Make France Great Again-Chapter 742 - 733: Retrieving the Water That Was Spilled
"So, you exiled them all?"
Jerome Bonaparte’s inquiry made Rue feel like he had messed up. He hurriedly explained to Jerome Bonaparte that not everyone was exiled; most were imprisoned in debt prisons due to debt issues.
After all, in this era, literati more or less had some debts, so putting them in debt prisons seemed reasonable.
"Ah!" Jerome Bonaparte sighed slightly. He understood that Rue’s intention was also to maintain the majesty of the Empire in the citizens’ minds.
If an empire uses majesty to intimidate its subjects, it won’t be long before it gets overthrown.
However, Rue’s methods were rather too crude.
"Your Majesty!" Rue cautiously asked Jerome Bonaparte, "Should I go and release all those who are imprisoned now?"
"What’s the use of going now!" Jerome Bonaparte said blandly, "Doing so will only make those guys even more reckless!"
"Then what should I do?" Rue inquired of Jerome Bonaparte again.
"Did those people you detained clearly oppose the Empire before?" Jerome Bonaparte asked Rue.
Rue nodded to Jerome Bonaparte, "Your Majesty, I can assure you that every single one of them has spoken against the Empire!"
"Among them, how many have opposed this war?" Jerome Bonaparte asked Rue again.
At this time, Rue turned his gaze to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Percy. Although he was in charge of the trials, Pessini had always been the one to gather the charges.
"Your Majesty, the vast majority of them opposed the war!" Percy quickly told Jerome Bonaparte.
"Then it’s simple!" Jerome Bonaparte clapped his hands and said to Percy and Rue, "You two send someone to the prison in a moment to release those who are willing to cooperate with us.
You can tell them, I don’t require them to fully support the Empire, as long as they promise not to oppose the Empire again!"
"Your Majesty, what about the remaining ones?" Rue asked another question.
"You can gather the anti-war remarks of those unwilling to cooperate and post them throughout Paris. Then use public relations to smear those guys, fabricating evidence that they received Russian Rubles during the war!" Jerome Bonaparte responded confidently to Rue, "Trust me, there will definitely be brave Parisians who will fight for us!
By then, they will either choose to join us or leave France quietly!"
After hearing Jerome Bonaparte’s words, Rue and Percy were truly enlightened. It was the first time they realized they could use smear tactics to defeat their opponents!
"This method is much better than arresting people randomly!" Jerome Bonaparte warned them, "I told you to make good use of public opinion! Now that all of France’s public opinion is under our control, ruining their reputation is an easy task!
The reason those public figures have such power is because they have been in the public’s eye for a long time.
Once people stop paying attention to them, they will be powerless!
Do you understand?"
Rue and Percy nodded at the same time, and then Jerome Bonaparte continued to say to them, "Also, you need to make more use of the newspaper censorship system. This way, you can prevent some harmful thoughts from invading the French people’s spiritual realm!
By the way, Rue, later you will send a telegram on my behalf to all provinces of the Empire, ordering them to strictly investigate unauthorized rural tabloids!"
Jerome Bonaparte clearly remembered that it was because the Second Empire in history neglected to strictly control local newspapers at the city level that the Republican Faction rooted themselves at the grassroots level, gradually eroding the Empire’s power.
Although now he had gained more support than his cousin in history, he could not neglect the surveillance of the Republican Faction.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Rue and Percy nodded simultaneously and replied to Jerome Bonaparte.
After instructing them, Jerome Bonaparte waved them off, telling them they could leave and to summon Mokar again.
Rue and Percy hurriedly got up and left. After a while, Mokar appeared in front of Jerome Bonaparte.
"I need you to make another trip, summon Minister of Finance Mane and Bank of France Governor Bemini!" Jerome Bonaparte immediately ordered Mokar.
Upon receiving the order, Mokar quickly left Jerome Bonaparte’s office, while the slightly weary Jerome Bonaparte lay on the sofa to rest his eyes.
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Jerome Bonaparte woke up from his slumber to the calls echoing in his ears and saw Mane and Bemini upon opening his eyes.
"Pardon me for making a fool of myself!" Jerome Bonaparte quickly took his feet off the sofa, his face showing an embarrassed yet courteous smile.
"Your Majesty, we have also just arrived!" Mane hurriedly offered Jerome Bonaparte an excuse.
"Don’t just stand there! Please, sit!" Jerome Bonaparte extended his hand to invite Mane and Bemini to sit down, and then ordered Mokar: "Bring me three cups of coffee, one with sugar, the other two..."
Jerome Bonaparte looked at Mane and Bemini, who both indicated that they too preferred their coffee with sugar.
After Mokar left, Jerome Bonaparte immediately inquired with Mane about the French Empire’s total annual fiscal revenue and expenditure from the previous year.
Mane informed Jerome Bonaparte that the French Empire’s total annual fiscal revenue last year was approximately 268,560,000 (26.856 billion) francs, while total expenditure was 298,750,000 (29.875 billion) francs, resulting in a fiscal deficit of 3 billion francs.
Among them, the largest item last year was undoubtedly the military, with total military expenditure amounting to approximately 8.5 billion francs.
"How could it be so much!" Jerome Bonaparte couldn’t help but ask Mane.
He clearly remembered that he only proposed a military expenditure of 3 billion francs to the Legislative Corps once; logically, it should be at most around 6 billion francs!
"Your Majesty, we were also very surprised when we received this data!" Mane replied with a bitter smile to Jerome Bonaparte and then remarked to him, "Thankfully, this war lasted only one year, otherwise..."
Subsequently, Jerome Bonaparte turned his gaze to Bemini and asked, "How many small denomination banknotes has the Bank of France issued so far?"
"Your Majesty, we have issued nearly 10 billion in banknotes so far!" Bemini also responded to Jerome Bonaparte.
"Has there been any problem in the meantime?" Jerome Bonaparte continued to ask Beitobang.
"So far, no problems have arisen!" Bemini shook his head and answered Jerome Bonaparte.
"If I wanted to counterfeit your banknotes, would it be difficult?" Jerome Bonaparte recalled the words of the old man on the train and immediately asked Bemini.
This time, Bemini’s attitude was not as decisive as before. After hesitating for a moment, he replied to Jerome Bonaparte that the banknotes were printed with special watermarks, so such situations should not likely occur.
Moreover, it was unlikely that anyone would imitate those low-denomination notes of 5 or 10 francs.
"I see!" Jerome Bonaparte pondered for a moment and then ordered Bemini to closely monitor the issuance of Bank of France banknotes and to supervise banks holding large amounts of them, to prevent them from maliciously dumping the notes and triggering a crisis.
"Is there something wrong with our banknotes?" Bemini nervously asked, not wanting to fail regarding the banknotes issue.
"No!" Jerome Bonaparte shook his head, calmly answering Bemini, "You just need to inform those members of the Bank of France’s board!"
"I will definitely convey your words to them!" Bemini responded to Jerome Bonaparte.
"By the way! There’s one more thing. Now that the war has ended, we should consider reclaiming some of what we have given out!" Jerome Bonaparte continued to say to Bemini.
Upon hearing Jerome Bonaparte’s words, a smile appeared on Bemini’s face.
The amount of reserves the Bank of France had to release to stabilize the market during this period made Bemini quite uneasy.
If it weren’t for Duke Golitsyn transporting the Russian Empire’s assets to use for purchasing rifles for their civil war, the Bank of France would really need to consider selling a batch of English government bonds at a low price to stabilize the market.
Now that the war is over, they no longer need to subsidize the empire’s industry!
However, Jerome Bonaparte’s next words brought the poor manager down from heaven to earth: "This reclaim cannot be done all at once; we still must subsidize them for a while!"
"Yes!" Bemini had to comply with Jerome Bonaparte’s arrangements and answered.
"Tell those shareholders, I have found them a suitable harvesting ground! Now, please, let them shed a little more to maintain the current prosperity of the empire!" Jerome Bonaparte informed Bemini of the indemnity and mine mortgage that Alexander II had agreed to.
A smile reappeared on Bemini’s face, as for French capital, the Russian Empire seemed like a natural treasury country.
Now the entire treasury, under the leadership of the Emperor, had opened for them; how could they not be moved?
