Chapter Summaries

Joseph returned to Paris after Joseph II’s funeral, leaving Austria with the French army and resuming his efforts against the Corsican restoration faction. The chapter ended with him directing Fouche to frame Oscar Paoli for rape rather than kill him.

• Joseph attended Joseph II’s funeral in Vienna while planning the French Army’s withdrawal from Silesia.
• Leopold II suspended Joseph II’s reforms, and Baron Walter secretly worked with anti-French ministers to push the French Army out of Austria.
• Joseph used his supposed injury to return to Paris with the 1st Guards Corps, while Camellia left her teacher a letter and accompanied him.
• Joseph arrived in Paris, greeted the crowd, and met Fouche, Mirabeau, and Bayei at Versailles Palace.
• Fouche reported that the Intelligence Bureau had located Oscar Paoli and proposed using a mistress to discredit him.
• Joseph rejected Fouche’s adultery scheme and instructed him to have a noblewoman lure Paoli into a staged rape accusation.

Joseph advised Fouche on a scheme to undermine Paoli and his supporters, then reviewed France’s industrial growth with Mirabeau and introduced chart-based ways to present statistics. The chapter left Mirabeau learning Joseph’s methods for visualizing data.

• Joseph explained moral and interest-based attacks against Paoli to Fouche, who agreed to develop traps targeting the Corsican Restorationist leader and his organization.
• Joseph and Fouche finalized their tentative plan, and Fouche returned to the Intelligence Bureau to arrange it.
• Mirabeau presented Joseph with the 1789 national industrial development report, showing rapid growth in several industries and increased profits from brewing.
• Joseph reviewed the report and discussed France’s industrial prospects and the importance of expanding into German and North African markets.
• Joseph taught Mirabeau how to make line charts, pie charts, bar charts, scatter plots, and radar charts.

Joseph recognized that statistical charts could improve administrative and industrial efficiency, then considered creating influential rating agencies to guide investment and assess countries. Mirabeau reported that French industrial growth had slowed since October because investment funds and new investors were dwindling and returns remained low.

• Mirabeau and Bayei praised Joseph’s statistical charts, and Joseph asked Mirabeau to compile a handbook and promote the method through the Production Standardization System.
• Joseph considered rewarding standardized factories by establishing rating agencies controlled through Jean Sonnet’s company, the French Chamber of Commerce and major banks, and a local organization in Spain.
• Joseph noticed that industrial growth had slowed from October onward on Mirabeau’s chart and asked Mirabeau to explain the decline.
• Mirabeau said industrial growth had slowed because the Industrial Development Fund had little money left, fewer investors were entering industry, and low returns made investors and factories cautious.

Joseph learned that local tariffs, transit fees, abusive taxation, and official corruption were suppressing French industry, so he called for tax reform targeting the Tax Farmers Guild. Mirabeau warned that abolishing the Tax Farmer System could leave the treasury empty for months before new taxes were collected.

• Joseph reviewed industry returns and questioned why steel profits were far below his expectations.
• Mirabeau and Bayei explained that provincial tariffs, transit fees, and repeated local levies sharply reduced profits on goods sold within France.
• Bayei described how Toulouse officials taxed the same cart of cloth twice, while Mirabeau cited rules and tax teams that burdened factories elsewhere.
• Joseph recognized that France's feudal tax system and corrupt officials threatened industrial growth and resolved to reform taxation and official governance.
• Joseph announced that reform would target the Tax Farmers Guild, whose members paid the government a fixed sum and collected taxes for themselves.
• Mirabeau warned that replacing the system could leave the French treasury without revenue for several months.

Joseph planned to abolish France’s Tax Farmer System and secure funding for the reform while assessing France’s trade disadvantage against the United Kingdom. He resolved to build France’s industry and commerce before challenging British power, leaving domestic reform and expansion into German and North African markets as immediate priorities.

• Joseph told Mirabeau to build support for tax reform and announced that he would propose creating a Tax Bureau at the next Cabinet Meeting.
• Bayei warned that government tax collection could collapse without the Tax Farmers, but Joseph said he would use later tax-collection methods to prevent evasion.
• Bayei submitted a report showing that France’s trade volume approached Britain’s, but its profits were far lower and its population much larger.
• Joseph concluded that Britain’s Continental Balance Policy would bring other nations against a strong France and that France needed to surpass Britain in industry and trade.
• Joseph resolved to defeat Britain’s navy eventually, while prioritizing domestic reforms, securing markets in Germany, and expanding into North Africa.

Joseph drafted plans for modern tax bureaus and tax reforms, while at a battlefield hospital in Silesia, two Austrian majors competed for its last bed. The chapter ended with Hedwig and Ferinank arguing over who needed treatment more.

• Joseph planned provincial Local Tax Bureaus and a School of Economics at the Paris Police Academy to train Tax Collectors.
• Joseph designed a French National Tax Bureau and outlined its powers and operating procedures.
• Joseph planned changes to France’s taxes to support industrial development, and Eman covered the exhausted Crown Prince with a blanket.
• Hedwig arrived at the French Battlefield Hospital seeking treatment for his shoulder wound, and Perna explained the admission and disinfection rules.
• Ferinank arrived seeking treatment for his injured leg, and he and Hedwig argued over the hospital’s last bed.

Ferinank traded four pieces of Square Armor to Hedwig for a chance at admission to Perna’s Battlefield Hospital, where he received care and grew close to nurse Annai. Ten days later, a French lieutenant confronted him over Annai.

• Ferinank offered Hedwig money, then four pieces of Square Armor, in exchange for his place in line at the hospital.
• Ferinank learned that Perna directed the hospital and apologized for mistaking her for a laundress.
• Annai introduced herself as Ferinank’s nurse and took his temperature.
• After ten days of careful treatment, Ferinank’s wound had begun to heal, and the hospital’s strict sanitation practices helped patients recover at unusually high rates.
• Annai sat on Ferinank’s lap in a secluded corner when a French lieutenant emerged and shouted at him to let her go.

A quarrel between Angers and Ferinank left Doctor Perna injured when she tried to stop them. Angers blamed Ferinank, and the accusation sparked a mass brawl between French and Austrian soldiers outside the 7th Austrian Dragoon Battalion’s camp.

• Angers confronted Ferinank over Annai, and the two men began fighting despite Annai’s attempts to intervene.
• Perna tried to separate Angers and Ferinank, but Ferinank’s punch and Angers’s kick struck her and knocked her into the weeds.
• Guards arrived, and Ferinank fled while Annai held Angers back; Adam later confirmed that Perna’s bones were intact.
• Angers accused Ferinank of hurting Perna, and wounded French soldiers spread the news among their units.
• More than a thousand French soldiers marched to the 7th Austrian Dragoon Battalion’s camp, where the soldiers’ confrontation escalated into a large brawl.

Joseph used a brawl between French and Austrian soldiers to arrange the withdrawal of nearly four thousand French troops from Silesia while publicly defending them as protectors of France’s dignity. As French and Austrian factions argued over the incident, a new confrontation between the armies was scheduled for three days later.

• After reading the report of the brawl and Perna’s injury, Joseph rescinded the proposed punishments and praised the French soldiers in a written order.
• Berthier announced severe disciplinary measures and the return of the units involved to France, winning General Würmser’s public approval.
• At the Strasbourg border, the returning soldiers heard Joseph’s order and cheered when officers told them their punishments had been rescinded and their withheld pay would be restored.
• Baron Alphonse assured Baron Thugut that France remained committed to the alliance and urged Austria to punish those involved, while hinting at Perna’s closeness to Joseph.
• Count Kaunitz sought Leopold II’s support for France as Baron Walter’s faction pushed to reduce French influence and withdraw French troops from Silesia.
• After French soldiers taunted the Austrians over their punishment, several Austrian officers arranged with the French battalion commander to settle the matter in the French camp three days later.

Joseph arranged a brawl between Austrian and French soldiers to prompt Leopold II to send the French Army home from Silesia. The last French unit withdrew on April 19, 1790, leaving Austria and Prussia to contest the region while France prepared to profit by selling supplies to both sides.

• An Austrian officer gathered nearly two thousand soldiers to fight the French, whose battalion commander ordered his men to retreat once the Austrians charged.
• More than three thousand Austrians gathered outside the French camp before Marshal Lacy arrived and found hundreds of French soldiers reported injured.
• Leopold II received a protest from the French Crown Prince and, amid political pressure, agreed to let the French Army leave Silesia for reorganization.
• The last French unit left Silesia on April 19, 1790, and Joseph reviewed Berthier's withdrawal plans while considering a reward for Perna.

Camellia’s attempt to seduce Joseph ended in embarrassment when he spilled hot tea on her foot. In London, Pasquale Paoli met a Scottish merchant who offered funding for Corsican independence, but the merchant attached a request.

• Camellia tried Madame Seles’s seduction technique on Joseph, but his spilled tea scalded her foot before she could succeed.
• Eman cleaned up the spill, and Camellia hid her injury from Joseph before returning to Tuileries Palace and crying in her lounge.
• Paoli traveled to a London salon, hoping to secure support from the wealthy Scottish merchant Chamos for the Corsican cause.
• Chamos offered Paoli twenty thousand Pound Sterling, then said he had one request.

Chamos sponsored the Corsican Restoration Organization, but French Intelligence Bureau agents burned the money stored in Paoli’s study. More than ten days later, the organization discussed staging a riot in Cargèse, while an American lawyer arrived at Paoli’s home.

• Chamos agreed to sponsor the Corsican cause and persuaded Paoli to allocate seventeen thousand pounds to members of Parliament’s election campaigns, adding another five thousand pounds himself.
• Chamos handed Paoli two cases of banknotes and promised another twenty-five thousand pounds after his East India Company dividends were paid.
• A maid working for the French Intelligence Bureau set Paoli’s study on fire, and the twenty-five thousand pounds was burned despite the servants’ efforts to put out the blaze.
• At a secret gathering, Bartorio blamed the fire for ruining the organization’s election prospects, and Giuseppe urged the members to plan a riot in Cargèse.
• An American lawyer arrived in London and knocked on Paoli’s door.

Fouche's agents planted a fabricated American inheritance to draw Mrs. Pauli to the Netherlands, while French informants used rumors of her windfall to make the Restoration Organization suspect Paoli. The chapter ended with three members deciding to investigate the inheritance in the Netherlands and the United States.

• Lawyer Denton told Mrs. Pauli that her supposed cousin-aunt had left her an inheritance worth more than ten thousand US Dollars, and Paoli reluctantly agreed to let her travel to the Netherlands.
• Mrs. Pauli wrote to Paoli that she had received the money and learned of additional properties and land in the estate.
• At a Restoration Organization meeting in Ajaccio, Girolamo claimed that Mrs. Pauli had told his wife about her inheritance, following instructions from the French Intelligence Bureau.
• Bartorio questioned whether Paoli had kept the twenty-five thousand Pound Sterling that was supposedly burned, and three members agreed to investigate in the Netherlands and the United States.

Joseph reviewed France’s worsening finances and revised a plan to abolish the Tax Farmer System while preserving stability. He recruited Robespierre to lead the newly established National Tax Bureau as Inspector Commissioner.

• Joseph examined the annual report, which showed rising spending, a deficit, and record national debt driven by wars, infrastructure projects, and grain purchases.
• Joseph worried that weak industrial returns and the loss of noble privileges could destabilize France, and he concluded that tax reform required substantial funds and trustworthy officials.
• Joseph revised his plan to abolish the Tax Farmer System and considered how the government could finance the transition and prevent corruption.
• Robespierre visited Joseph after becoming an intern prosecutor at the Paris High Court.
• Joseph praised Robespierre’s integrity and offered him the post of Inspector Commissioner of the new National Tax Bureau, and Robespierre accepted his charge to serve France.

Joseph appointed Robespierre to help establish a nationwide taxation system and then inspected Starry Garden, where poor sales threatened a major source of funds. He devised a plan to create demand for the homes and looked ahead to developing more land near Paris and Versailles.

• Joseph appointed Robespierre as Inspector Commissioner of the Tax Bureau to oversee the end of the Tax Farmer System alongside Count Fuerke.
• Joseph arranged for Robespierre to train at the Paris Police Academy before meeting him with the Minister of Finance and Fuerke at Versailles Palace.
• Joseph visited Starry Garden and learned from the sales manager that buyers were avoiding its expensive homes because they expected prices to fall.
• Joseph ordered the manager to market Starry Garden as an exclusive, nearly sold-out district, raise prices monthly, and use a lottery to determine who could buy.
• Joseph planned to sell lottery slots privately and develop further residential projects near the Louvre, Paris, and Versailles.

Leopold II’s coronation gift sparked a rush for villas in Paris’s Starry Garden, while Joseph expanded housing development and used the French Royal Insurance Company to attract vast sums from wealthy clients. Gordmide arrived at a meeting in a fashionable furniture-filled villa, where he admired the conference table’s industrial scent without knowing it was formaldehyde.

• The French Envoy presented Leopold II with a villa in Starry Garden, and the estate’s properties were quickly reserved as wealthy buyers competed for them.
• Joseph began planning affordable housing between Paris and Versailles Palace to address rising housing prices.
• Antoine sold the Evans couple Education Insurance and Personal Accident Insurance, while the Royal Insurance Company rapidly expanded its sales and branches abroad.
• The Royal Insurance Company marketed Financial Insurance across Europe and established the seemingly separate Atlantic Insurance Company in the United Kingdom.
• Gordmide arrived at a meeting in the Southern Suburbs of Paris and admired the scent of a Yiju Synthetic Board conference table.

Leon Fuld and Henry Hope organized France’s financial magnates to resist the government’s plan to abolish tax farming. After Queen Mary showed Joseph the many officials opposing reform, Joseph resolved to use his authority rather than accommodate them.

• Gordmide attended a gathering where Leon Fuld and Henry Hope discussed the government’s planned tax reform.
• Fuld and Hope rallied the financial magnates to withhold loans, pressure bureaucrats, and consider violence against tax officials or their superiors.
• After the meeting, the magnates went upstairs to a banquet while Gordmide decided not to share his own idea.
• At Versailles, Queen Mary showed Joseph more than forty official remonstrances against abolishing the Tax Farmer System and questioned whether reform was timely.
• Joseph reassured Queen Mary that he would produce results within a few months, then decided he should act through his administrative, judicial, and financial power instead of protecting opponents’ interests.

Joseph ordered Marat to investigate officials who opposed abolishing the Tax Farmer System, but a growing flood of remonstrances threatened to unite the bureaucracy against the reform. To stall the officials’ opposition, Joseph arranged for the postal system to be disrupted and tax-reform letters to be withheld or returned.

• Joseph gave Marat a list of officials opposing the tax reform and asked him to investigate them, and Marat reluctantly agreed despite the lack of evidence or complaints.
• Brienne brought Joseph more than twenty remonstrances from local officials and warned that forcing the reform through could provoke the bureaucracy.
• Joseph realized that stopping the remonstrances from reaching Versailles could keep their authors from committing to the opposition, so he summoned Arouet, Fouche, and Jean Randale.
• Joseph ordered Arouet to create a postal disruption and told Fouche and Jean Randale to have the Black Room identify tax-reform letters for the Post Office to withhold or return.
• A fire damaged part of the Paris Post Office, and a dispute between its leaders disrupted official mail while ordinary deliveries mostly continued.

Joseph realized Marat’s investigations were too understaffed and slow, but Fouche’s agents secretly provoked the targets into threatening investigators, prompting the Public Notary Investigation Bureau to pursue the cases with renewed determination. Less than twenty days later, Marat presented Joseph with evidence against sixteen officials, while investigations into more than thirty others remained unresolved.

• Joseph noticed that Marat had assigned too few investigators to each case and went to the Intelligence Bureau to put pressure on him.
• In Bourges, Sehilian received a threat warning him to leave, but he refused and asked to extend his investigation.
• Fouche’s agents staged threats and disruptions against investigators across France, causing them to suspect the officials they were investigating and press on more fiercely.
• Marat learned that his investigators were being threatened and ordered Desmoulins to send reinforcements and pursue the cases thoroughly.
• Marat apologized to Joseph after uncovering evidence of crimes by sixteen officials, and Joseph told him to handle the suspects impartially.

Joseph devised a way to investigate officials opposing the abolition of the Tax Farmer System by comparing their declared assets with their known income. Across France, the Public Notary Investigation Bureau used the method to interrogate officials, and Baron Gaston eventually confessed to embezzlement.

• Joseph noticed that several officials possessed far more wealth than their salaries and known property could explain.
• Joseph asked Marat whether he had heard of the crime of holding vast wealth from unclear sources.
• In Poitiers, Desmoulins and his assistant confronted Baron Gaston with calculations showing that 87,000 francs of his wealth had no known source.
• Gaston gave inconsistent explanations for the money, then claimed friends had given it to him.
• After two days of interrogation and an approved extension, Gaston confessed to embezzlement.
• Investigators across France used similar interrogations and uncovered numerous cases.