I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 896: Britain's Problem

Wellesley looked at the Foreign Secretary, Lord Grenville, who immediately echoed:

“At present, the most beneficial way for our country should be to end all ground wars as soon as possible.

"After that, our main goal should be to try to promote the unity of the German states, wait for them to recover their strength, and then plan the siege of France."

Little Peter rubbed his forehead tiredly, and looked out the window with bloodshot eyes: "This is equivalent to admitting that our country has lost the war..."

Admiral Jervis, Chairman of the Naval War Committee, said:
"No, Mr. Prime Minister, it's just that Prussia and Austria were defeated.

"We can use our naval superiority to continue the trade blockade of the French coast. This way the war will continue."

Little Pitt took a deep breath and tried to struggle again, but then he heard the Home Secretary, the Duke of Portland, say:
"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, our country's financial situation makes it difficult to support a large-scale war."

Little Pete looked at him and said:
"You know, we have already opened up a large number of sugarcane plantations from Punjab to Bengal in India, and we are also trying to grow sugar beets in Prussia. The financial problem will soon be alleviated."

Yes, as the price of sugar soared, the profits from growing sugarcane became huge, and a large number of British people who used to grow sugarcane in the Caribbean went to India to resume their old business.

The climate in northern India is very suitable for growing sugarcane, but it has not yet been developed. In fact, even if there is no sugarcane crisis, in another 20 to 30 years, India will become one of the world's most important sugar producing areas.

As for Prussia, after its defeat, it also set its sights on the lucrative sugar business.

Historically, this place is the birthplace of beet sugar production, so growing beets is naturally not a problem.

There are more than 100,000 farmers growing beets in France, and it is impossible to prevent the outflow of seeds.

At the same time, Prussia poached some French sugar factory workers at high prices and began to trial build a sugar refinery in Potsdam.

The Duke of Portland sighed: "It will take at least a year for India to have a harvest, and it is even more unknown when the beets in Prussia will bear fruit.

"And if our financial situation is not relieved in a short time, I am afraid that the Whigs will launch an attack on you in Parliament."

Pitt the Younger had previously imposed a nationwide personal income tax, which caused widespread resentment in Britain. Now his support rate in Parliament had dropped to a low point. Fortunately, George III spared no effort to support him, so he was able to avoid impeachment.

The war situation is not favorable now. If the economic situation continues to deteriorate, he may be driven out of office at any time.

The room fell silent.

After a long while, Little Peter looked around at everyone again and said in a hoarse voice:

"Are there any other opinions?"

Stay silent.

"Okay. Let's stop here." He nodded slowly and looked at Lord Grenville. "Please go to Vienna and try to promote a ceasefire as decently as possible..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the Second Foreign Secretary Canning knocked on the door and placed a document in front of him.

Little Pete frowned: "What is this?"

Canning glanced at the other ministers and whispered:
"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, this is an urgent report just sent from Lisbon. Their envoy is still waiting in my office."

Little Pitt suddenly had a bad feeling. He opened the document in a few seconds, skipped the diplomatic jargon at the beginning, and quickly saw the key words - Spain assembled 3 troops to attack the Almeida Fortress. Portugal was unprepared and the fortress was in danger.

He quickly turned to the last page and saw that the date was 4 days ago.

In other words, the Almeida Fortress may have fallen now. Little Pitt's face turned pale in an instant, and he handed the document to Lord Grenville:

"It seems that we have to discuss the reinforcement of Lisbon first."

Portugal is Britain's foothold for projecting power to the European continent. Losing it would mean halving its influence on the European continent, so it must not be lost.

Little Pitt immediately smiled at the Duke of Portland and said, "I'm afraid the financial problem will have to be dragged on. After the arrangements for aid to Portugal are completed, I will resign immediately."

……

Birmingham, England.

In the No. 2 workshop of the Bolton-Watt Steam Engine Company, Sandel pointed to a row of dashboards and shouted excitedly to the company directors in front of him:
"See, gentlemen? I told you that as long as I'm here, the high-pressure steam engine won't be a problem!
"It has an output power of 51 horsepower and has been running normally for more than 30 hours. Whether it is weight, volume or coal consumption rate, all indicators exceed those of French products, haha!"

Thunderous cheers from directors and technicians immediately rang out all around.

Bolton glanced at Watt who was silent beside him, and took the lead to hug Sandel:

"Congratulations to you and to our company!"

Falconer also took two glasses of wine from the servant and came over, handing one to Sander:
“Thank you for your excellent work. With this machine we will be able to fulfill the Navy’s order.

"One hundred and fifty thousand pounds. God, can you believe this? We are going to make one hundred and fifty thousand pounds!"

The second half of his words was directed at Watt, the company's former chief engineer who had questioned Sandel's high-pressure steam engine until a few days ago, but the facts finally shut him up.

According to the Navy's contract, the company had to complete the development of the new steam engine by the end of March, but Sander brought the delivery time forward by more than two months.

Watt had no choice but to come over reluctantly, take a glass of wine from Bolton, and gesture to Sander as a congratulations.

He was well aware that after the high-pressure steam engine earned huge profits for the company, the company's research and development work would inevitably be dominated by Sandel.

And this guy was originally just a small technician under him.

However, Watt soon calmed down, after all, he made 15 pounds.

As one of the three largest shareholders of the company, he will definitely get a large sum of money. No matter how proud Sandel is, isn't he working for himself in the end?

Sandel clinked glasses with a few people, then patted the steam engine behind him and said loudly:
"We have to hold a board meeting as soon as possible to discuss the mass production of this thing."

Mass production of a new machine will inevitably require a large capital investment, and this is a decision that the board of directors has to make.

noon the next day.

All 15 shareholders of the Bolton-Watt Steam Engine Company were present in the meeting room on the second floor.

However, the only ones who have the final say here are Bolton and three other major shareholders, who hold 3% of the company's shares.

Bolton made an opening statement and was about to talk about the batch production when Sandel's cousin, who was also his spokesman, stood up and said bluntly:

"I believe that everyone knows about the new high-pressure steam engine. Mr. Sandel has made an outstanding contribution to it.

“I think it would be reasonable to increase his stake in the company to more than 20%.

(End of this chapter)