Economic and trade integration

Rochefoucauld said in a complaining tone, "Pierre most likely took a fancy to some young lady in the United Kingdom.

"I really don't know what business he could do there. Trading textiles, or wrought iron?

"With that clever head of his, if he came back and worked with me, earning thirty or forty thousand francs a year wouldn't be out of the question."

Chaumont's eyelid twitched. "You're making me want to leave the service and go into business. Speaking of which, you've really made a success of yourself. God, thirty or forty thousand francs a year-"

Rochefoucauld smiled and waved a hand. "What you pursue is the highest honor, something I could never match. If I had a choice, I'd rather join the army like you and follow His Highness the Regent into battle."

A proud smile appeared on Chaumont's face.

He picked up the coffee cup on the table and gestured toward Little Fatty. "And what brought you to Avignon? Let me guess. You must be here to sell farming tools for those newly reclaimed fields in the County of Venaissin?"

He knew Rochefoucauld dealt in farming tools. A few years ago, it had been those Universal Flying Carts, and later he had started selling cultivators, seed drills, and the like.

"Reclaimed fields in the County of Venaissin?" Rochefoucauld froze for a moment before remembering that last year, the Holy See had signed an agreement with France's Ministry of Agriculture, leasing the entire County of Venaissin-the Holy See's territory around Avignon-to France for cultivation in exchange for loans totaling three

million francs.

The collateral was reportedly the land itself.

Afterward, the French Agricultural Consulting Company had divided the area into several sections and recruited large numbers of farmers to cultivate them. The area of farmland here was now more