Pharmaceutical Factory Begins Production

Perna hurriedly finished the routine inspection, hoisted her suitcase, and fled the room without looking back like a startled fawn. Yet after leaving the door, she swiftly turned her head and secretly glanced toward the Crown Prince.

Watching her retreating figure, Joseph blinked in surprise. Had she... eaten something bad?

South Hall of Versailles Palace.

In the Office of the Minister of Finance, Brienne accepted the visibly much thinner text of the Tax Law from Joseph and asked doubtfully,

"Your Highness, it seems you have removed many taxes?"

Joseph nodded. "Yes. This is one of my experiments."

Brienne hurriedly opened the bill and examined each item. His brow furrowed tighter and tighter, and when he had read halfway through, he finally could not help looking at Joseph. "Your Highness, the clauses you removed were all those favorable to the nobility?"

"Yes, Archbishop."

Brienne placed the bill back on the table and shook his head.

"Why would you do this?"

Joseph asked in return,

"Do you think constant concessions will make the bill pass?"

Brienne shook his head.

"Exactly. So we might as well change our way of thinking. You can submit this bill to the High Court first and see what happens."

Brienne sighed.

"Your Highness, doing this will achieve nothing except anger the nobles."

Joseph smiled.

"You have watched bullfighting, haven't you?"

"Bullfighting? Yes, Your Highness, I have."

"The matador always desperately waves a red cloth to infuriate the bull, because an angry bull loses its reason and makes mistakes, giving the matador an opening to strike." Joseph said, "Let those nobles become angry. There is nothing wrong with that."

"Please trust me. Even if it is rejected again this time, this bill will sooner or later be passed!"

Brienne asked skeptically, "Can you tell me what you intend to do?"

"Do not reason with those people. Strike at their sore spots, divide and break them apart, and control public opinion at the same time, so they can only lower their heads."

Brienne stared in surprise at the Crown Prince's confident yet somewhat crafty eyes. For some reason, he suddenly felt that Joseph might not be fooling around after all.

After a long while, Brienne nodded and then laughed.

"Very well, then I shall send this bill to the High Court. But please do not say these revisions were made by you, or those greedy, selfish people will surely bear a grudge against you."

"As for me, if I cannot put the bill into effect before the end of the year, I will likely have to leave the post of Minister of Finance. With this little time remaining, I might as well give it everything I have."

"Thank you for your trust."

Joseph had not expected to persuade Brienne so quickly. Without wasting a moment, he turned to his assistant.

"Contact several of the Paris newspapers with the largest circulations and reserve prominent space."

"After the High Court rejects the Tax Law this time, immediately publish the first tax item in the newspapers, along with a detailed explanation of that tax—for example, who will pay it, what effects it will have, and so on."

"After that, publish one tax item every day until the entire bill has appeared in the papers and been thoroughly explained."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Also, organize a group of reporters and have them report in detail on everything from the bill's submission for registration to the High Court's refusal to register it. Oh, do not report it all at once. Write a little each time and keep the heat going."

"Yes."

"And one more thing..."

After working in the Office of the Minister of Finance until noon, Joseph had finally finished assigning the preliminary preparations for pushing through the Tax Law. After having lunch with the Queen, Eman reported that Dr. Lamark was requesting an audience.

Joseph followed him back to his reception room and found Dr. Lamark anxiously pacing back and forth.

"Mr. Lamark, has something happened at the Pharmaceutical Workshop?"

Dr. Lamark hurriedly bowed respectfully and nodded first. "There is something..." Then, looking extremely nervous, he said, "Your Highness, I heard that..."

[To be continued in the next chapter. Please click the next page.]

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"I heard my daughter offended you last night. She is still young and certainly did not mean it! Please forgive her."

Joseph smiled and waved his hand.

"Miss Perna did nothing wrong. I was the one who accidentally entered her laboratory. Oh, and she even treated me to a late-night snack."

"Thank you for your magnanimity." Dr. Lamark hurriedly bowed again, then shook his head and muttered, "I never should have agreed to let her study medicine. That child actually went to the royal kitchen in the middle of the night to dissect animals..."

Joseph said approvingly, "Perna is very talented. You could let her practice dissection in the royal laboratory. Oh, if you do not want others to know, I can order the guards and servants to keep it secret for her."

"I truly do not know what to say." Dr. Lamark's eyes filled with gratitude. "You are so open-minded. If the Medical Association had even half your open-mindedness, Perna would probably already have obtained her physician's license and treated many patients."

Seeing the glass bottle in his hand, Joseph asked, "By the way, you just mentioned something about the Pharmaceutical Workshop?"

"Oh, yes, yes." Dr. Lamark hurriedly handed him the glass bottle, excitement returning to his face. "That Perfume Workshop is simply perfect! The equipment is extremely complete, and it even has a Waterwheel."

"I only added some high-precision Thermometers and condensers, and that was enough to purify Salicin."

"Also, the workers are excellent. They are skilled, and quite a few of them have worked with purification before. Look, the craftsmen made this last night. Mr. Lasenne and I did not intervene at all."

Joseph looked at the pale yellow powder, nodded with satisfaction, and asked,

"What output do you estimate?"

Dr. Lamark thought for a moment.

"With sufficient raw materials, around 2,500 grams a day. Once the workers become proficient, it should double."

"Mm, that is basically enough for all the patients in Paris, and there should still be enough to supply some of the Outer Provinces," Joseph said.

"If Salicin is used medicinally to reduce inflammation and fever, the daily oral dose is about 0.5 grams. Paris has only a little over five hundred thousand people in total, so ten thousand doses a day are enough."

Dr. Lamark nodded. "Your Highness, Mr. Lasenne and I calculated it. Each pill will contain 0.25 grams of Salicin, and the cost will be around three to four Deniers. At first, we can sell them for five Deniers, then adjust the price later according to income and expenditure. What do you think?"

"One Livre equals twenty Sous, and one Sou equals twelve Deniers. In other words, one Livre can buy forty-eight pills. That is an exceptionally cheap price."

"You may decide the price."

Joseph immediately thought of his Angel Water and said to Dr. Lamark, "By the way, Mr. Lamark, I have a special requirement. Please purify an additional 300 grams of high-purity Salicin for me every day, with as few impurities as possible."

"A 200-gram bottle of skincare product only needs a little over one gram of Salicin. Three hundred grams a day can make more than two hundred bottles, which should be enough for an initial market test."

Dr. Lamark agreed without hesitation. "No problem, Your Highness."

On the very night Joseph and Dr. Lamark discussed matters concerning the Pharmaceutical Factory, Dandels, leader of the Patriot Party, was receiving a guest from France in Amsterdam, Netherlands, four hundred kilometers from Paris.

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