After lunch, the Cabinet Meeting entered a rather dreary phase—the discussion of the problems facing each department.
The Ministry of Agriculture's greatest difficulty was the Crown Prince's demand to control the scale of Sugar Beet cultivation.
Previously, farmers who grew Sugar Beet had all made money from high sugar prices. Now that they were being told not to let others grow it, they would certainly have objections.
There were even cases of people secretly planting Sugar Beet amid wheat fields.
Venio had already suggested imposing a Sugar Beet seed tax.
In addition, vast tracts of land in North Africa lacked hands to reclaim them. Tunis and Algiers were both fertile plains stretching for thousands of miles; all one had to do was turn over the soil and scatter some seeds, and a decent harvest could be had.
Yet only the most destitute French people were willing to settle in North Africa.
Louisiana was even worse. The French Government provided free ship tickets, seventy mu of land and a small wooden house upon arrival, as well as hefty subsidies of 120 Francs for men and 160 Francs for women, yet after an entire year, only a little over seven thousand people had emigrated to North America.
As France continued to develop, many problems gave even Joseph a terrible headache.
After some thought, he instructed Venio, "The main thing is to step up publicity. Find people to paint beautiful scenery from North America and the like.
"Then, popularize French as quickly as possible. Mr. Rahman's simplified French can make that process easier. Once more people speak French, they will feel as though they are at home in the country. It can also speed up the construction of towns and cities."
If a French architect had to direct a group of people speaking