After listening to the expansion blueprint of the business leaders in Toulon, Jero Bonaparte did not show a trace of happiness; instead, he furrowed his brows tightly.
The business leaders standing beside Jero Bonaparte beca flustered at this sight, not understanding which of their words had displeased His Majesty the Emperor.
"You... Your Majesty!" the leaders called out nervously.
Jero Bonaparte, coming back to his senses, relaxed his furrowed brows, and with a reassuring smile, said, "No need to be so tense! I was just thinking about sothing; please continue!"
The leaders breathed a sigh of relief and continued to introduce the industries and plans under their command to Jero Bonaparte.
Jero Bonaparte listened attentively to the leaders’ descriptions, nodding from ti to ti, seemingly in agreent with their plans.
After the banquet ended, Jero Bonaparte ordered the butler to summon Minister Dico to the study, while he made his way to the study first.
"Minister Dico, His Majesty requests your presence in the study!" The butler respectfully inford Minister Dico.
Minister Dico, after being stunned for a few seconds, asked the butler, "Did His Majesty tell you why he wanted there?"
"His Majesty did not say! He just asked to inform you!" the butler continued.
"Then lead the way!"
Guided by the butler, Minister Dico arrived at the door of the study, pushed open the door, and entered the study.
At this mont, only Jero Bonaparte was in the study, sitting quietly beside the fir wood desk, gazing at the kerosene lamp with its blue fla burning on the desk.
Only upon Minister Dico’s arrival did Jero Bonaparte shift his gaze from the fla to Minister Dico.
"Your Majesty!" Minister Dico respectfully called out to Jero Bonaparte.
"Dico, you’re here!" Jero Bonaparte gestured invitingly, "Have a seat!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Minister Dico, with steps slightly faster than usual, ca before Jero Bonaparte and sat down.
The butler, seeing this, hurriedly closed the door for them, leaving only Jero Bonaparte and Dico in the room.
"Dico, I rember before you beca a minister, you also ran a business, right?" Jero Bonaparte asked Dico in a friendly tone.
"Yes! Your Majesty!" Although Minister Dico did not understand why Jero Bonaparte asked this, he honestly answered Jero Bonaparte’s question.
"How is your shipyard doing now?" Jero Bonaparte pursued with another question.
"Thanks to Your Majesty! The shipyard is generally running well, and my wife plans to expand the factory again by the end of this year!" Minister Dico replied to Jero Bonaparte.
Ever since Jero Bonaparte started the major construction of the navy, all the shipyards in France have ushered in a new spring, with many factories working overti to rush their production.
And after the Crian War began, France’s industry centered on naval transportation also took advantage of the winds of war to reach new heights.
If Jero Bonaparte was the primary beneficiary of the Crian War, then the second beneficiaries were these entrepreneurs and bankers in the real industry.
"Expand further?" Jero Bonaparte looked at Dico in amazent, not understanding whether Dico was truly or feigning ignorance. Did he not know that once the war stopped, all the factories might have to lay off workers?
"Yes!" Minister Dico smiled and replied to Jero Bonaparte, "The current scale still cannot et our fleet’s manufacturing needs, especially after the developnt of new warships. I found that many factories couldn’t et the new warship supply chain requirents (a term taught to him by Jero Bonaparte), so I want to rge all non-compliant companies into a few larger groups! Just like the Paris Northern Industrial Group so that they can complent each other!"
Good heavens! He thought of the Torus Group so quickly!
Jero Bonaparte couldn’t help but praise Minister Dico’s foresight.
In this nation filled with small farrs and a soil of conservatism, to even glimpse the vague outline of the path ahead was already genius.
"Dico, as a businessman and politician, you should understand that this war will eventually end!" Jero Bonaparte told Minister Dico, "We cannot drag this war out for ten, eight years... No, not even ten or eight years! Even if we drag the war to this ti next year, I’m afraid the citizens of Paris will rise in rebellion against us!"
A brief surge of adrenaline can make the French people forget the inflation caused by expansion, but once ti prolongs, the whole of France will imdiately find itself in turmoil.
The historical French Empire hastily ended the war when the populace began to re-evaluate their gains and losses in this conflict.
Even though Napoleon III acted so swiftly, the French Empire could not avoid facing economic turmoil in the year after the war officially ended (1857).
Then in 1859, Napoleon III continued with his adventurous actions, acquiring Savoy and Nice.
Almost every foreign intervention after the Crian War began when the French economy was on the brink of collapse.
Jero Bonaparte did not want to repeat the sa mistakes; he wanted to be a promoter of war, not soone who was driven by it.
"I certainly understand!" Minister Dico said sincerely, "But I believe that we have no choice but to do this! The production of new warships can no longer be done in small workshops as before; they must be centralized!"
"I agree with your centralization plan in principle, but you will need funds to acquire them, won’t you? And you will need to arrange their workers, right? What do you plan to do about this money?" Jero Bonaparte curiously asked Minister Dico.
"Your Majesty, my plan is to mortgage part of the shares of the newly established company to the Bank of France to borrow funds for the acquisition from them!" Minister Dico responded to Jero Bonaparte.
"But, the Bank of France will hold shares in your company! Aren’t you worried that the group you form will be taken over by the Bank of France?" Jero Bonaparte asked Minister Dico while stroking his chin.
The issue Jero Bonaparte described is a common problem for the entire French enterprise, where factory owners fear their businesses being taken over, thus rarely borrowing from banks.
Banks are also unwilling to lend to factory owners as these factories are less profitable than loan sharks and the owners are troubleso characters.
"Your Majesty, the Bank of France is only responsible for investnt, not managent!" Minister Dico responded to Jero Bonaparte, "And now that the Bank of France is under governnt control, pledging the new company’s shares to the Bank of France is essentially pledging them to the governnt!"
"You’re planning a left-hand to right-hand transfer!" Jero Bonaparte said to Minister Dico without any hesitation.
Since the new company is under governnt jurisdiction, Minister Dico, as the Minister of the Navy, naturally has the authority to interfere with its operations.
As long as Dico remains in this position, the company he has established will never fear a power grab.
If Dico were to leave the position...those who lose power have no right to discuss the future!
"Your Majesty! I am using legal ans to maintain the Navy!" Minister Dico said with a sly smile.
"Alright! Let’s say you can overco all difficulties and successfully establish the group you want; how do you plan to et the impending storm?" Jero Bonaparte asked Minister Dico again, "I heard those guys are preparing for massive expansion; I can already foresee the post-war scene of ’corpses lying everywhere’!"
The Keynesianism of the gold standard era is not a god; the prosperity brought by large-scale liquidity is rely an abnormal prosperity. Once the war ends, factory orders will experience a large-scale decline, and workers will face massive unemploynt. Their paper money could potentially collapse the dostic economic market.
After listening to Jero Bonaparte, Minister Dico also frowned, realizing the destruction behind the prosperity that had blinded him briefly.
"Your Majesty, what should we do?" Minister Dico instinctively asked for Jero Bonaparte’s solution.
"The Navy Committee must consciously limit the scale of factory expansion!" Jero Bonaparte responded to Minister Dico.
He does not oppose expansion, but he opposes barbaric and disorderly expansion.
Pushing wildly against the tide, when the tide recedes, many will find themselves facing the situation of swimming naked!
"Also, your Navy Departnt should learn to develop externally! Rent out... no, sell off the useless ships!" Jero Bonaparte provided a solution to Minister Dico, "The Kingdom of Sardinia, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Austrian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Governor of Egypt, and Governor of Tunis are all potential clients. For countries that want a navy but have no qualified naval personnel, the Navy Departnt can send people to provide guidance..."
Minister Dico, enlightened by Jero Bonaparte, imdiately realized that this thod truly is the key solution to future problems.
The French Navy, although slightly inferior (actually by a large margin) to the British Navy, naturally has the advantage of crushing other countries’ navies.
"Our hardware conditions may not match Britain’s, but as long as our after-sales service is good, won’t they choose us?" Jero Bonaparte imparted marketing concepts from future eras to Minister Dico once more.
Although British warships are truly excellent, this also ans they are hard to order.
Not to ntion, Britain itself is a mariti nation, and they have to build warships for themselves as well.
Therefore, the French Helen only needs to surpass Britain in after-sales and ship delivery speed.
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