I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 366: Indian Natives’ Counterattack

Joseph began to carefully study the land redemption plan submitted by Brian.

At the beginning of the document, it was stated that the public land previously illegally occupied by the nobles must be returned free of charge.

Joseph could not help but nod slightly. This version was finally an improvement over the previous one.

In the feudal era, the ownership of land in France was very chaotic, and almost no one could absolutely own a piece of land. A large amount of feudal land was jointly owned by the king, nobles, church, and local government, or it belonged to no one.

In addition, the right to occupy, use and benefit from land usually belonged to different people. The feudal lords were not actually the owners of the land, but they had the right to collect taxes and designate farmers. Of course, the king also had some right to collect taxes.

Many of these lands belonged to public land, such as forests, ponds, and wastelands, which usually accounted for half of all the land in a village. According to regulations, farmers could mow grass, chop wood, and graze on these public lands, while nobles could hunt here.

However, after hundreds of years of evolution, the nobles relied on their power to occupy these public lands, turning them into their own hunting grounds, summer resorts, fish ponds or reclaiming them for farmland, and levied taxes on these illegally occupied lands.

In the first two versions of the land plan, the public lands occupied by the nobles were converted into a proportionate amount and allowed to be redeemed by the peasants. The reason was that the nobles had also paid a lot of costs to "develop" these lands.

The latest version of the plan finally forced the nobles to return the public land.

But Joseph knew that this matter was not that simple.

The amount of public land occupied by the nobles is huge, and some not-so-rich nobles even rely on these lands for their livelihoods. This is definitely not a problem that can be solved simply by saying "abolish" them.

The king could issue a decree to reclaim public land, but a large number of desperate nobles could also gather together and mess up the country. The nobles were the most influential group in feudal society.

Joseph continued to look at the documents in his hand:
The annual tribute, tithe and other taxes will no longer need to be redeemed. The annual tribute farmers can pay 25 times the annual output value of the land, and other types of tenant farmers can pay 30 times the annual output value of the land as a one-time redemption fee. At the same time, the transfer fee for such redeemed land is 5 times the normal transaction fee. In addition, farmers must first pay all the overdue annual tribute and other taxes before they can redeem the land.

The document also included an estimated total amount for land redemption in France - 38 to 40 billion livres.

Joseph was almost amused.

It's obvious that this thing was made by Mirabeau and his group.

The annual tribute and tithe were abolished to disgust the old aristocracy, because the new aristocracy hardly relied on these feudal rents and taxes to survive.

The one-time redemption fee of 25 to 30 times the annual output value of the land is something that ordinary tenant farmers simply cannot afford. Looking at the total amount of 40 billion livres, you can see that if French farmers could come up with so much money, there would be no need to reform the land system - who would care about the ownership of your land when you are so rich?
Not to mention the billions of dollars in redemption money, in fact, more than half of French farmers cannot even pay the overdue rent and taxes. In other words, they are not even eligible to participate in the redemption.

This redemption plan was obviously prepared for the capital aristocrats to annex and speculate on land. Only they could afford such expensive land.

After buying the land, they can manipulate the land price and resell it to make a fortune. The peasants still have to rent their land, but the feudal rent has changed to the surplus value being exploited by capitalists.

Joseph could imagine how disappointed the peasants would be with the royal family after experiencing the excitement of getting rid of the shackles of feudal rent and taxes, and then falling into another heavy exploitation. Yes, the peasants would only blame these problems on the royal family, because you are the "boss", the biggest target, and the easiest to be targeted. Then, the great destiny might come as promised, albeit belatedly...

Joseph couldn't help rubbing his eyebrows.

Although this version of the land redemption plan was an improvement over the previous one - the previous version even required farmers to redeem 30 years of feudal rents before they could buy land - it would still seriously intensify social contradictions in France.

Historically, the fundamental reason why the Feuillants and the Girondists quickly collapsed was that their land redemption policy was opposed by the whole country.

To be honest, Joseph really wanted to start a revolution to eliminate the aristocracy - that way he could copy the actions of the Jacobins in history.

However, if the fate is serious, the lives of my family will be in danger...

How can we stabilize the aristocracy while reducing the pressure on the lower-class peasants to redeem their land as much as possible, while also taking into account the attitude of the capitalist class?
He rubbed his hair irritably and picked up a pen to revise the land redemption plan.

The feudal rents and taxes had to be partially redeemed, and the way public land was handled was totally unacceptable. This was to protect the jobs of some of the old aristocracy.

The redemption amount of 25 to 30 times the annual output value of the land is definitely unreasonable, and it is even more unreasonable to ask for a lump sum payment. Here, banks can consider providing loans to farmers. The total redemption cost in the country cannot exceed 15 billion livres.

Set a minimum per capita guaranteed land area. Before exceeding the minimum guaranteed area, farmers can redeem their land at the most favorable price, and the amount for the excess will be gradually increased.

In addition, the longer the cultivation time, the higher the yield per mu, and the cheaper it is to redeem the land...

After Joseph finished writing these, he still felt unsatisfied, so he sent the revised document back to Brian, asking the smart people of this era to think of a solution.

What Joseph didn't expect was that this "crack" in the land redemption policy would soon be targeted by another group of people.

……

London.

British Foreign Secretary, the Marquis of Wellesley, came out of the Parliament Hall, got into the carriage with a gloomy face, and drove straight to 10 Downing Street.

"How is it going?" Prime Minister Pitt the Younger was obviously waiting for him. He personally opened the door of his office and welcomed him in. "You don't look well."

"The situation in India is probably much worse than we imagined." Marquis Wellesley hung his hat on a rack beside him, turned around and closed the door, and said in a deep voice, "When I was questioning in Parliament just now, the Whigs said that the Mysore army suddenly attacked Cannanore, and more than 200 people from the East India Company were captured, and several ships were lost."

Little Peter's face suddenly changed. He first cursed the intelligence system in his heart - such a big thing, he didn't know it earlier than the opposition party - and then looked at the Foreign Minister: "What on earth do those Indian natives want to do?!"

(End of this chapter)