Chapter Summaries

Joseph rejected the Tax Farmers’ attempt to negotiate fines in exchange for Government Bonds and a royal pardon, demanding large payments without promising immunity from prosecution. When Fuld threatened to withhold the money, Joseph used a grisly torture story to intimidate him, leaving the negotiations unresolved.

• Joseph told Brienne to summon the Tax Farmers the next afternoon and directed him to place their one million Francs in the Industrial Development Fund, granting Brienne half the annual dividends.
• Baron Morell offered Government Bond purchases and fines on behalf of the Tax Farmers, then raised the proposed fines when Joseph rejected their initial terms.
• Joseph demanded fines of ten million Francs from the leading Tax Farmers, five million from others, and smaller sums from the rest, with no Government Bonds or room for bargaining.
• Morell asked whether paying the fine would earn a royal pardon, but Joseph said the High Court would decide their punishment.
• Fuld threatened to withhold the money and face prison, so Joseph described an alleged Mercury torture method to frighten him.

Joseph pressured the tax farmers into accepting fines and court judgments by threatening severe torture while offering some hope for their families. Harper and Vankiewicz escaped France for Britain, and Borolei was sentenced to death as his crimes exposed a major smuggling ring.

• Joseph described a gruesome torture and offered the tax farmers leniency for their families if they accepted the settlement.
• Morel agreed to pay his fine, and Fuld and the other negotiating tax farmers followed.
• Harper and Vankiewicz hid in Dutch diplomatic carriages, evaded Tax Bureau investigators, and escaped toward Britain.
• The Paris High Court sentenced Borolei to decapitation and a ten-million-Franc fine for sixteen charges.
• The court's judgment exposed Borolei's crimes and led authorities to uncover a major smuggling ring in northwestern France.

After Borolei was sentenced and trials exposed major Tax Farmers, popular celebrations boosted the Tax Bureau and Joseph’s standing. Joseph learned that Harper and Vankiewicz had escaped to the Dutch Embassy, then watched a crowd sing a new version of “Ah! All Will Be Well” as it marched toward Louvre Square.

• High Courts across France revealed Tax Farmer defendants, and Borolei’s death sentence sparked widespread celebrations.
• Fuerke reported that the government had collected forty-two million Francs in fines, while Joseph planned to secure swift verdicts against cooperative Tax Farmers.
• Fuerke told Joseph that Harper and Vankiewicz had fled France with much of their wealth, prompting Joseph to demand their return through a diplomatic note to the Netherlands.
• Joseph heard a crowd singing a song denouncing the Tax Farmers and recognized it as a rewritten version of “Ah! Ça Ira.”
• Joseph changed into an inconspicuous coat, followed the growing procession, and watched it head toward Louvre Square.

Joseph watched the Tax Farmers’ effigies burn as Tax Bureau officials celebrated their victory, while in Corsica Napoleon prepared to counter a planned uprising by pressuring judges to acquit captured National Guard soldiers. The chapter ended with Napoleon ordering two companies to assemble outside Parliament Hall.

• Joseph watched the crowd burn effigies of the Tax Farmers and celebrate the Crown Prince and the Tax Bureau.
• Robespierre, Shawn Met, and Darty credited the Crown Prince with bringing justice to France.
• Earl Buttafuoco warned Napoleon that Paoli might stir up a riot in the mountains, and Napoleon said he would address the problem from a higher level.
• Napoleon confronted three judges who had convicted captured National Guard soldiers and demanded that they rule the prisoners not guilty.
• Napoleon ordered Labo's and Boileau's companies to assemble in front of Parliament Hall the next morning.

Napoleon used the French garrison to arrest Paoli Faction legislators in Ajaccio and secure their convictions, then moved troops into separatist regions to prevent uprisings. The chapter left Corsica subdued, with its rebellious leaders imprisoned and the populace pacified by the army’s arrival.

• Napoleon rallied more than two hundred soldiers and marched on Corsican Parliament Hall to arrest legislators accused of plotting riots.
• Giuseppe and other legislators protested the arrests, but Labo whipped Giuseppe down and soldiers bound the named legislators as cannons intimidated the rest.
• The army imposed martial law in Ajaccio, and the High Court sentenced Giuseppe and fourteen other legislators to prison and stripped them of their seats.
• Napoleon’s forces entered regions showing signs of unrest, while the separatist leaders remained imprisoned and unable to organize resistance.

Joseph reprimanded Napoleon for his heavy-handed actions in Corsica but kept him in command and planned to develop the island as a tourist destination. In London, Wellesley blamed France for his costly campaign in India, and Pitt revealed that the Cabinet was preparing a new strategy against France over its growing trade and industry.

• Lucien Bonaparte won a Corsican assembly seat, while Napoleon and Governor Earl Buttafuoco secured nearly all fourteen by-election seats for their chosen candidates.
• Joseph ordered Brienne to reprimand Napoleon and remove him as acting commander, while allowing him to continue commanding the Corsican garrison.
• Joseph proposed turning Corsica into a tourist destination, and he tasked Brienne with planning ferry routes and new attractions with Mr. Bayei.
• Marquess Wellesley returned to London, where Pitt the Younger welcomed him and praised his supposed victory in the Far East.
• Wellesley blamed the French for aiding Mysore and ruining his campaign, and Pitt said the Cabinet was preparing a strategy against France over the Eden Treaty and French economic growth.

Pitt the Younger and Wellesley discussed France’s rapid industrial, military, and colonial growth and agreed Britain needed urgent reforms. Wellesley accepted the newly created post of Minister of the Army, but the Duke of Leeds’s report left him alarmed by how quickly France was expanding and consolidating its gains.

• Pitt the Younger described France’s growing textile, steel, and wine industries and warned that it was disrupting the European balance of power.
• Pitt the Younger gave Wellesley the Duke of Leeds’s top-secret report and offered him the new post of Minister of the Army.
• Wellesley accepted the post and criticized Britain’s senior generals for resisting modern weapons and horse artillery.
• Wellesley reported that French percussion-cap guns greatly outmatched Britain’s Brown Bess rifles and warned that British troops would likely lose without a numerical advantage.
• Wellesley read that France had rapidly secured North African colonies and developed coal and iron industries in Luxembourg and Wallonia, prompting him to question whether the report exaggerated France’s success.

Marquess Wellesley and Pitt the Younger assessed France’s powerful diplomatic position and domestic reforms, concluding that Britain needed to counter France before it dominated Europe. At a celebration for Wellesley’s return, Lord Grenville began outlining a diplomatic strategy that might redirect Prussia and Austria’s ambitions.

• Wellesley and Pitt reviewed France’s friendly relations with European powers and its reforms, then agreed Britain needed to act to preserve the continental balance.
• Pitt told Wellesley that the King had agreed to shift Britain’s strategy against France and that Cabinet ministers were preparing plans.
• Wellesley arrived at St. James’s Palace to cheers, attended his triumph celebration, and ignored Catherine Kitty Pakenham while contemplating how to oppose France.
• Grenville joined Wellesley and proposed reconsidering Britain’s opposition to Russia’s claims on Poland, explaining that the policy had harmed Prussia and driven Prussia and Austria away from eastward expansion.

Lord Grenville and Marquess Wellesley planned to use Poland’s partition and Russian pressure to end Prussia and Austria’s conflict and build a force against France. Five days later, Pitt the Younger endorsed Grenville’s diplomatic proposal to the Cabinet.

• Lord Grenville proposed steering Prussia and Austria toward Poland by exploiting their financial troubles and Prussia’s desire for Gdańsk Port.
• Grenville suggested using Russia’s interest in Minsk and Podolia to pressure the two powers into a ceasefire, while Wellesley questioned how they could be turned against France.
• Grenville described Maria Ludovica’s anti-French feelings and Baron Walter’s hatred of the French Crown Prince, but Wellesley argued that more conflicts of interest were needed to shift Austria’s stance.
• Wellesley identified Southern Netherlands as a potential source of conflict between France and Austria, and he and Grenville agreed to pursue the idea.
• Five days later, Pitt the Younger told the Cabinet that Grenville’s proposal could create a continental military alliance capable of checking France.

The British Cabinet reviewed its strategy for countering France and agreed to examine Henry Harper’s proposals for exploiting French financial and trade weaknesses. In Paris, the Royal Academy of Public Administration completed its first trainees’ interviews, and the appointment letters revealed which officials would enter a new bureaucratic system and which would be sidelined.

• Pitt the Younger said Britain’s national strategy would be submitted to the King for approval, and Duke of Portland proposed adding Henry Harper’s advice on France’s financial and trade vulnerabilities.
• Wilberforce supported Harper’s proposals, and Pitt the Younger asked for a report on them.
• Baron Corsepé performed poorly in his interview by recommending road tolls despite having studied their drawbacks, then received completion documents and an appointment letter.
• Baron Corsepé and Barnel compared appointment letters and found that only Corsepé’s position included the prefix “Auxiliary Administrative.”

Rouen officials began abolishing local tolls and entry taxes under pressure from Versailles Palace, while the reforms brought savings to merchants and exposed new challenges for the Tax Bureau. Chaban returned to his mirror workshop to find tax officers were expected there soon.

• Barnel questioned Depuen about abolishing Rouen's entry taxes, and Depuen explained that Vaillant had approved the change to follow Versailles Palace's policies.
• Vaillant implemented the reforms partly to avoid losing his position and because new central funding could cover Rouen's expenses.
• Barnel explained that removing local taxes would expand trade and increase goods-tax revenue for Rouen.
• Chaban delivered mirrors to Evreux, paid far less in tolls and taxes than before, and praised the Crown Prince, Count Fuerke, Robespierre, and the Tax Bureau.
• Chaban saw street vendors confronting tax officers on Great Clock Street, where the officers' restrained approach had encouraged some merchants to resist paying taxes.
• Chaban returned to his workshop, where his accountant warned him that tax officers were on their way.

Chaban evaded taxes by smuggling mirrors out of Rouen, while France’s new Tax Bureau struggled to meet its revenue target. Joseph proposed taxing only the increase in a product’s price and requiring sellers to document transactions, leaving the solution to tax evasion just beginning to take shape.

• Chaban distracted the tax officers with an empty wagon and escaped with a carriage full of mirrors, avoiding 8 Francs in taxes.
• Fuerke told Joseph that January’s national revenue had fallen to 34 million Francs because widespread Tax Evasion had undermined the new tax system.
• Fuerke urged Joseph to arm tax officers and authorize force, but Robespierre opposed using violence against civilians.
• Robespierre explained that Tax Farmers had kept people near factories and shops to monitor sales, prompting Joseph to question the old collection method.
• Joseph proposed taxing only the increase in a product’s price and explained that sellers would have to provide proof of purchase prices.

Joseph explained how invoices would enforce a new Value-Added Tax and proposed ways to encourage ordinary people to request them. France began preparing the tax system, while Lord Grenville and the Duke of Leeds sailed toward Riga aboard the Polyphemus.

• Joseph explained to Robespierre and Fuerke how numbered invoices would track sales and purchases and help detect tax evasion.
• Joseph proposed requiring invoices for government reimbursements, holding an Invoice Lottery, allowing capped personal tax deductions, and promoting invoice requests to the public.
• Joseph and Tax Bureau officials spent several days planning the Value-Added Tax, and Denico joined their discussions.
• The Paris Business Daily published a story about tax evasion as the Tax Bureau announced the shift from the Goods Tax to the Value-Added Tax and the Royal Mint began printing invoices.
• People across France queued to collect invoice books, earning the treasury 3.2 million francs in fees in less than half a month as tax officers began daily training.
• Aboard the Polyphemus in the Kattegat Strait, Lord Grenville told the Duke of Leeds that he would soon be free of the ship's dreadful meals.

Grenville and the Duke of Leeds discussed Harper’s plan to use Austrian merchants and France’s fragile finances to disrupt French industry. Leeds traveled to Vienna to organize orders, while Grenville continued to Riga and secured an audience with Catherine II.

• The Duke of Leeds questioned whether Harper and the Dutchman could be trusted with the proposed investment, and Grenville argued that the potential returns justified the risk.
• Grenville explained that Austrian merchants resented the Rhine-Seine River Treaty because French exports had gained more from it than Austria’s trade had.
• Grenville described France’s weak tax revenues and the Industrial Development Fund’s lack of cash, warning that factory failures could cause the fund major losses.
• The Duke of Leeds agreed to have Austrian merchants place as many orders as possible.
• The Polyphemus docked at Mecklenburg, and the Duke of Leeds traveled by carriage to Vienna.
• Grenville continued to Riga and received an audience with Catherine II several days later.

Alexei gathered intelligence from Count Chekolin about England’s proposed trade deal with Russia and passed it to the French ambassador. On his journey back to Saint Petersburg, Potemkin learned that England’s proposal might involve Poland, though he doubted Russia could act there alone.

• Alexei staged a drunken wager at his palace gathering and learned from Count Chekolin that England had proposed expanding trade and developing Crimea, while the Tsar had summoned Potemkin back to Saint Petersburg.
• Alexei visited Crown Prince Paul the next day but learned little about England’s purpose, and the French ambassador sent Alexei’s intelligence to Paris in a coded letter.
• Potemkin asked Tsar’s secretary Baron Khrapovitsky why he had been summoned and speculated that Catherine II missed him.
• Khrapovitsky told Potemkin that England sought broad trade cooperation and might have raised the subject of Poland.
• Potemkin doubted Russia could deal with Poland alone while it also had to watch the Ottoman Empire and Persia.

Potemkin learned that Russia’s military and financial constraints made an attack on Poland difficult, while Britain offered a bargain to end the Prussian-Austrian war. He considered trading Russia’s claim to Wallachia for Austrian concessions and British investment, leaving the proposed deal under discussion.

• Khrapovitsky explained that Russia had lost heavily at Svensksund and now needed to commit troops to several fronts, making an attack on Poland risky.
• Khrapovitsky told Potemkin that Britain wanted Russia to help secure a ceasefire between Prussia and Austria in exchange for benefits.
• Potemkin rejected the suggestion that Russia recognize Austria’s claim to Wallachia, which Russia saw as a route toward Constantinople.
• Khrapovitsky said Austria might promise not to interfere in Silistria and abandon its demand for Poland’s integrity in return for Russia’s acceptance of its Wallachian claim.
• Potemkin saw strategic value in the proposed exchange, while Khrapovitsky added that Britain offered to increase purchases of Russian goods and invest in Crimea’s coal mine.

Potemkin recognized that Britain’s diplomatic and trade proposals were intended to weaken France, while Catherine II considered how to profit from the rivalry. In Austria, the Duke of Leeds revealed a plan to finance a huge order of French goods and abandon the contract after the goods were made.

• Potemkin explained to Khrapovitsky that Britain’s mediation, trade offers, and promises to restrain Sweden were meant to undermine France, and learned that the Tsar was inclined to accept the proposal.
• At the royal hunting ground, Platon Zubov praised British investment to Catherine II, who suspected Britain had come to suppress France and thought she should discuss the rivalry with Potemkin.
• Catherine II shot and killed a wild boar while imagining how Potemkin would assess the British offer.
• The Duke of Leeds told Norbert Klester that Britain would finance a large order of French goods through the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and pay a commission.
• The Duke of Leeds revealed that the French goods would be left to rot in a warehouse without payment, and Klester realized he intended to breach the contract.

The Duke of Leeds recruited the indebted Klester for a scheme to trigger a costly French market default, while advancing a broader British plan to shift Austria’s political stance against France. Across Austria and its Italian territories, agents used shell companies and caravan connections to place huge French orders, leaving the factories rushing to meet contracts backed by the French Industrial Development Fund.

• The Duke of Leeds offered Klester one million Florins and diplomatic protection to help arrange a planned default, and Klester agreed after demanding half the reward upfront.
• The Duke of Leeds ordered his attendant to have Bress watch Klester, then set out to meet Baron Thugut and work against Austria’s anti-Prussian and pro-French factions.
• Baron Graz persuaded the Mok-Bruno Caravan’s general manager to sign a deal by showing him a thirty-thousand-Florin deposit slip.
• Graz used shell companies and reputable intermediaries to secure French supply contracts, while Georg described using caravan shares and staged deposits to obtain orders.
• Over nearly a month, caravans and companies signed French procurement contracts worth more than four million Florins, spurring factories backed by the French Industrial Development Fund to expand production.

At Countess Nicklas's salon, the Duke of Leeds and Austrian officials planned to push Count Kaunitz out of power so Austria could pursue a ceasefire with Prussia. In Pozztan, William II remained angry over the prospect of accepting peace terms, while Luciveld Menken urged him to consider the cost of continuing the war.

• At the salon, Austrian nobles discussed the war's financial strain and the obstacles to a ceasefire, including Count Kaunitz and Prussia's likely demand for Liegnitz.
• The Duke of Leeds offered to seek British mediation and proposed giving Kaunitz a chance to lead the war, then using a failing front to make him bear political responsibility.
• Baron Walter and the other officials approved the plan and volunteered to build support in Hungary, Prague, and elsewhere.
• In Pozztan, William II complained that Prussia was being treated poorly by its ally and recalled Tsar Peter III's past support.
• Luciveld Menken advised William II that recovering Liegnitz would be difficult and that Prussia might accept peace if Britain guaranteed Breslau's safety.

William II considered trading Prussia’s claim to Liegnitz for legal recognition of its administration of Danzig, while Britain offered aid to prepare Prussia for future wars. In Paris, Joseph learned that Britain was organizing a strategic effort against France and began planning military expansion and economic reforms.

• Mencken argued that exchanging Liegnitz for Danzig was strategically acceptable, but William II objected that Danzig had originally been his.
• Prince Heinrich told William II that the exchange would secure legal legitimacy for Prussia’s administration of Danzig and that Britain would provide 500,000 pounds in aid.
• Prince Heinrich urged William II to use the aid for military reforms and expansion, while Mencken suggested a stronger army could avenge the defeat in the Southern Netherlands.
• William II agreed to grant the British envoy an audience the next day.
• Joseph reviewed intelligence that Britain was preparing a broad strategic deployment likely aimed at France and concluded that France had one or two years to prepare.
• Joseph began outlining countermeasures, prioritizing an expansion of France’s fighting force and faster industrial, agricultural, and trade development.