I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 612: France's Achievements
After two years of vigorous promotion, "stone fertilizer", that is, phosphate fertilizer, has been widely accepted by French farmers.

After all, this thing can really increase wheat production by more than 10%, and the price is not expensive - phosphate ore is just stone at the place of production, and it is basically free. All costs are incurred in the transportation process, so it is very cheap.

In addition, with the vigorous promotion of agricultural service consulting companies and the church, almost every French farmer has adopted the new type of composting.

Phosphate fertilizers and compost increased France's wheat and potato production by about 14% last year compared to the year before. This is because a lot of land was converted to sugar beets, otherwise it would have been even higher.

At the same time, soil fertility has improved significantly, and the fallow period has been extended from three years to four years.

However, Vergniaud seemed to think that this growth rate was not as good as Mirabeau's amazing industrial data, so he just mentioned it in a few simple words.

In fact, after French farmers gained the right to redeem their land, their willingness to improve their planting techniques increased significantly, and various new agricultural tools and fertilizers were rapidly rolled out with the help of agricultural service consulting companies.

After experiencing various natural disasters in the past few years and facing the threat of famine many times, France's agriculture has now completely stabilized.

Vergniaud then spoke of the olive plantations in Tunisia.

In fact, France started importing olive oil from Tunisia a long time ago, but due to limited quantity, the French still use butter or sunflower oil for cooking.

However, Vergniaud, the Minister of Agriculture, is still very diligent. When he was promoting the composting method in Tunisia at the beginning of last year, he accidentally noticed the olives there.

Tunisia is definitely a paradise for olives. The plants grow quickly, there are almost no diseases and pests, and the yield is very high.

However, the olive trees here are almost untended, growing together with bushes and weeds, and even left to monkeys and birds to eat the ripe fruits.

So he thought of promoting the olive plantation model in Tunisia.

After seeing his planning proposal, Joseph immediately approved it and also gave him additional policy benefits such as tax reduction and tree species subsidies.

At first, Joseph just wanted to use this opportunity to develop Tunisia's economy, but unexpectedly, Vergniaud did a very good job and got unexpected rewards.

In Tunisia, olive trees are everywhere. With just a little money, you can enclose a large area of ​​olive trees and basically turn it into a plantation.

If government subsidies are taken into account, the investment is almost negligible.

As a result, many French immigrants in Tunisia and local nobles started olive plantations.

The nearby Tunisian tribes provided sufficient labor for these plantations. Even the women and children in the tribe could earn some income by doing weeding and watering.

Under Vergniaud's promotion, hundreds of plantations of various sizes were built in Tunisia in just one year.

Thanks to the careful care of the plantation owners, the olive production has increased significantly compared to the past. Last year, the total amount of olive oil shipped from Tunisia to France increased by 190%!

On the other hand, with the support of Mirabeau, Vergniaud encouraged investors to build four large oil pressing factories in Tunisia, which directly pressed and barreled the oil at the place of production, further reducing transportation costs.

Thanks to a series of measures, the price of olive oil in the French market is now lower than that of sunflower oil. French people are also more willing to use oil when cooking. A popular dish in Paris recently, "Beef with Asparagus", is fried with olive oil, which is considered a "petite bourgeois" dish for the common people. Even more sophisticated bakeries will add a little olive oil when making black bread to improve the taste.

Vergniaud mentioned in the report that three new oil mills will be built in Tunisia this year. Taking into account the expansion speed of plantations, the price of olive oil can be reduced by another 3% after the olive harvest in October.

What Vergniaud had not expected was that the good profits from the olive plantations - the Crown Prince gave a 60% tax reduction - attracted more French people to immigrate to Tunisia to run plantations.

Last year, the number of immigrants was close to 10. Currently, there are more than 25 registered Tunisian immigrants. There are also many who came by boat from Italy, Spain and other places, and it is estimated that there are to people.

At the same time, the olive trade has also promoted the construction of towns in Tunisia. At present, several oil mills have gradually developed into small towns, and two of them have even started to raise funds to build wooden tracks leading to the port of Bizerte.

It can be said that Vergniaud used the "olive strategy" to put Tunisia's development on the fast track.

After the Agriculture Minister, the Trade Minister, the Household Registration Minister and others also spoke.

It’s just that their achievements were overshadowed by the brilliance of the previous three and seemed somewhat mediocre.

Bai's biggest achievement is that the "Special Trade Association" has established a sales network in the Indian Peninsula, the Caribbean and Brazil, but this cannot be brought up at the cabinet meeting.

Therefore, he could only focus on the export growth to Germany and Italy.

With the special sales methods of the trade union caravans, slogans such as "Don't pay nine hundred and ninety-nine" and "Invite friends and family to come and have a go" have become well-known in most of Europe, and sales are booming.

In addition, as the cost of French industrial products continues to decline, key products such as wine, paper, and chemicals almost dominate the markets in southern Germany and Italy, and the market share of steel, machinery, and furniture is also increasing rapidly.

Even in Russia, the Ottoman Empire and other places, French goods are constantly eroding the market share of British goods.

The Minister of Registrar looked at Vergniaud with resentment.

Because his greatest achievement, the large-scale immigration to North Africa, was just "spoiled" by the latter, and he finally talked about conducting a census in Corsica and promoting identity cards.

Even the Minister of the Navy, the Marquis of Castelli, who had not been visible in the cabinet meeting for a long time, stood up and introduced the new steam-powered warships under construction and the situation of the Naval Academy to everyone.

Queen Marie was very excited when she heard the brilliant achievements of her ministers. France had made such amazing progress in the past year.

She couldn't help but look at Joseph, thinking to herself: It seems that all these achievements appeared after the Crown Prince took over the cabinet... My son is indeed a son favored by God. His political talent surpasses mine. No, it can even be compared with his grandmother!
Queen Marie's mother, Maria Theresa, was the last ruler of Austria and the person she admired most.

Queen Mary couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. Perhaps she should have let her son take charge of the government earlier.

But a smile soon appeared on her face again. Her son was able to do so well, wasn't it because of her careful teaching? In the future, I will provide more support to Joseph behind the scenes to make France stronger!

(End of this chapter)