Mirabeau continued, "Quite a few people were already dancing and celebrating outside the Military Affairs Department last night. There should be even more soldiers gathered in the square by now."
Joseph nodded as he looked out the window.
At his request, the severance pay for ordinary discharged soldiers had been raised to 160 francs, and the Military Affairs Department would help recommend them for jobs. Such benefits had once been utterly unimaginable.
As for those soldiers who could enter systems such as the police and taxation departments, they had secured stable, long-term "meal tickets." Their excitement was perfectly understandable. After waiting for the Crown Prince to withdraw his gaze, Mirabeau flipped through the documents in his hand and continued his report. "Since September began, factory orders across the country have increased dramatically.
"Steel Products, machinery, Chemical goods, medicine, furniture, and the like are seeing especially sharp rises. Deliveries next month are expected to be about 25% higher than before the war." Joseph was startled. A quarter increase in orders was no laughing matter—calling it a massive explosion in trade would not have been an exaggeration! But he immediately understood. "Because production in other countries was damaged by the war?"
Apart from France itself and a handful of countries in Northern Italy, this war had swept across nearly all of Central and Western Europe. Prussia, Austria, and the Northern German States had suffered the worst.
After their own production of goods declined, merchants looked around Europe and discovered that only France had swiftly resumed production. They immediately turned to importing from here instead.
"Precisely, Your Highness," Mirabeau added. "The Stuttgart Trade Agreement has also played an important role. Low Tariffs have given us a price advantage.
"Of the goods the United Kingdom currently sells to the German Territories, only Textile goods,