Chapter Summaries

Joseph planned to boost exports by marketing French textiles, furniture, and iron cookware as wedding necessities abroad, while preventing the campaign from affecting French marriage and birth rates. At a Sugar Beet breeding laboratory, he learned of progress on high-sugar crops and realized Lamarck could have used his genetic theory to advance Penicillin research.

• Joseph told Bayei to promote the Three Essentials—French fashions, synthetic board furniture, and French iron cookware—in foreign markets through rumors, newspapers, and plays.
• Joseph forbade promoting the Three Essentials in France and ordered counter-propaganda, warning that the expense could delay marriages and reduce births.
• Joseph arrived at the Sugar Beet breeding laboratory, where Achard reported crossbreeding experiments and plans to distribute seeds from high-sugar beets.
• Lamarck said he had come to study breeding methods because they could help him cultivate a high-yield Penicillin strain, and Joseph regretted not sharing his genetic theory earlier.

Joseph confirmed that sugar beet production could support France’s sugar needs and discussed the worsening slave uprising in Saint-Domingue with Talleyrand. He rejected sending troops and planned a risky alternative, leaving Talleyrand to recommend Jacques Pierre Brisot to carry it out.

• Achard told Joseph that Saint-Domingue could produce at least five thousand tons of sugar per month if enough farmers planted sugar beets.
• Talleyrand reported that Boukman’s rebels were killing plantation owners while Vincent Auge used his influence to obstruct efforts to suppress the uprising.
• Talleyrand urged Joseph to send an expeditionary force, but Joseph refused, citing the danger and cost of military intervention.
• Joseph proposed a different plan for Saint-Domingue, and Talleyrand agreed it could bring great rewards despite its risks.
• Talleyrand said he was not the right envoy and recommended Jacques Pierre Brisot, an able abolitionist and public speaker.

Joseph sent the abolitionist Brisot to Saint-Domingue to advance his plan, while Calonne’s Lightning Company staged a public demonstration of coal-gas streetlights in London to build excitement and encourage investment. The chapter ended with Londoner Jim Hyman and his wife considering an expensive home gas lamp after hearing that the current offer included free pipe installation.

• Joseph sent Brisot toward Saint-Domingue with two Intelligence Bureau agents, and learned that Brisot’s party had already sailed into the Atlantic.
• Calonne explained to Styler that the streetlights were a necessary promotional carrot, though the company’s large distillation equipment was only a façade and a small experimental setup supplied the lamps.
• Herbert gave a speech as London’s first thirty coal-gas streetlights illuminated the area around City Hall, drawing cheers from the crowd.
• Lightning Company publicized the streetlight project and distributed advertisements offering home gas lamps with free pipe connections.
• Jim Hyman’s wife urged him to buy a gas lamp, but he balked at its eight-pound price despite her warning that future pipe installation could cost ten pounds.

Hyman bought a discounted gas lamp, while Stephen Brook explained Lightning Company's sales strategy to his father. Mesmer then persuaded Sir Elves to pursue Lightning Company's supposed high-interest bond, leaving Elves heading to Birmingham to investigate its gas streetlight project.

• Hyman decided to spend his family's eleven pounds on a gas lamp after reassuring his wife that the project was legitimate.
• Stephen Brook told Old Brook that Lightning Company was selling discounted lamps to improve its finances after delays and setbacks.
• Styler reported that Lightning Company had sold over sixteen hundred lamps, and Calonne told him to raise the price and announce another increase.
• Mesmer told Sir Elves that Lightning Company would offer internal bonds paying thirty-five percent interest to fund gas streetlight projects in several cities.
• Mesmer promised to introduce Sir Elves to Gordmide, and Elves went to Birmingham the next day to investigate the project.

Lightning Company attracted a flood of bond subscriptions and pushed its streetlight projects and household gas lamp sales across Britain and Europe. The company’s subcontractors agreed to seek financing for the costly work, while demand for gas lamps surged in London and spread to other cities.

• Elvis learned that Birmingham was considering a £200,000 gas streetlight project and that Lightning Company was pursuing contracts in Britain and Europe.
• Elvis subscribed to £40,000 of Lightning Company bonds, and his cousin and business partners followed, helping subscriptions reach nearly £600,000.
• Styler told subcontractors that Lightning Company expected streetlight agreements in seven cities and described the large upfront investment they would need to advance.
• When subcontractors protested that they lacked funds, Styler urged them to borrow or issue bonds until project payments arrived.
• London sold more than 11,000 household gas lamps in a month after buyers heard prices would rise, while Birmingham and Manchester began selling lamps in smaller numbers.

Calonne used Lightning Company’s profits to send money and supplies to France while Kaunitz struggled to sustain Austria’s war in Silesia. After Russia and Britain pressed for a ceasefire and Austrian forces faltered, Kaunitz resigned and Leopold II appointed Tugut to negotiate with Prussia.

• Calonne recorded nearly 983,000 pounds in Lightning Company funds and routed the money and purchased supplies through Europe to France.
• Kaunitz returned from Silesia facing shortages, worsening Prussian strength, and the fallout from the Vienna Chamber of Commerce’s fraudulent orders against France.
• Dominique told Kaunitz that Russia offered to recognize Austria’s claim to Wallachia if it agreed to a ceasefire, and that Russia would press Prussia to relinquish Liegnitz.
• Kaunitz persuaded Leopold II to give Austria another month to improve its position, but Marshal Lacy reported that the Hungarian Legion had withdrawn over unpaid wages and the artillery had run out of shells.
• After Baron Walter and other officials mocked him, Kaunitz left Schönbrunn Palace and formally resigned two days later.
• Leopold II appointed Tugut State Minister and authorized him to negotiate a ceasefire with Prussia.

Joseph demonstrated the Indomitable, a steam-powered warship using a propeller, but its propulsion system failed during a speed trial. The shipyard’s experts still faced persistent vibration that repeatedly broke the propeller shaft.

• Joseph and French naval officials watched the Indomitable race a galley during a trial at Brest Shipyard.
• Borda and Sane praised Joseph’s propeller design for avoiding the weight and vulnerability of paddle wheels.
• Marquis de Castries said that fifteen steam-powered ships could challenge the English Fleet in the Mediterranean.
• The Indomitable’s propeller began shaking, its main shaft snapped, and the ship slowed to a stop.
• Joseph recalled that repeated experiments had not solved the propeller’s vibration and wondered whether they would have to use paddle wheels after all.

Joseph and the shipyard solved the Indomitable’s propeller vibration by using Guaiac Wood for its main shaft, then tested the ship’s new power system. The ship greatly outpaced a galley, but its Steam Engine still failed after four hours, and Murdoch estimated that reliable full-day operation could take two years.

• Joseph inspected the Indomitable and learned from Murdoch that the new Propeller had run for more than five hours without malfunctioning.
• Murdoch explained that Gaman had improved the Propeller’s polishing and replaced its wooden main shaft after Berenice told him about Guaiac Wood.
• Joseph recognized Guaiac Wood’s potential as a strategic material, rewarded Berenice, and ordered agents to explain confidentiality rules to her family.
• Joseph learned that Guaiac Wood came from Jamaica, a United Kingdom Colony, and arranged for the shipyard to buy more before the British learned its value.
• The Indomitable overtook a galley in twenty-five minutes and sailed for four hours before a Steam Engine malfunction stopped it.
• Joseph asked Murdoch to make the engine run steadily for a full day, and Murdoch estimated that achieving this would take around two years.

Joseph learned that Richard Trevithick was in Paris and ordered the Talent Committee to retain him, hoping to put his high-pressure steam engine expertise to work in France. At the Ship Hull Laboratory, Sane presented the design for the steam-powered warship Light of the Mediterranean to Joseph and senior naval officers.

• Sander told Joseph that Richard Trevithick could help the United Steam Engine Company improve its steam engines within a year.
• Joseph recognized Trevithick as a pioneering train inventor and instructed Eman to write to the Talent Committee to ensure he remained in France.
• Murdoch explained that Watt's patents had prevented Trevithick from legally manufacturing his high-pressure steam engine in Britain, prompting him to seek investment in France.
• Sane presented the Light of the Mediterranean's blueprints to Joseph, Marquis de Castries, and other senior naval officers.

Joseph and Sane presented the design for the steam-powered frigate Light of the Mediterranean, whose speed and stern-focused guns would support the Navy’s Ranger Tactics. Joseph promised twenty ships of its class and twelve larger steam frigates, leaving the French Navy’s officers elated about the coming expansion.

• Sane explained that Light of the Mediterranean could reach eight knots under steam alone, carry fuel for up to 900 nautical miles, and sacrifice some gunports for coal storage.
• Logifere questioned the frigate’s reduced firepower, and Joseph explained that it was designed for Ranger Tactics rather than conventional broadside battles.
• Sane described the ship’s stern-mounted long guns, and Logifere realized they would let it harass pursuing enemy ships while fleeing.
• Joseph promised the Navy twenty Light of the Mediterranean-class frigates and twelve larger steam-powered frigates based on Virgin.
• Joseph reassured Marquis de Castries that additional appropriations would fund the new ships, backed by more than one million Pound Sterling raised by a London project.

Joseph outlined the cost of building new French frigates and explained his plan to develop steam-powered Third-rate Ships that could challenge the British Navy. He urged Marquis de Castries to begin training crews, then learned that France’s navy struggled to recruit sailors quickly compared with Britain.

• Joseph calculated that building twenty Light of the Mediterranean-class frigates and twelve heavier frigates would cost about 680,000 Pound Sterling, with roughly 850,000 needed including operating expenses.
• Joseph said France would eventually build steam-powered Third-rate Ships called Dreadnoughts, but first needed to develop 200 Horsepower Steam Engines.
• Joseph told Marquis de Castries to begin training crews for the new warships before they were built.
• Marquis de Castries explained that recruiting more than 3,000 sailors would take months because the navy lacked a reserve pool of crewmen.
• Joseph learned that France recruited sailors from merchant ships and fishing boats, while the British Navy used informants and forcibly seized able-bodied men.

Joseph discussed France’s shortage of sailors with Marquis Castelli and learned that wartime demand far exceeded the peacetime navy’s needs. He decided to establish a naval military academy to train specialists and build a professional framework for the fleet.

• Joseph proposed a naval military academy after hearing about France’s sailor shortage, but Marquis Castelli explained that training fifty thousand cadets would be unnecessary in peacetime.
• Marquis Castelli told Joseph that the navy’s crew requirements surged during war, while keeping large numbers of sailors employed in peacetime was too costly.
• Joseph learned that both the navy and merchant ships lacked sailors, partly because France’s lost colonies had left too little trade to sustain the profession.
• Joseph decided to build the naval military academy to train professional personnel and establish unified combat and navigation standards.

Joseph considered using state-backed smuggling to expand French maritime trade and employ more sailors, then learned Austria had signed a ceasefire with Prussia. He returned to Paris, anticipating that the powers would turn their attention to Poland and begin its partition earlier than expected.

• After a naval officer reported that smugglers had killed French sailors and escaped, Joseph decided to explore government-assisted smuggling against England, Portugal, and other targets.
• Joseph agreed with Marquis Castelli to fund the Vannes naval training camp with two million Francs to train a thousand officers and specialists each year.
• An Intelligence Bureau officer told Joseph that Kaunitz had resigned, Thugut had signed an Austro-Prussian ceasefire, and English agents might have helped arrange Kaunitz’s downfall.
• Joseph ordered Eman to prepare a carriage and return to Paris, reasoning that the ceasefire freed Prussia to pursue Poland while Russia could join it in a Second Partition.

Joseph organized a covert French plan to help Poland resist Russia and Prussia, appointing Sieyès to travel to Warsaw. He then discussed using smuggling hubs to undermine British and Portuguese colonial trade, leaving his ministers to develop the plan around Tripoli and Ostend.

• Joseph met with Brienne, Talleyrand, Bayei, Fouche, and other ministers after Prussia and Austria concluded a ceasefire, and prioritized helping Poland withstand possible attacks from Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
• Joseph rejected Talleyrand’s offer to travel to Warsaw and chose Sieyès to assist Stanisław II while concealing French involvement.
• Sieyès accepted the mission and left for Warsaw the next morning with funds for Poland.
• Joseph discussed a smuggling permit plan with his ministers, and Bayei supported sending cheap French goods into British and Portuguese colonies.
• Brienne recommended concentrating smuggling in Tripoli, while Bayei proposed Ostend as another hub, with Zeebrugge available if British searches intensified.

Joseph and Bayei planned a French-backed smuggling network across Southern Netherlands, while Sieyès warned Poland that Russia and Prussia might attack within six months. The chapter left Poland under pressure to expand its army and raise more funds for military preparations.

• Bayei proposed moving Special Trade through Dunkirk or Calais if Britain blockaded Southern Netherlands, and Joseph arranged ships, credit, insurance, a railway, patrols, and intelligence support.
• Bayei convened French departments to plan Special Trade and submitted a preliminary proposal to Joseph a week later.
• Sieyès arrived in Warsaw and told Stanisław II and Prince Poniatowski that war could begin within six months, with Russia and Prussia threatening Poland on two fronts.
• Prince Poniatowski reported that Poland had trained forty thousand troops, and Sieyès urged faster preparations and greater silver production at the Tarnowskie Góry mine.

Sieyès inspected Poland’s army and conveyed Joseph’s proposals for strengthening it and delaying Russian conquest, while Poland’s king agreed to seek Catherine’s favor. Back in Paris, Joseph learned that flooding had stymied silver mining and consulted a geological expert, who doubted existing steam engines could drain the mine.

• Prince Poniatowski told Sieyès that groundwater had prevented deeper mining near Kraków, and Sieyès promised to consult geologist Peche.
• Stanisław II and Prince Poniatowski showed Sieyès Poland’s elite division, where General Tadeusz Kościuszko commanded disciplined troops.
• Sieyès proposed improving Polish weapons, forming a Winged Hussars cavalry battalion, and having Stanisław II visit Catherine to delay war; the king agreed, while the Prince objected to the plan.
• Joseph read Sieyès’s report that flooding made the Tarnowskie Góry Silver Mine impossible to work below eighty meters and summoned geological experts.
• A University of Paris scholar told Joseph that the mine’s water could not be drained with current equipment, despite claims about steam engines pumping from ninety meters.

Joseph found a use for the United Steam Engine Company's LJ52 engines in Poland's flooded silver mine and planned a way to train Polish troops without openly committing France to defend Poland. More than half a month later, eight LJ52 engines successfully pumped water from the mine, and Polish and French officials prepared to sign a follow-up agreement.

• Joseph learned that powerful steam engines could drain Poland's flooded silver mine and decided to use the LJ52 engines there.
• After reviewing Sieyès's report on Poland's need for sixty thousand more troops, Joseph rejected training them in France and sent for Verin to travel to Poland.
• Joseph read that Stanisław II had appointed Prince Poniatowski Hetman and second Polish Royal Minister, while Poland continued its parliamentary and military reforms.
• Sander brought eight LJ52 engines to Tarnowskie Góry, where they pumped water from the mine after extensive construction work.
• Małachowski and Sander celebrated the successful drainage and prepared to sign a follow-up cooperation agreement for the Paris Mining Development Company.

Poland’s silver mine expanded rapidly, giving Stanisław II and Prince Poniatowski funds to enlarge the army and pursue closer ties with Austria. Poland sent troops to suppress the Slavonian Rebellion while Stanisław II traveled to Russia and exposed the plans of Polish traitors.

• More than five hundred miners traveled to Tarnowskie Góry after the mine expansion agreement, and the new deposit was expected to raise annual silver output to 8.4 million Złoty.
• Prince Poniatowski told Stanisław II that the mine revenue could double the army’s size and proposed sending Polish troops to help Austria suppress the Slavonian Rebellion.
• Stanisław II ordered Prince Poniatowski and Kont to negotiate the expedition with Leopold II, then prepared to travel to Saint Petersburg while keeping the Great Sejm vote in mind.
• On November 2, 1791, Lieutenant General Kościuszko led more than 13,000 Polish soldiers into Slavonia, where they would fight Serbian rebels with Austrian supplies.
• Stanisław II addressed Catherine II and the Russian nobles with lavish praise, while Sieyès had warned him of the Targowica Confederation’s plans.

Stanisław II won Catherine II’s favor by serenading her with romantic songs and settled into the Winter Palace. In Warsaw, Prince Poniatowski reviewed a revised Constitution that made Catholicism Poland’s state religion while allowing other faiths.

• Stanisław II cultivated Catherine II’s favor while wary of Platon Zubov, then serenaded her with “My Heart Will Go On” at the Hunting Palace.
• Catherine II summoned Stanisław II after his song, and the next day she admired a painting he had commissioned depicting his audience with her.
• Stanisław II played “Let It Be Me” for Catherine II, who spoke with him by the fireplace and later summoned him regularly to hear him play.
• Stanisław II settled into the Winter Palace as Catherine II continued to favor Platon Zubov but welcomed him for music and conversation.
• In Warsaw, Prince Poniatowski presented revised constitutional clauses establishing Catholicism as the state religion while permitting other religions, backed by a promise of aid from the Holy See.

Prince Poniatowski guided the Great Sejm toward a restrained constitution that protected property and limited the Liberum Veto while avoiding sweeping equality reforms. As the constitutional convention began, Poland’s security forces and covert agents worked to keep pro-Russian opponents from voting against it.

• Prince Poniatowski secured conservative support by promising to preserve harmless noble privileges and postponing a declaration of equal status for all citizens.
• Prince Poniatowski presented majority voting and election rules for the Sejm, while omitting several radical measures from the constitutional draft.
• On December 6, 1791, delegates entered the Great Sejm for the constitutional convention as Warsaw’s citizens watched in silence.
• A Committee of Freedom and Security agent left after Police declared that Baron Ossikowski had accidentally fallen from a balcony, concealing the agent’s assassination of the pro-Russian delegate.
• Prince Poniatowski’s Guards stopped Count Branicki’s carriage, and two soldiers damaged its axle as he tried to reach the Great Sejm to vote.