I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 864 The Crown Prince's Day Off

The wind blew the flying snowflakes sideways.

It seemed as if a layer of crystal diamonds was sprinkled across the sky and earth.

The marble square was covered with snow deeper than boots, reflecting the glow of the gas lamps, as if it were covered with smooth, sweet cream, and the icicles on the eaves looked like icing sugar for decoration.

Joseph picked up a snowball, ran quickly to the frozen fountain, turned around and threw it behind him.

A dozen guards and maids wearing thick cloaks and pure white cashmere scarves gathered around with laughter, like a large group of jumping "Snowballs".

As soon as the snowball in Joseph's hand landed on Csaud's back, a cloud of silver flakes appeared on his own shoulders.

Upon seeing this, the maids immediately surrounded the captain of the guard and used a series of snowballs to "avenge" the Crown Prince...

After the Iberian-Apennine Summit, Joseph finally had some rare free time. He had just returned from winter fishing in the Blue Lake and happened to encounter heavy snow, so he suddenly had the urge to start a snowball fight with everyone.

After running for a long time, Joseph rubbed his frozen hands and breathed out. Camelia, who was standing beside him, ran over, took off her gloves, held his hands to warm them against her chest, and said with a smile, "Your Highness, I made pine nut pumpkin soup, which will be ready soon. Drink it and you will feel warm soon."

Veronique, who was not far away, saw the prince and the maid chatting and laughing, and suddenly felt sour. She squinted her eyes, pretended to avoid a snowball, and ran towards the two of them at an angle.

She estimated that the distance was about right, but suddenly her foot slipped, she cried out "Ouch", and fell towards the prince.

Joseph saw someone "hitting" him from the corner of his eye, and subconsciously put his arms around Camelia's slender waist and pulled her backwards to avoid it.

Veronique thought she would be hugged by the prince, but it was too late to stop, and she almost fell sideways to the ground.

"what--"

As she screamed, a white figure suddenly flashed by and reached out to catch her when she was less than 30 centimeters from the ground.

Veronique was still in shock, and when she looked up she saw the face of her personal guard Raymond.

The latter was about to ask her if she was injured, but suddenly he felt two large soft bags in his hands, and his heart began to beat wildly.

Veronique saw Raymond blushing and realized something was wrong. She was immediately ashamed and angry. She pulled his shoulders and tried to stand up, but she used too much force and pulled the guard down, with his face right next to her mouth.

The laughter of the maids could be heard all around.

Veronie finally struggled to stand firm, not even bothering to brush off the snow on her body, and fled towards the gate of the Palace of Versailles with her head down.

Raymond felt the place on his face where he was "kissed", stared at her back, his heart beating faster, and murmured to himself: "She, is she expressing her love to me..."

Joseph was completely unaware of what had just happened. He was drinking pine nut pumpkin soup when he heard Emand say, "Your Highness, according to the schedule, you will summon Archbishop Brian and others in 15 minutes."

"Okay, I got it." Joseph exhaled and stuffed the unfinished soup to Camelia, "Hey, I have to work overtime on my day off..."

As soon as he returned to his reception room, he saw François Bernard, the court's chief cook, and then Emand came over and bowed, "Your Highness, Mr. Bernard asked, would you like roast peacock or red wine stewed venison as your main course for dinner?"

Joseph held his forehead and shook his head: "Does he want to wipe out all those things in the Versailles Palace Zoo?
"Please tell him not to make these expensive and tasteless things in the future. Just stew ordinary venison." He still remembered the peacock meat at the last banquet, which was tough and dry, not as delicious as roasted pigeon. However, for the sake of the royal family's pomp, the royal chef had to make this kind of thing every now and then.

The butler went away with his head lowered, and Brian, Mirabeau, and Vergniaud passed him in.

The three stepped forward and saluted: "Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Joseph smiled and nodded, then gestured towards the sofa: "Please sit down."

Brian and the others were already familiar with the style of the crown prince, so they didn't exchange pleasantries and went straight to the point, placing a document on the table in front of him: "Your Highness, this is this year's fiscal revenue and expenditure estimate report, as well as the government expenditure plan for next year that you requested."

Joseph nodded, picked up the document and opened it, nodding secretly in his heart. With Brian's continuous improvements according to his own requirements, the efficiency of the French financial system has become higher and higher.

In the past, it would take until March or April of the following year to calculate the income and expenditure of the previous year, but now most of the time I can submit it to myself before February.

Because of the outbreak of a large-scale war this year, he specifically requested that the financial situation be counted in advance. As a result, Brian had completed the work in early December.

Of course, there is no data for November and December. Joseph mainly wanted to see how much impact the war had on the national economy.

Brian looked over to see where the Dauphin had turned and explained to him:
"Your Highness, last year, excluding the last two months, the total fiscal revenue was 6 million francs. If nothing unexpected happens, the annual revenue will reach 4 million francs."

Joseph was very satisfied with this number.

Last year's total fiscal revenue was 7 million. This year it seems that there has been almost no increase, but you have to know that this achievement was made in the context of a national war.

According to the estimated data submitted by the Intelligence Agency, Austria's fiscal revenue will probably drop by about 11% this year, and Prussia and other German states involved in the war will even drop by more than 17%!

Even the United Kingdom, which is once a prosperous country, has fiscal revenue 4% lower than last year.

Joseph knew that this was the result of Britain's increase in personal income tax. Otherwise, the subsidy on sugarcane this year alone would have caused their income to fall as much as Austria's.

France's ability to maintain income growth is largely due to the high profits from beet sugar production, which offset the huge military expenditures.

Of course, another important factor is that the ratio of the size of the French army deployed on the battlefield to its national strength is far smaller than that of Prussia and Austria.

France only sent its standing army, while Austria carried out a general mobilization, which would consume a large amount of social labor force in the war and would inevitably affect domestic production.

Moreover, this impact is not yet obvious this year because many factories still have savings and can still hold on.

By next year, Austria will see a bigger recession.

As for Prussia, it was in a state of national mobilization all year round. It maintained a standing army of nearly 800 with a population of just over 20 million, and military expenditure accounted for more than half of its fiscal revenue.

Therefore, once Prussia went to war, it had to gain profits from the war, otherwise the national economy would immediately run into problems.

(End of this chapter)