I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1121 Trade Surplus and Market Expansion

After lunch, the cabinet meeting entered a rather dull phase—discussions began on the problems facing each department.

The biggest challenge for the Ministry of Agriculture is that the Crown Prince demands control over the scale of sugar beet cultivation.

Previously, farmers who grew sugar beets made money because of the high sugar prices. Now that you're telling others not to grow them, they'll definitely object.

There have even been cases of people secretly planting sugar beets in wheat fields.

Vinio has already suggested imposing a tax on beet seeds.

Furthermore, there is a lack of manpower to cultivate vast tracts of land in North Africa. It's worth noting that Tunisia and Algiers are fertile plains; with just a little tilling and sowing of seeds, one can expect a good harvest.

Only the extremely poor French were willing to settle in North Africa.

Needless to say, Saint Louisiana was another story. The French government offered free ferry tickets, and upon arrival, people received 70 acres of land, a small cabin, and a generous subsidy of 120 francs for men and 160 francs for women. However, after a year, only a little over 7000 people immigrated to North America.

As France continues to develop, many problems are causing Joseph a real headache.

He thought for a moment and instructed Venio: "The main thing is to strengthen publicity and find someone to paint some beautiful landscapes of North America."

"Another important thing is to promote French as soon as possible. Mr. Rahman's simplified French can make this process easier. When more people speak French, they will feel at home, and it will also speed up the construction of towns."

If you let a French architect direct a group of Algonquin speakers to build houses and roads, it would be the death of him.

The main problem for the Ministry of Civil Affairs is insufficient funding.

There's nothing anyone can do about this; we can only wait for the government to have a surplus and allocate more funds accordingly.

Meanwhile, Mirabeau stated very seriously at the Ministry of Industry that France's industrial growth rate may gradually slow down starting next year.

Joseph frowned immediately: "Please explain the basis of your judgment."

“The market, Your Highness,” the Minister of Industry said. “Our sales market is already close to saturation. In fact, some factories went bankrupt last year due to product backlog.”

"The Industrial Development Fund has begun to restrict production increases in industries such as steel and paper, but many companies without government ownership are still expanding aggressively."

Joseph asked, somewhat surprised, "Is the Italian market saturated too?"

It's worth noting that Italy only joined the Iberian-Apennine Common Market three and a half years ago. How could it be unable to absorb so much so quickly?

Mirabeau said helplessly, "Your Highness, the wealthy regions of northern Italy, such as Genoa and Venice, have relatively small populations. And the densely populated areas like Piedmont and Emilia are actually not wealthy; at most, they just buy some of our textiles."

Bai added from the side, "Moreover, there are beginnings of people in northern Italy rejecting our products, which is further impacting the market."

Joseph's face darkened. "Rejection? What's going on?"

Bai said cautiously, “Ah, it’s things like ‘France is using Italy as a dumping ground’ or ‘We’re almost a French colony.’ You know, there are always some malicious guys who like to make up these kinds of things.”

Upon hearing this, Joseph paused for a moment, then pressed his forehead in annoyance.

While these claims are somewhat biased, France's industrial capacity and size far exceed those of Italy and other countries. With both sides implementing low tariffs, France was indeed essentially dumping its products on them.

Yes, a few years ago, even Austria couldn't withstand France's "dumping," leading to a continuous deterioration of its finances. It's said that abolishing the Seine-Rhine Trade Agreement was one of the key reasons they decided to join the anti-French coalition.

Continuing down this path is tantamount to draining the pond to catch all the fish, and will inevitably incite anti-French sentiment among the Italian people. But what can be done?

We can't let Italy and other countries raise tariffs again, otherwise the common market would be a waste.
Joseph recalled those small European countries of later generations, such as Switzerland and Finland. They were also small in size, yet they were able to thrive in the face of industrial giants.

why?

It's very simple; they all possess some advantageous industries.

Because of its small size and small population, any small-scale industry can easily support itself as long as it can be refined and strengthened.

Joseph nodded to himself as he thought about this.

While the Italian states today all have some unique industries, they are far from having an "advantage".

The key to breaking the deadlock is to help them establish their own livelihood.

Industries like Florence's leather industry and Venice's Murano's glass processing already have a good foundation. As long as we help them strengthen their industries and build solid supply chains, their profits can be greatly increased.

For example, Florence's leather industry currently mainly produces leather boots, which sell fairly well in France, but the revenue is far from enough to offset the trade deficit with France.

But we can certainly expand our industry based on this.

You can get your hands on leather bags, leather gloves, leather hats, and even leather whips.

Even with just a handbag, as long as the packaging and marketing are good, women will immediately spend lavishly on buying it. Just look at how sought-after Chanel limited editions are in later years.

At most, my mom can carry the handbag around Versailles a couple of times, and it will soon be a bestseller all over Europe.

Take Murano's glass industry, for example. Right now, they're just making window glass and glasses. If they started developing optical lenses, laboratory beakers, condensers, and the like, their sales would easily multiply several times.

This is just expanding the product line; if we further develop the industrial chain, our competitive advantage will be even greater.

There are many other small-scale industries that France doesn't consider important, such as musical instrument manufacturing, art processing, and candle production, enough for the Italian countries to divide among themselves.

Even less important industries like papermaking could be partially relocated to Italy. Of course, they would have to be moved to a "local" country like Modena, and a certain patent fee would have to be collected.

Once the industries in the Italian countries take off, not only will they increase their income and purchasing power, effectively helping France expand its market, but they will also instill in the Italian people the idea that "France is helping us get rich," thereby strengthening their affinity for France.

Joseph immediately looked at Brian: "Archbishop Brian, please inform the member states of the Iberian-Apennine Common Market that a summit will be held in Paris in a month. I want to talk to them about trade and industry issues."

"Yes, Your Highness."

……

Poland.

Warsaw.

Inside the council hall of the Royal Castle, a stocky member of parliament exclaimed excitedly, "St. Petersburg has shown its sincerity, and this is a golden opportunity for us to improve our diplomatic relations with our neighbors!"

Someone immediately spoke coldly beside him: "Why should we improve relations with barbaric invaders?"

(End of this chapter)