Another mob, another riot. To Napoleon III, tens of thousands of people were nothing more than a number. What truly concerned him was the economic loss.
"How much have we lost, exactly?"
Napoleon III finally could not hold back any longer.
"Your Majesty, it is still unclear. But the fire has destroyed at least one-third of the urban district, and several warehouses were affected. Most crucially, Monsieur Mazos is missing, and the account books are in his hands."
Finance Minister Pierre Magne said cautiously, afraid of agitating the emperor's sensitive nerves.
Although Napoleon III had become emperor, the House of Bonaparte's lack of deep foundations had become even more glaringly apparent.
Aside from their lack of legitimacy and the fact that they could not find suitable marriage alliances, leaving them to settle for minor nobles—
The greatest problem Napoleon III faced was a lack of funds, or at least, that was how he saw it.
Though the House of Bonaparte's property and the annuities provided by the French government made his Fortune greater than that of an ordinary small kingdom's royal house, there was still no small gap between them and top-tier families such as the British royal family, the Habsburgs, and the Romanovs.
Moreover, Napoleon III's personal experiences had given him an almost pathological pursuit of money. Buying shares in Lyon's monopolized silk industry was merely one of his investments.
Beyond that, Napoleon III had a hand in the Great Exhibition, overseas colonies, and even certain less-than-glorious industries within France.
"Alive, I want to see the man! Dead, I want to see the body!"
Napoleon III said viciously. He simply did not believe that the cunning Mazos had died in the rebellion. He even suspected that the riot itself had been manipulated, since the uprising had been suppressed far