"This..." Archbishop Talleyrand pretended to ponder for a moment, "perhaps I could find a way to help you.""Oh? Are you saying you could provide a loan?""That's not what I mean." Talleyrand leaned back in his chair, "I can try to persuade the French Government to accept your cotton in exchange for warships."However, as you know, if the funding to fight the pirates is not handled well, I might not find it too easy to speak on your behalf."Upon hearing that warships could be obtained without spending money, Hamilton immediately responded without hesitation, "Please rest assured, I will contact all the 'Federalists' to ensure the bill is passed as soon as possible.""That would be best."As Talleyrand spoke, he put on a mysterious expression: "If I could secure a lower cotton import tariff for the United States, would you be interested?""Of course!" Hamilton nodded immediately. Cotton was a significant export for the United States, and increasing exports to France would bring substa

Joseph furrowed his brows as he flipped through the pages, "He had gone to see Carolina, asked about Necker, and then someone wanted to kill him. Has the assassin been caught?""Two of the assassins are dead, and one escaped under the cover of night," Fouche said. "According to Prosper's investigation, those two were gang members from Toul."He hesitated slightly, "Your Highness, could it be that Carolina wanted to stop Mr. Mara's investigation into Necker and had someone assassinate him?"Joseph shook his head, lifting Mara's report, "Mr. Mara is very certain that Carolina has a feud with Necker, and he would not do such a thing to protect him.""Besides, Carolina is a very shrewd man. Even if he wanted to assassinate someone, he wouldn't do it on the very night after seeing them."Carolina had managed to become the Finance Minister while also serving as Chief Minister, definitely not a man of mediocrity. In fact, the tax reform bill in France was his creation, with later Finance Min

Joseph's forehead creased with lines of vexation as he tried to explain, "You see, I have urgent matters to tend to in Lorraine, and I really can't spare the time to take you to see the coal mines."Clementine shook his hand as she pleaded, pouting, "Please, take me with you—""But..."The little girl suddenly stepped back, pointing to her delicate, tender neck, and said with a grievance, "I listened to you and gave up 'Star's Wish'. That was my absolute favorite necklace! Don't you think you should compensate me a little for that? Please—"Joseph couldn't help but let out a long sigh to the heavens.A few days ago, when he saw 'Star's Wish' around the young girl's neck and asked about it out of curiosity, he found out that his frivolous mother had spent nearly 700,000 livres on it, adding to his cousin's 560,000 livres for a necklace that turned out to be a total scam.He immediately told the young girl that he had never worn the necklace and advised her to return it posthaste.Cleme

or some reason, when Joseph heard the figure "ten million livres," he felt no anger in his heart, but instead a bizarre sense of "comfort" surged to the top of his head.He leaned in towards Carolina, quite expectantly asking,"Is that the amount Necker pocketed himself, or the total sum of the problematic funds?""It's the profit Necker made from these transactions, Your Highness. Of the financial loans that passed through his hands at the time, more than half might have been abnormal."Joseph suddenly felt as though the whole world lit up, and he even heard the joyful singing of little angels by his ear.You see, during Necker's tenure as head of the treasury, France's borrowing from banks had increased by nearly one billion livres.If what Carolina said was true, even by the most conservative estimate, that would mean there could be illegal operations involving as much as five hundred million livres worth of loans.Joseph's heart raced—just by getting hold of this illegal evidence,

Joseph first visited Mala to inquire about his injuries, then he headed for Nancy.Toul is less than 5 miles away from Nancy, so just after noon, his convoy had already arrived at the newly established Nancy Industrial Development Zone.The development zone is located by the Morte River, encircled by a formidable grey stone wall that seems to stretch endlessly, covering an area of about five to six hundred acres.Still a distance away from the development zone, Joseph could already see smoke rising into the sky from the zone—coal mines were ubiquitous here, so coal was commonly used as fuel in production. After the introduction of steam engines, the consumption of coal had greatly increased.The officials of the industrial development zone, upon learning of the Crown Prince's arrival, hurriedly put aside their work and convened at the western gate to welcome him.The principal person in charge of the development zone was named Alexander Ramo, who was not a local official of Nancy but