Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Fouche was startled upon hearing this, then a sparkle of excitement shimmered in his eyes as he clapped his hands, "Your Highness, this method is simply brilliant! I request that it be included in the spy training curriculum."

Joseph smiled, waved his hand, and said, "What I just described was merely the basic model of a 'moral attack,' You can further expand it yourself."

Throughout history, many celebrities and tycoons were brought to disrepute by such simple and low-cost methods; even many who later proved their innocence were still profoundly affected.

"Basic model?" Fouche's eyes widened, "You mean, there's something even more vicious than this?"

"Yes," Joseph said casually, "You need to broaden your thinking."

"For instance, having a handsome man dress as a lady to seduce Paul, then manage to intoxicate him, and follow the same steps as before. When he cries out for help, calling the police and onlookers, then 'accidentally' reveal his chest hair..."

Fouche was petrified. For the first time, he felt as pure as a young maiden, trembling in this cruel and perverse world.

Seeing his expression, Joseph realized that these tactics might be tarnishing his own image, and hurriedly coughed, "Ahem, well, actually I was inspired by some wild stories told by the Austrian soldiers."

He didn't wait for the head of the intelligence agency to respond, and quickly continued: "Also, what I wanted to say is that you can't just attack that separatist from a moral standpoint."

"After all, even a morally corrupt leader will still have followers."

Fouche pondered, "You mean?"

"Interest," Joseph made a fist, "If everyone believes that Paul will erode their interests, combined with his unacceptable morals, then he will certainly 'socially die'!"

"'Socially die'?" Fouche heard a foreign term.

"Oh, it's short for 'social death'," Joseph explained, "Some people, although alive, are already considered dead in their social circles."

Fouche nodded thoughtfully, "I must also incorporate this into the spy training curriculum."

He then looked at Joseph, "Your Highness, then let's design some traps involving the interests between Paul and his organization members..."

Joseph listened to his plan and immediately proposed enhancements based on some "sly practices" from the future.

After nearly an hour of discussion, they preliminarily finalized a plan to deal with the leader of the Restoration Faction from Corsica, and Fouche returned to the intelligence bureau to make detailed arrangements, constantly reminding himself: in the future, offend anyone but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The door to the reception hall was pushed open again, and the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Commerce walked in.

Both men bowed to Joseph, and Mirabeau first handed over the document he was carrying with both hands.

Joseph glanced at the document titled "1789 National Industrial Development Overview," and immediately smiled and praised, "In just over three months, you've compiled the industrial development of the last year, the efficiency of your work is exceptional."

In an era without Excel, let alone telegraphs, compiling national industrial data was an extremely daunting task.

Considering that industrial data had not been collected before, they could only draw parallels from the statistics of agricultural data. The national agricultural overview for 1788 took a full nine months to compile.

As an emerging noble familiar with the capitalist production model, Mirabeau was far more efficient than the old nobility bureaucrats. Of course, this was also because he usually paid attention to the collection and organization of archives, which enabled him to complete last year's industrial report in such a short time.

"Thank you for your Highness's praise; it is all part of my duty."

As the Crown Prince began to browse the document, Mirabeau stood by and gave a brief introduction, "Under your wise leadership, Your Highness, last year our country's industrial scale expanded to more than 140% of its original size."

"Especially in the papermaking and machinery industries, the growth scale has reached 3.5 times and 2.3 times, respectively."

Joseph nodded.

With the enhancement of wood pulp technology in papermaking, such a significant increase was not surprising. However, the fact that the United Steam Engine Company alone had so drastically elevated the machinery industry was truly remarkable.

However, he also knew that this belonged to the initial explosive growth of new industries, which, as the industries matured, would gradually slow down in the future.

Mirabeau glanced at the spot Joseph was looking at and continued,

"Ah, the brewing industry, yes, although the scale of the brewing industry only grew to 115% of its previous size, thanks to your new brewing technique, the profits have increased by 2.3 times."

Joseph was quite satisfied with this figure.

After all, brewing was a cornerstone industry in France; the fact that it had a 15% growth on an already substantial scale was significant.

Additionally, with the aid of pasteurization, French wine almost monopolized the entire high-end market, significantly increasing its profitability. This alone contributed nearly ten million francs in taxes to the French treasury each year.

Joseph also saw in the report that, driven by wine, French beer had begun to make strides. Since the last half of the previous year, Normandy beer had gradually expanded into Germany and Italy, markets which had previously been dominated almost exclusively by Dortmund and Bavaria.

As Joseph turned the page, Mirabeau continued his explanation, "Textiles, steel, and coal industries also saw appreciable growth. Especially given our substantial investment in these industries this year, although we will face competition from countries like England and Austria, I am optimistic about this year's development..." Discover more content at My Virtual Library Empire

Having finished reviewing the "Industrial Development Overview," Joseph felt a profound sense of accomplishment—under his relentless efforts, the momentum of France's industrial growth was formidable, much better than historical situations had ever been.

Following this trend, in just a few years, France's industrial production capacity would be able to compete with that of the British.

Of course, in terms of markets and raw materials, the British still had a significant advantage since they possessed the most colonies in the world.

Thus, France's main targets were to rely on the Rhine-Saone Treaty to penetrate the German market as much as possible while rapidly developing the North African market.

After all, for the development of industries, the sales market is even more crucial than technology and scale.

Looking at the dense data on the report, Joseph felt a bit dizzy.

He rubbed his nose bridge and turned to the Minister of Industry, "Count Mirabeau, for documents in this data format, I have a more effective and intuitive way of presenting information."

"Oh?" Mirabeau leaned forward eagerly, "I hope Your Highness could teach me."

Joseph took some paper, a pen, and a ruler and began drawing while referencing the data from the document. He explained, "The vertical axis represents output or amount, and the horizontal axis represents the months. Mark each month's production at the corresponding point on both axes and then connect all the points with lines."

He handed Mirabeau the finished line chart of the paper industry's output, "This is called a line chart."

He allowed Mirabeau a moment to absorb the information and then drew a circle on another piece of paper, marking it with data, "This one is a pie chart."

"This one is a bar chart…"

"This one is a scatter plot…"

"And this is a spider chart…"

Joseph silently apologized to Lapras in his mind, "To enhance government work efficiency, I could only 'spoiler' your statistical chart method in advance. As a Frenchman yourself, you should be able to understand, right?"