Chapter 1476 quasi war

On July 14, 1789, the people of Paris captured the Bastille.

If it weren't for Goebel's intelligence, she would never have dreamed of linking the drop in canal water levels to it.

Bonaparte tried it when he was in Egypt. No matter whether it was boiled or fried, wheat was not palatable. It could only be eaten after being ground into powder and processed into bread.

If there is a problem with these last two links, then even having flour will not help, and the price of the small amount of bread provided by the bakery will naturally skyrocket.

Because Paris has allowed as many small bakeries to survive as possible to provide more bread, porters on the docks will lose their jobs when the canals freeze. These porters are bound by the guilds. At this time, they have to make a living.

They can also work as carpenters, bricklayers or plasterers. The first batch of customers they receive are local residents including bakers, and then itinerant merchants.

Not all the people in a city are locals, there are also floating people, who usually rent houses...

She had a splitting headache from thinking about it, so much so that she couldn't think about it. Once the flour processing center of Etampe stopped production due to lack of water, Paris would directly face the problem of skyrocketing bread prices.

The letter was taken out again.

If the Parisians were to be unlucky one day, not only would the water freeze, but there would be no wind, and the windmills and mills would be useless, they would have to use animal power or steam engines to drive them. This is the job of engineers.

She didn't use a typewriter for the rest of the text, but wrote it by hand. As for the plan, she felt it was better not to hand it in so easily.

How sad she would be if she knew her plan was crumpled into waste paper and thrown to the ground.

This is an incomplete plan and needs to be improved, such as the issue of floating population, otherwise it will intensify conflicts.

"Madam," Matilda said softly.

"What's up?"

"There is a gentleman from England who wants to see you." Matilda handed her a business card.

Georgiana took it, and on it was written the name of William Harrison, and on the back his profession, a clockmaker.

Georgiana didn't know whether she should see him or not. If any watchmaker on the street wanted to see her, how many watchmakers would she see in a day?

"What else did he say?" asked Georgiana.

"He said that he was introduced by Mr. Laplace, the director of Longitude." Matilda added.

"Let him come up." Georgiana said immediately, then simply cleared the table and went to the reception room next door.

Not long after, Matilda brought a middle-class gentleman wearing a wig and stockings to the baroque-style reception room. When he saw Georgiana, he immediately smiled with joy.

"Nice to meet you, Madam Sèvres." The middle-aged gentleman said in English and bowed to her.

"It's an honor to meet you, too, Mr. Harrison." Georgiana stretched out her hand and let him kiss the back of her hand, and then she asked, "What kind of wind brings you here to me?"

"It's about the hydraulic clock envisioned by the First Consul. Mr. Laplace believes that the key now is infrastructure construction, and the clock can be repaired later." Mr. Harrison hesitated and said, "He asked me to come to you, Sev."

Part of the revenue from our factory is used to support research.”

"I have a question for you," Georgiana said softly. "A water-powered clock is powered by water, right? What should we do if the water freezes in winter?"

Harrison was stunned for a moment and murmured, "I didn't expect this."

"This is a subject worthy of study. There are many factories that are driven by water power. Once the river freezes, they can only use steam engines. In fact, I wrote a letter to Mr. Brognier. The rapid water flow

Will it freeze easily, and how to maintain the flow rate of water throughout the system?"

Mr. Harrison seemed not interested in this topic, so she could only talk to herself.

"If the flow rate of water from the main canal to the water tower can be accelerated, the water in the aqueduct may not need to freeze. This is the disadvantage of open-air pipes. If it is buried underground, insulation materials can be used to keep the water in the pipes from freezing.

It’s not freezing anymore.”

"It's summer now," Mr. Harrison said with emotion, "but you're thinking about winter."

"Just like I think about summer in winter." Georgiana smiled. "Please have a seat."

Mr. Harrison said nothing.

"I know that Mr. Jenner did not accept Bonaparte's invitation." Mr. Harrison said miserably. "What Bonaparte wanted was not a hydraulic clock. What he wanted was what my father John Harrison designed for the Royal Navy."

We spent all our savings studying it, but the Longitude Committee did not award him the prize he deserved."

"How much?" Georgiana asked.

"Twenty thousand pounds. His Majesty King George III expressed sympathy for my plight, but he didn't give me a shilling."

"Do you have the blueprints?" Georgiana asked "or do you know how to make it?"

"Mr. Laplace has confirmed it. Mr. Pierre Leroy of the Leroy family also communicated with him when my father was still alive. The Leroy family can also make that kind of astronomical clock."

So she just needs to pay, right?

Georgiana thought to herself, but did not show any expression.

Just as she was hesitating, there was the sound of rapid footsteps, and soon Lucien Bonaparte appeared.

"Leave." Lucien ordered in French.

William Harrison actually understood and left according to what Lucien said.

"What happened?" Georgiana asked.

"Do you know why our relationship with the United States is so bad?" Lucien said with half-squinted eyes, "The Americans insist that the creditor of the debt owed by the United States during the War of Independence was the King of France, not the French government."

"In short, they want to default on the debt." Georgiana pouted, "Why don't you use the same excuse?"

"Because the money was not used for the king's personal life or war, but for disaster relief." Lucien said extremely tiredly, "And the three levels of parliament agreed that the king's debts should be shared among the citizens."

"What kind of old sesame and rotten millet thing is this?"

"Not as old as the Revolutionary War."

"Hasn't the ownership of Louisiana been transferred? Can the king's claims be transferred?"

"You have a beautiful idea. After Louis XVI's claims are transferred, his debts will also be transferred. Do you know how much he owes?"

“How much does the United States owe the King?”

"The federal government's debt is 54 million, and the state debt is 25 million."

Georgiana thought of the 1.44 billion francs Louis XVI had spent on launching the war, and decisively gave up the 79 million in debt.

"We still plan to sell the land, right?" Georgiana said helplessly.

"If Saint-Domingue insists on independence, then you, the United Kingdom, will also cut off trade with them." Lucien said, "Let those free people trade with the United States of America."

"You are declaring war."

"Otherwise, what should we do? Hand over the right to issue currency?" Lucien said angrily. "After the news of Marengo's victory came back, the public debt did not become a piece of waste paper. The Directory suffered repeated defeats, but these failures occurred when Napoleon

If he is not present, it does not count on his head. Counting Egypt, this is his second failure."

"Do you think I bring bad luck to you?"

"I don't think so, but some people think so. In fact, if you hadn't brought in the railways, we wouldn't have needed British steel at all, let alone taxed them."

"Someone wants me to leave him?"

"They want you to be like a sensible woman, stay at home and not come out to cause trouble."

Georgiana slammed the table, "Tell your brother, if he gives the order to continue the attack or restore slavery, I'm leaving. I can't be in the same room with such a person."

She returned to the next room and threw the written information to Lucien. "Louis XIII signed the slave trade to be legal. The Great Revolution overthrew more than just the royal power. The slaves on other Caribbean islands did not know freedom, equality, and the constitution at all. They

Just like you before the Enlightenment, between the turbulent freedom and the enslaved peace, since you have chosen the turbulent freedom, then face it, are you the sons of the revolution or the royal family?"

Lucien stood up and looked at her condescendingly.

Georgiana put her hands on her hips, "The life-long rule mentioned in Lukeville's constitution can be used as an attack point."

"What about the designated heir?" Lucian crossed his spider-like arms across his chest.

"I also designated an heir myself!" She said angrily, "That kid is quite stupid..."

"You want him to designate the child you gave birth to as his heir?" Lucian smiled. "Aren't you afraid that others will say he is Anthony?"

"When the contract expires, it can be renewed, and when the term expires, it can be re-elected. Let's talk about it in ten years if we want to continue to be the first president." She tried to be as understated as possible and said, "In short, we can talk about it after the current situation is over."

"What other ideas did you come up with?" Lucian looked at the papers.

"Introduce me to a senior official from other provinces." She said listlessly, "I want to try this method to see if it can lower the price of food and mills. Do you know that when the Revolution broke out, due to the drop in the river water level, Etampe

The mill has stopped working?"

Lu Xian was stunned for a moment.

"I heard Chaptard say that Paris needs 2,000 bags of flour every day. It's flour, not wheat, and farmers use old grain to pay taxes. It was the last year of the Directory's rule two years ago. They probably felt like they had no hope, just like the last year of the Bourbon rule.

Now they are selling grain." She took a breath and said, "I remember Napoleon was hungry when he led his troops across the Alps, and the Directory had no grain at all at that time?"

"You may not believe it, but the Directory has no account books at all." Lucian smiled with his hands behind his back, "The current financial system was built by ourselves."

"Even old grains are harvested and mixed into high-quality flour to make bread." Georgiana said coldly, "Not everyone has the right to eat white bread."

"Yeah, white bread is for rich people," Lucien said sarcastically.

"A debt collector is here, do you still have time to chat?"

"Who was that person chatting with you just now?"

"Laplace introduced him to me as a clockmaker."

"What did he ask you to do?"

"Let me give him £20,000."

"Did you give it?"

"I didn't give it, but I don't know if the factory director in Sèvres will."

Lucian left with a gloomy face.

When the men were gone, she found she had nothing to do.

"Go to hell." She waved her hands, planning to go back to play with Delmid.
Chapter completed!