Chapter Summaries

Joseph visited Lavoisier and proposed using Latin letters to simplify chemical symbols, which excited Lavoisier and promised to speed his research and writing. After discovering Lavoisier’s proposal for a standard unit of length, Joseph offered royal support for a committee to unify France’s measurements, and the conversation expanded to standardizing units beyond length.

• Madame Lavoisier agreed to help Joseph, and Lavoisier explained that she had managed his laboratory and was highly skilled in experiments.
• Lavoisier showed Joseph his table of thirty-three elements and explained what he meant by chemical elements.
• Joseph proposed using Latin letters for element symbols and wrote a formula for carbonic acid, prompting Lavoisier to praise the notation and ask to use it in Elementary Treatise on Chemistry.
• Joseph found Lavoisier and Monge’s Proposal on Length Standards and offered to help establish the Standard Committee through royal funding and support.
• Joseph urged Lavoisier to use the committee to unify units of mass, temperature, heat, and other measurements as well as length.

Joseph advanced plans to establish a French Standard Committee and persuaded Lavoisier to consider leaving tax farming for chemical industries. As Russo-French trade began its first voyage, Marat revealed that a corruption case involved more than ten million livres.

• Joseph outlined industrial standards to Lavoisier, who proposed gathering scientists to formally establish the French Standard Committee.
• Joseph urged Lavoisier to leave the Tax Farmers business and offered him the chance to invest in chemical industries.
• After Paris Fashion Week ended, a French-crewed fleet bearing the Russian flag sailed from Marseille toward Crimea to begin Russo-French trade.
• Marat entered a skeptical man's home and said his investigation had uncovered embezzlement exceeding ten million livres.

Marat uncovered suspicious loans made under Jacques Necker and went to Lorraine to seek information from Necker’s rival, Calonne. Joseph learned Marat had gone with only one companion and ordered Fouche to find and protect him, while Thomas Jefferson welcomed Archbishop Talleyrand to Philadelphia.

• Marat told Valls that Jacques Necker had arranged a 5-million-livre loan at an unusually high interest rate through a bank linked to Necker’s friend, and suspected Necker had profited from government borrowing.
• Marat showed Valls copied loan documents, and Valls pointed him toward Calonne, who had clashed with Necker and was exiled to Lorraine.
• Joseph learned that Marat had left for Lorraine with only Mr. Evans to investigate Necker, and ordered Count Eman to have Fouche send men to protect him.
• In Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson welcomed Archbishop Talleyrand, the French envoy, to Benjamin Franklin’s manor.

Talleyrand negotiated with Franklin and Jefferson for American funding of France’s planned campaign against the Barbary Pirates. Franklin agreed to seek annual payments from Congress, while Talleyrand urged the United States to equip two frigates and join the campaign.

• Franklin recognized that Talleyrand’s proposal involved more than protecting a few American merchant ships, and Talleyrand described France’s plan to secure Mediterranean trade.
• Talleyrand asked the United States to help fund the campaign, initially requesting $200,000 per year.
• Talleyrand explained that France intended to attack the pirates’ land strongholds, and Franklin became interested in the plan.
• After bargaining, Franklin agreed to submit an annual payment of $175,000 to the Federal Parliament.
• Talleyrand suggested that the United States equip two small frigates and join the Royal Navy in fighting the pirates.

Talleyrand met with Alexander Hamilton and persuaded him to support buying warships for a joint campaign against the Barbary Pirates. He offered to arrange French ships in exchange for cotton and hinted at securing lower cotton tariffs for a fee.

• Jefferson submitted a proposal for the United States to join France against the Barbary Pirates, while mentioning the purchase of two Frigates.
• Victor DuPont told Talleyrand that Congress supported fighting the pirates but planned to cut funding and showed little interest in buying warships.
• Talleyrand met Hamilton and argued that a weak federal government left the United States vulnerable, and that a victory against pirates could strengthen national unity.
• Hamilton agreed to rally the Federalists behind purchasing warships after Talleyrand offered to persuade France to accept cotton as payment.
• Talleyrand offered to seek lower French import Tariffs on Cotton and said the effort would require 4,000 US Dollars.

Marat survived an assassination attempt in Toul with help from Charlotte Corday and a team sent by the Crown Prince. Joseph suspected the attack was connected to Necker’s secrets and sought to bring Calonne back to Paris, securing Brienne’s support and approaching Queen Mary for a pardon.

• Erich’s men attacked Marat in Toul, killing his assistant Evans and wounding Marat as he fled.
• Charlotte Corday hid Marat, and Prosper’s team arrived in time to kill two attackers while another escaped.
• Fouche reported the attack to Joseph, who considered why Calonne had withheld evidence against Necker and decided Calonne might be persuaded by restoring his political future.
• Joseph gained Brienne’s agreement to Calonne’s return by promising it would not threaten Brienne’s position and might help raise state revenue.
• Joseph and Brienne asked Queen Mary to pardon Calonne, and Brienne framed the pardon as a way to restore her standing after the Assembly of Notables dispute.

Queen Mary pardoned Viscount Calonne and tried to teach Joseph how to rule, believing he relied too heavily on Brienne. Joseph escaped the lecture and decided to travel to Lorraine to meet Calonne and visit Nancy, while Clementine persuaded him to take her along by claiming she wanted to see coal mines.

• Queen Mary approved Viscount Calonne's pardon, and Joseph and Brienne left Petit Trianon after securing her signature.
• Queen Mary called Joseph back and advised him to form his own opinions rather than always follow Brienne.
• Joseph used Clementine's arrival as an excuse to escape the Queen's lengthy lesson on rulership.
• Joseph decided to travel to Lorraine to meet Calonne and visit Nancy's industrial development zone and steam engine factory.
• Clementine asked to accompany Joseph, mistook a whispered reference to artichokes for coal, and insisted that she loved coal mines.

Joseph traveled to Lorraine with Clementine and reached Calonne’s estate, where he sought evidence against Necker. Calonne’s reluctance to help left Joseph suspecting he was hiding something, so Joseph pressured him by linking him to the murder of investigator Evans.

• Joseph agreed to take Clementine to Lorraine after she pleaded for compensation for returning the Wish of the Stars.
• Clementine traveled with Joseph and entertained the convoy as they passed drought-stricken farmland.
• Joseph’s convoy arrived at Calonne’s estate, and Joseph asked Calonne privately for evidence against Necker.
• Joseph offered to help Calonne return to Paris, but Calonne hesitated and claimed he had nothing to provide.
• Joseph told Calonne that he was the prime suspect in Evans’s murder and warned that the Fair Investigation Department and Secret Police would investigate him.
• Calonne feared the investigation and suspected Evans had been probing Necker’s affairs.

Joseph pressured Viscount Calonne into confessing to embezzling nearly five million livres and promised him a pardon if he returned the money and helped bring Necker down. Calonne handed Joseph evidence of Necker’s corruption, and Joseph grew furious as he read it.

• Joseph warned Calonne that investigators could uncover his secrets, then offered to protect him if he was honest.
• Calonne accepted the pardon document and admitted he had taken nearly five million livres while serving as Minister of Finance.
• Joseph promised to overlook Calonne’s crimes if he returned the money and helped deal with Necker.
• Calonne retrieved hidden documents detailing Necker’s alleged corruption and gave them to Joseph.
• Joseph read the evidence, slammed it onto the table, and turned toward Calonne.

Joseph learned from Calonne that Jacques Necker had allegedly profited from irregular fiscal loans and ordered Necker’s arrest while protecting Calonne. Meanwhile, Clementine narrowly escaped a coal-mine collapse and comforted the injured miners before leaving the mine.

• Joseph asked Calonne about the suspected irregular loans, and Calonne said Necker had profited by ten million livres and that more than half the loans might have involved misconduct.
• Joseph ordered guards to protect Calonne, then sent a letter instructing the Police Department to arrest Jacques Necker and keep him and his family from being approached.
• Joseph asked Eman to accompany him to see Nancy.
• Clementine toured the Dilluri open-pit Coal Mine, where the ground beneath her and her maid Rosalia gave way.
• A miner shoved Clementine and Rosalia clear of the collapse, and a guard carried Clementine to safety as part of the slope fell away.
• Clementine gave candy to the injured miners, while Rosalia handed them silver coins.

Joseph toured the Nancy Industrial Development Zone, where he assessed its ironworks and the slow shift from guild workshops to standardized factories. The tour ended at the French United Steam Engine Company as Joseph wondered whether Murdoch’s steam-engine work could enable railway construction.

• Joseph arrived at the Nancy Industrial Development Zone and received a warm welcome from its officials and workshop owners.
• Alexander Lamo showed Joseph the ironworks, whose combined daily output was over fifty thousand pounds of iron ingots, and Joseph judged France’s steel production insufficient for industrial growth.
• Lamo introduced the Production Management Consulting Company, where Jean Sonnet was promoting factory management and standardized production despite resistance from guild traditions.
• Lamo showed Joseph the zone’s dormitories, school, and hospital, then pointed out the French United Steam Engine Company.

Murdoch and his technicians successfully tested a French-made steam engine, and Joseph laid out plans to make it reliable, affordable, and widely used. On his return to Paris, Joseph learned Necker had escaped and joined the search, which now included an unknown group offering a huge reward for information.

• Murdoch and Sander celebrated the successful test of their steam engine, and Joseph praised the team.
• Joseph urged Murdoch to focus on reliability, compact design, and mass sales, setting a target price of 13,000 livres and proposing government loans and leasing to build demand.
• Messengers told Joseph that Necker had fled, and Joseph ordered border provinces to monitor routes toward the United Kingdom and Prussia.
• Fouche told Joseph that the police had set up checkpoints and watched farms and nearby wilderness, but had found no trace of Necker.
• Fouche revealed that another group was searching for Necker and had offered fifty thousand Livres for information.

Joseph used a pardon announcement and a fabricated bounty to make Necker distrust the Banking Guild and seek protection from the Royal Family. Necker surrendered and was taken to the Bastille, where a tall officer arrived to inspect him.

• Joseph realized the Banking Guild’s bounty could push Necker toward the Royal Family, then persuaded Queen Mary to announce that Necker would be treated leniently.
• Joseph spread false reports that the Banking Guild had placed a rising bounty on Necker and ordered the Secret Police to seal Paris.
• Necker concluded that the Banking Guild wanted him dead and decided to cooperate with the French Royal Family, while his butler Aironk vanished into the night.
• Necker left his hiding place and crawled out of a Sewer System, where he was caught and escorted to the Bastille by Fouche.
• The Duke of Orléans learned that Necker had been captured and sent Lieutenant Colonel Laville to reach him.
• A tall officer arrived at Necker’s cell and told Fouche that he had to perform a routine inspection.

Fouche and Joseph protected the real Necker from an assassination attempt while the Duke of Orléans discovered that his plan to silence him had failed. Joseph assigned Calonne to interrogate Necker, and Calonne began exposing Necker’s secret dealings with the banks.

• A Secret Police officer secretly promised Necker an escape, but Fouche kept him under guard as the interrogation began.
• An impostor posing as Necker was poisoned after an officer delivered his meal, while the real Necker remained safe in a civilian house.
• The Duke of Orléans learned that Necker had survived and feared his dealings with the banks would be exposed.
• Fouche told Necker that the Royal Family had pardoned him, then Joseph ordered the Bastille’s guards replaced and demanded that de Launay find the mastermind.
• Calonne arrived as Necker’s lead interrogator and used his experience to uncover the details of Necker’s loan agreement with Beranger Bank.

Calonne interrogated Necker while the Duke of Orléans arranged for Beranger Bank to confess and collapse, hoping the resulting panic would force the royal family to stop the investigation. Joseph realized the bankruptcies would devastate depositors as well as erase government debts, and Brienne warned that aristocrats were organizing to withhold future loans unless Necker’s interrogation ended.

• Calonne showed Necker his royal pardon and continued questioning him about illegal bank agreements.
• The Duke of Orléans and allied bankers decided Beranger would confess, declare bankruptcy, and publish the bank’s accounts to spread panic among aristocrats.
• Beranger and the bank’s executives confessed to illegal dealings with Necker, surrendered the bank’s remaining funds, and were arrested after Beranger Bank declared bankruptcy.
• The Duke of Orléans urged anxious aristocrats to pressure the royal family to halt Necker’s interrogation, claiming their investments were at risk.
• Joseph realized the bank failures would erase government loans but also destroy depositors’ and investors’ savings, creating a dangerous financial crisis.
• Brienne told Joseph that aristocrats had gathered at Petit Trianon and planned to stop lending to the government unless Necker’s interrogation ended.

Joseph devised the France Industrial Development Fund to acquire failing banks, reassure noble investors, and reduce France’s debt, then secured Queen Mary and Louis XVI’s support. In Algiers, Charles learned that Ali planned to escape through a tunnel and that the imprisoned Pasha of Tunis had escaped years earlier, leaving an impostor in his place.

• Joseph realized the nobles’ investments threatened France’s finances and proposed that the French Reserve Bank acquire the failed banks using government fines as capital.
• Joseph persuaded Queen Mary to establish the France Industrial Development Fund and convinced Louis XVI to attend its explanation meeting.
• Joseph ordered Brienne to announce the plan to the nobles and reassured Mono that his investments would not be lost.
• In an Algiers prison, Charles warned Ali about an approaching guard, and Ali hid the tunnel he had been digging.
• Ali told Charles he expected to escape within three days and revealed that the Pasha of Tunis had escaped years earlier, leaving an impostor in prison.

Ali escaped from an Algiers prison while Charles regretted not joining him, as Joseph and Brienne launched the France Industrial Development Fund to contain panic over banks implicated in the Necker Case. Necker later confessed his illegal bank dealings, setting the stage for a major upheaval in France’s banking industry.

• Ali told Charles that Younis had escaped prison before and now held wealth and influence on the West Coast.
• Guards discovered Ali’s tunnel escape, and Charles regretted not helping him dig.
• Brienne and Joseph announced that the France Reserve Bank would acquire Beranger Bank and presented the France Industrial Development Fund as a way to protect nobles’ investments.
• After Brienne announced that Clasney Bank’s illegal dealings had been confirmed and its managers arrested, nobles rushed to convert their bank investments into fund investments.
• The King and Queen held a ceremony establishing the fund, and nobles crowded the finance office to obtain conversion agreements.
• Calonne secured Necker’s full confession by promising leniency, leaving a wider investigation of the banks poised to unfold.

Joseph used the France Industrial Development Fund and the French Reserve Bank to contain the banking crisis and strengthen government control of finance. As the Duke of Orléans lost the nobles’ support, three bankers implicated in the Necker Case begged Joseph for mercy and offered their obedience.

• Count Herman told Necker that he owed 11.927 million Livres, presented the Queen’s pardon, and took the location and password for Necker’s hidden funds.
• The Duke of Orléans saw that the Industrial Development Fund had calmed the nobles, then watched his meeting draw few attendees as Police officers headed to City Trade Bank.
• Parisians learned from newspapers that the French Reserve Bank would honor deposits in failed banks, while Joseph reviewed the bank acquisitions and planned to turn the Reserve Bank into France’s central bank.
• Marquis Ludo, Count Capeville, and Boislandar met Joseph with Brienne and begged for mercy, offering to do whatever the Crown Prince asked.

Joseph secured the major banks’ compliance with the French Reserve Bank, while the investigation into the Necker Case led to the creation of the Fair Investigation Bureau. After Marat was publicly honored for his work, he questioned whether his service had betrayed the people of France and left the ceremony.

• Joseph secured agreements from three banking tycoons representing seven banks to reduce government loans, transfer shares to the French Reserve Bank, and accept its Bank Notes.
• Fouche told Joseph that the Perni family had been captured while fleeing and that the owners of Denaro Bank had returned to Switzerland, prompting Joseph to order the Perni Family Bank sealed and consider diplomatic measures against Denaro Bank.
• Queen Mary commended Marat and the Fair Investigation Department, elevated it into the Fair Investigation Bureau, and awarded its members rewards for their work in the Necker Case.
• Baron de Breteuil, Besançon, Friant, and Fouche praised Marat after the ceremony, but Marat questioned his place among the nobles and left rather than attend the banquet.

Joseph persuaded Marat, Danton, and Desmoulins to stay in the Investigation Bureau by arguing that royal reforms could improve France, while drought-stricken villages benefited from steam-powered irrigation. Marquis Ludo learned Necker’s planned departure and began plotting an attack, but Joseph summoned him and confronted him about his investment in British looms.

• Joseph challenged Marat, Danton, and Desmoulins’ arguments against the royal family and convinced Marat to withdraw his resignation.
• In the Bordeaux parish of Lacheze, a steam-powered water pump saved crops from drought, and Dietri supervised the construction of a protective shed for it.
• Imano learned from the apparently drunken Viscount Donik that Necker would leave Paris in four days and reported the information to Marquis Ludo.
• Marquis Ludo gathered Banking Guild leaders to plan Necker’s murder, but Joseph summoned him to the Industrial Planning Bureau.
• Joseph asked Marquis Ludo about his investment of 2 million Livre in Britain’s Automatic Loom industry.