Descending On France 1780 -
Chapter 89 - 083 How to solve the financial crisis quickly and efficiently
Chapter 89: 083 How to solve the financial crisis quickly and efficiently
This evening, the French King and his family were escorted back to Paris by the National Guard and moved into the Palais des Tuileries.
The crowd surrounding Versailles Palace followed the National Guard escorting the King and returned to the city in a grand procession.
Once the King entered the city, the gentlemen of the National Assembly spent the entire night discussing what to do and ultimately decided to move into the city as well.
Thus, Lafayette sent people to clear out the royal equestrian arena next to the Palais des Tuileries, captured all the horses and found another place to keep them, shoveled the manure, and had carpenters build a whole set of terraced stands to transform it into a meeting place.
The first time going to this new venue, Dan Dong complained all morning, saying that he could smell the scent of horse manure.
Anning actually smelled it a bit too, but he had been through the ordeal of a college dormitory and could quickly ignore any unusual smells nearby.
Without this skill, one could not survive in a male dormitory.
At the end of October, the National Assembly finally settled down in the former royal equestrian arena.
During the first meeting at the new venue, the topic was a highly charged issue: how to resolve France’s current financial crisis.
Although the revolution had proclamated the Declaration of Human Rights and feudal privileges were abolished, France’s financial crisis had not been alleviated.
France was already in debt by four billion Livres and the treasury could not come up with the money to pay off the debt.
Worse still, according to the August Decree, peasants were completely released from feudal obligations, no longer having to bear the burden of myriad taxes and levies; they simply stopped paying any taxes altogether.
Not only did the peasants refuse to pay taxes, but many civilians in the cities also refused to pay old taxes, denying the "poisonous legacy" of these old systems.
The result was that throughout the vast realm of France, no taxes could be collected at all.
Now, the salary of the National Guard was mainly sponsored by nobles and wealthy businessmen, and towns outside Paris were experiencing cases where the local self-defense forces could not distribute military salaries.
Even worse was the situation with the original Kingdom’s army; because the Kingdom had completely stalled, these troops had not received their military salaries for a long time. News of soldiers mutinying would occasionally reach Paris.
Anning even received a letter from Napoleon, in which the young lieutenant complained that he was receiving less pay in the army than before, only the basic salary, and he had to spend extra money to mend his military uniform.
Without resolving the financial issues, the nascent constitutional monarchy of France would die in its cradle, possibly even before the first constitution of the constitutional monarchy could be promulgated.
Therefore, the representatives of the National Assembly had to interrupt their original constitutional topic to discuss how to resolve the financial crisis.
Lawyer Banaf was the first to speak—he had gained considerable prestige after supporting the violent revolution post-revolution and was now one of the most significant figures in Parliament, second only to Mirabeau and Munier.
Banaf stood on the brand-new podium, hands on the freshly painted new railing, and exclaimed loudly, "To resolve the financial crisis, there is a simplest way! It is to let the nobles, the wealthy businessmen, and bankers present here to generously contribute!
"You all possess so much property; naturally, you should bear more responsibility!"
A wave of hisses came from the representative seats.
The nobles, wealthy businessmen, and bankers expressed their opposition in this direct manner.
But Banaf did not concede: "I propose issuing a one-time patriotic bond! Everyone subscribes based on the principles of voluntariness and equality; by issuing ten billion Livres worth of bonds, we can completely resolve our financial difficulties!"
"Wishful thinking!" A potbellied representative immediately stood up to retort, "Ten billion Livres, do you think it’s a small amount? Do you want us to go bankrupt?"
Banaf still did not back down: "The current problem is that the army cannot even distribute military salaries! You have all seen the march on Versailles in October; that was something people did out of starvation, imagine what soldiers struggling with poverty would do! In fact, we’ve been hearing news of soldiers’ mutinies lately!"
After Banaf finished, the initially intense opposition suddenly quieted down.
The wealthy people looked at each other, evidently all thinking of a terrible possibility.
Banaf continued: "Do you really want to see soldiers storming in to plunder your property? Angry people could parade the Marquis de Dreux-Brézé on a spear, and angry soldiers could do the same! Who among you wants to parade in that manner? Is it you? Or you? Or perhaps you?"
Banaf pointed at several people, but no one dared to respond.
For a while, the entire equestrian arena—formerly an equestrian arena—fell silent.
Banaf was very pleased: "Exactly, that’s what we all don’t want to happen. Therefore, I propose, let’s vote on issuing patriotic bonds!"
Chairman Munier stood up: "Does anyone oppose? If no one opposes, let’s start voting now."
Half an hour later, the voting results were out.
More than half of the members disagreed with the issuance of patriotic bonds.
Banaf angrily hammered the railing of the podium: "You will regret it! When you are sent to the gallows by the rebels, you will definitely regret it!"
He stepped down from the podium grumbling and returned to his seat.
At that moment, a figure clad in black priest robes stood up, signaling to the Chairman that he wished to speak.
Initially, Anning didn’t pay much attention to this man.
In the Parliament, those dressed in black were generally Conservatives, comprising mostly a group of die-hard Priests and minor Nobles; they almost all wore black, hence the moniker Black Party.
Typically, when these black-clad individuals stood up to speak, it was always the same old arguments, merely finding a new way to contest for their lost feudal powers.
Some Priests in the Black Party even advocated for the restoration of the tithe, which could be seen as extremely reactionary.
However, when Anning realized who the man in black was, he perked up immediately.
This man was Talleyrand.
Anning figured that this chameleon was probably about to propose his shocking and class-betraying suggestion.
Talleyrand stepped onto the brand-new podium, caressed the newly painted handrails leisurely, and began, "In fact, there is another excellent solution to the fiscal crisis. Rather, the ready solution to the fiscal crisis is right there, why haven’t you gentlemen thought of it?"
Talleyrand surveyed the entire room.
Someone shouted incredulously, "Stop bluffing, can you magically create money?"
"I may not be able to conjure money from thin air, but I can tell you where there is money to be taken," Talleyrand said slowly, then glanced at the leader of the Black Party, Priest Molière, "The Church has accumulated massive wealth over the centuries. By confiscating the Church’s wealth, the fiscal crisis could be resolved effortlessly."
The venue immediately erupted into noisy chaos.
Priest Molière from the Black Party stood up angrily, "What are you saying? Talleyrand, you traitor of the Church! How can you be so ungrateful to the Church that raised you?"
Talleyrand shrugged his shoulders, "It’s true the Church has been gracious to me, but now I am a member of the National Assembly, and France is in the midst of crisis, I had to step forward!"
Anning was impressed; this was a true fence-sitter boss, look at how nobly he stated "France is in the midst of crisis".
While Anning admired, the entire hall was noisy, bustling with various voices.
Meanwhile, Mirabeau stood up and with his resonant voice, overpowered all other discussions, "Gentlemen! I think this is a good idea! Based on the constitutional principles we already agreed upon, human rights are natural and universal, the privileges of the Church will be permanently abolished!
"Going forward, France should have a new, nationalized religion, just like the Church of England, where Priests will no longer need lavish robes and golden silver items—all could be confiscated!
"And the lands owned by the Church, and those enormous Churches themselves, everything could be nationalized.
"This way, France could gain tens of billions, even hundreds of billions in wealth, sufficient to support us until a whole new tax system is established!"
As Mirabeau’s voice faded, the noise rose again, everyone expressing their opinions on this explosive statement.
Only Anning remained quiet.
Dan Dong, who had been eagerly discussing with others, suddenly noticed Anning was silent and leaned over to ask, "Why aren’t you expressing your opinion?"
Anning grimaced, "Confiscating Church property can indeed temporarily solve the fiscal crisis, but ...in the long term, it could lead to a split in the Church, and even lead to rebellion."
Anning was in fact spoiling the plot directly.
But to Dan Dong, it sounded like a vision of the future.
Dan Dong: "No... surely it wouldn’t come to that?"
"How could it not? Just think, in backward areas, like Vendée, the Priest is the organizer of the local community life. The Priests hold significant prestige among the local peasants. Now, if you take away the homes of these Priests, what are the peasants going to do?"
Dan Dong pursed his lips, lost in thought.
Robespierre also turned around towards Anning and said, "Now that you mention it, indeed... But are there any better solutions to the fiscal issue? We cannot just reap the benefits. Fortunately, any peasants’ rebellion should be quickly suppressed by the National Guard."
Anning looked at Robespierre, "What if the peasants received help from the UK across the sea?"
Robespierre fell silent too.
Anning sighed, "However, you’re right, there seems to be no other way to solve the fiscal crisis except for levying Church property. I agree with the confiscation of Church property."
Later that day, after a heated discussion, Parliament passed the bill for the comprehensive confiscation of Church property with 568 votes in favor and 346 votes against.
As an adjunct to the confiscation of Church property, Parliament also decided to reclaim the two enclaves of the Pope in France: Avignon and Conte-Fenaison.
Little did anyone suspect, this decision would ignite the flames of civil war.
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