Recaps

Joseph promoted potatoes to avert famine while launching Paris Fashion Week, improving Paris, and securing support for industrial development. The arc left him building a French steam-engine industry as investigators traced the shelling of a farmhouse to Bessonval’s camp.

• Joseph planned Paris Fashion Week at the Tuileries Palace and recruited merchants and officials to help prepare it.
• Joseph began secret Penicillin experiments with Lamarck and proposed public toilets, street cleaning, and a campaign to improve Paris.
• Joseph persuaded Brienne and Queen Mary to support a potato-growing program, using public promotion and church approval to encourage peasants to eat potatoes.
• Joseph trained models for Paris Fashion Week, sought Mirabeau’s help financing potatoes, and proposed an Industrial Development Zone in Nancy.
• Mirabeau raised 1.8 million livres from salon guests, while Joseph’s police academy demonstrated the Skirmisher Charge and Berthier received Joseph’s offer of a Guard position.
• Joseph traveled to Bordeaux and persuaded plantation owners to grow potatoes by demonstrating a brewing method that prevented wine from souring.
• Joseph offered Marat a role in an independent Fair Investigation Department, and appointed Murdoch to lead the Royal French Machinery Company after Watt declined to help.
• After shelling killed a farming couple, Menard compared evidence from the farmhouse with the French Guard’s cannons and identified one as the likely source.

Joseph used the attack on him to break up the French Guard and establish the Crown Prince Guard Legion, while advancing military, financial, and agricultural reforms. He then pursued new weapons and carriage designs and arranged a Mediterranean campaign against the Barbary Pirates as Maria and Clementine arrived at court.

• Joseph and Kexer trapped surviving Blood Blade Gang members, but Odorik’s men attacked Joseph’s convoy, leaving him wounded and forcing the royal family to confront the French Guard’s failure to protect him.
• Joseph helped drive an investigation of French Guard officers, and Berthier negotiated to take command of selected troops as public protests and evidence against the Guard mounted.
• Joseph oversaw the public trial of Teodoro and Kemu, reorganized more than 2,200 former guardsmen into the Crown Prince Guard Legion, and introduced merit-based promotions and improved benefits.
• Joseph established joint training between the legion and the Paris Police Academy, then learned that the White Gloves were buying vast quantities of grain and potatoes while France faced severe debt costs.
• Joseph worked with Louis XVI on a functioning Percussion Cap Gun, secured funding for a factory, and named the weapon the August 1788 Model Percussion Cap Rifle.
• Joseph appointed Talleyrand as a diplomatic adviser and advanced plans with Russia, the United States, and Spain for a Mediterranean campaign against the Barbary Pirates, while approving grain purchases and farmer support measures.
• Joseph showed Maria the Angel Boutique and Eden Amusement Park, where she fainted at the top of the Ferris Wheel before waking with him beside her.
• Clementine arrived at Versailles, gave Joseph a supposed ancient folding fan, and joined Queen Mary and Louis XVI with her cat, Mr. Mustache.

Joseph expanded France’s industries and international alliances while pursuing evidence of Necker’s financial corruption. Necker was captured and questioned, but Beranger Bank’s collapse threatened to trigger a wider financial crisis and a confrontation with the aristocrats.

• Joseph searched Versailles with Clementine for her missing cat, then learned from Mirabeau that the paper mill was thriving and considered abolishing regional tariffs.
• Paris Fashion Week drew foreign buyers and brought in millions, while Joseph promoted ready-made clothing and oversaw the opening of the Royal Ordnance Factory.
• Joseph recruited Lavoisier to help produce fulminate and establish scientific standards, while Talleyrand negotiated American support for a campaign against the Barbary Pirates.
• Marat investigated Necker’s suspected corruption, survived an attack in Toul, and Joseph secured Calonne’s pardon in exchange for evidence against Necker.
• Joseph ordered Necker’s arrest after Calonne accused him of profiting from irregular loans, then visited Nancy and promoted its factories and steam engine company.
• Joseph used the Banking Guild’s bounty and a promise of leniency to draw Necker out of hiding, but the Duke of Orléans’s agents attempted to interfere with his imprisonment.
• Calonne questioned Necker about his dealings with Beranger Bank, whose executives confessed and declared bankruptcy, while the Duke of Orléans rallied aristocrats to halt the investigation.
• Joseph realized the bank failures threatened depositors and investors, and Brienne warned him that aristocrats had gathered to pressure the royal family and stop government lending.

Joseph stabilized France’s finances, advanced industrial and military reforms, and used diplomacy and intelligence to strengthen France’s position abroad. The arc ended with France’s measurement standards drawing European attention as Britain prepared to counter French influence in North Africa.

• Joseph established the France Industrial Development Fund and used the French Reserve Bank to absorb failed banks, protect investors, and reduce the national debt.
• Joseph uncovered French bankers’ investments in Britain’s automatic looms, sent Marquis Ludo to secure looms and technicians, and began plans to reproduce the technology in France.
• Joseph pursued intelligence and diplomatic ties in North Africa, sending Charles and French agents to contact Younis while France’s fleet fought Barbary pirates.
• Joseph managed Louis XVI’s birthday celebrations, exposed Godoy and Luisa’s affair to Antonio, and used the resulting crisis to strengthen France’s ties with Spain and Russia.
• Joseph negotiated with Poland and the Netherlands, urging Poniatowski to prepare Poland for war and proposing expanded French-Dutch trade with possible Austrian participation.
• The Police Academy cadets outmarched and defeated Andre’s troops in a field exercise, leading Joseph to approve early graduation for promising students.
• Carlos III sent France grain, Aironk was captured after shooting Marquis Ludo, and French officials advanced industrial projects and plans to replace guild controls with technical standards.
• France officially released its standard meter and kilogram, while Pitt, Leeds, and Jervis planned to bolster Algiers against France’s expected campaign in North Africa.