on wooden tracks toward Notre Dame.

This was the latest model released by the Gem Carriage Company, equipped with switchable wheel modes allowing it to travel comfortably on both regular roads and wooden tracks. Therefore, despite a hefty price tag of over 3,000 francs, it was still in high demand. To get one within a month, one had to pay at least 4,000 francs.

Inside the carriage, Joseph absently flipped through the sugar beet cultivation report submitted by the Minister of Agriculture, lost in thought.

Currently, France had planted over 8,500 acres of sugar beets in the region north of Valois, which was already a considerable scale, but in the past two months, the area of sugar beet cultivation had hardly increased at all.

Venio was still doing his best to promote it, but the farmers were instinctively skeptical about new things. They preferred to grow wheat, which filled their stomachs, and their acceptance of potatoes was also improving.

This was even with the government providing tax breaks and the agricultural service consulting firm offering loans, otherwise reaching even 8,000 acres would be difficult.

And Joseph knew well that other countries were waiting for the French Government to quell the unrest, but in fact, the French Expeditionary Army was merely there to deliver equipment.

The Caribbean Sea Region would soon be overwhelmed by the abolitionist movement, and sugar production would plummet exponentially.

Historically, during the slave uprising in Santo Domingo, sugar production had plummeted directly from eighty million pounds to less than four million pounds.

The Caribbean supplied Europe with 85% of its sugar, meaning, before long, Europe would face a sugar shortage.

However, relying on just over 80 million acres of sugar beets was far from enough to supply France, let alone export them for profit.

Yet it was not feasible to force French farmers at gunpoint to switch to sugar beet cultivation. Therefore, Joseph thought of the largest landlord in France—the Catholic Church.

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The Church owned over 10% of France’s arable land. If he could persuade the Church to allocate some land for sugar beet farming, it might be possible to achieve the scale Joseph anticipated, between 40,000 to 60,000 acres.

Historically, Napoleon had cultivated about 30,000 acres of sugar beets at the beginning of the 19th century, barely enough to supply the sugar market in Western Europe.

However, Napoleon had to compete with cost-effective Caribbean sugar cane and could only afford high subsidies, so he sustained it for just over a decade before significantly scaling down the cultivation.

Now, Joseph was confident that sugar beets could be profitable, so naturally, the more, the better.

He also wanted to test the new carriage he had mentioned, so he drove to Notre Dame de Paris to discuss the matter with Archbishop Beaumont.

40 minutes later, the luxurious silver-gray carriage gradually came to a halt at the edge of the square in front of Notre Dame.

Joseph looked out the carriage window and saw the area in front of the church was packed with people. The carriage couldn’t even squeeze into the square.

He turned to look at Eman, “Is there a major mass today?”

Eman pondered for a moment and replied, “Your Highness, today seems to be Valentine’s Day. These people are probably here to seize ‘the first True Love Charm bestowed by Jesus.'”

Joseph immediately cupped his forehead, having genuinely forgotten that today was February 14. The “race for the first True Love Charm” was actually his idea, inspired by the famous future event of “grabbing the first incense.”

Thanks to the deep-rooted influence of Catholicism in this era, the outcome of his “plan” was surprisingly good.

With the promotion that “the recipient of the first True Love Charm shall receive the blessing of Jesus,” last year’s event at Notre Dame for the first time brought in a whopping 190,000 francs!

Of this amount, just the contribution—auction really—from Miss Debolei of the Viscount family to obtain “the first True Love Charm,” totaled 45,000 francs.

And this year’s event appeared to be even more bustling than the last.

Left with no choice, Joseph went around to the back door of Notre Dame and entered through a special passageway.

The priest who came to greet him hesitated upon learning the Crown Prince wanted to see Archbishop Beaumont.

Joseph then remembered that the Archbishop was probably presiding over the event of granting “the first True Love Charm,” so he told the priest, “Never mind, don’t disturb the Archbishop. I will wait a while.”

He wouldn’t dampen someone’s most profitable event of the year.

The priest quickly bowed in thanks, and Joseph strolled casually inside Notre Dame. With the crowd concentrated at the main entrance, the church interior was relatively empty.

After walking around for a while, Joseph, feeling a bit bored, sat on a bench in a prayer room, casually picked up a Bible, and began reading it as one would a novel.

On the square of Notre Dame, Archbishop Beaumont stood on a high platform, spread his arms, and recited prayers, then excitedly exclaimed, “Now, let us feel the blessing of Jesus,

————

Conservatism, in different contexts or historical periods, has varied meanings, yet possesses a similar essence – a political philosophy emphasizing existing values or status quo. Conservatism is usually contrasted with radicalism, not progressivism. It does not oppose change, but opposes radical changes, preferring safer approaches. During economic modernization in Western democratic nations, conservative ideologies primarily encompass the denial, resistance, or opposition to industrialization and marketization of the economy and occasionally on political and ideological dimensions (sometimes military).