Stars Shine Even in Daylight
While coca farms in the Andes were being uprooted root and stem, France's domestic cash crop farms underwent massive changes.
"How much of the opium poppy pie did you eat?"
"833 out of 1,000 hectares. A victory for the Paris Cash Crop Union."
Traditional cash crops like hemp and opium had been reclassified as narcotics and shifted to a permit system.
"Hemp went to the south, opium to the north."
Most small farms hadn't received cultivation permits. The Ministry of Agriculture simply hadn't issued them to small independent farmers. This wasn't mere administrative convenience—it was a deliberate purge of small farms. Because it was a permit system. Permits meant monopolies, royal supply rights. To ensure quality for royal deliveries, the ministry had no choice but to check for minimum management capabilities. Besides, cash crops were expensive. Food crops had demand as long as they were edible, but cash crops had none without marketability.
For example, wheat with small grains and lots of chaff might be low-grade, but it wouldn't be thrown away. Cash crops were different. Fail minimum quality standards, and they were trash. Opium poppies especially had huge gaps between low- and high-grade. High-grade poppies had large buds with thick latex that flowed easily, making harvesting simple and low-effort. Low-grade ones had small buds, low yields, and more labor. Low-grade latex especially got sticky with dirt, plant fibers, and stem sap during harvest. This carried over to raw opium processing. High-grade could just be collected and dried; low-grade required wiping it off hands with cloth and extra steps. All that labor pushed low-grade production costs up to mid-grade levels.
So the ministry denied permits to small independent farmers. And their prediction proved spot-on.
"Buying at double production cost means the higher the grade, the bigger the profit, right?"
Large landowners with permits invested everything, thanks to the promise of double-cost purchases. They hired skilled workers from everywhere—tenant farming was banned due to crop licenses—and even splurged on pricey ammonium sulfate fertilizer, aggressively inflating costs.
"We can recoup it later, so better to stock up now."
Not just that—they introduced the latest mechanical presses and other farm machinery to maximize productivity on limited permitted land.
Louis XVI viewed this very positively.
"Only four mechanical presses? Doesn't this fellow run 130 hectares? He needs at least thirteen. Why didn't he say he needed money?"
He even chipped in with subsidies for agricultural machinery. It demanded huge budgets, but Louis XVI saw it as positive spending.
"How long are we going to rely on manual labor? Stop skimping. Buy production means if you have the money. That way, the technicians making them earn cash. This is all tech investment."
He saw it as investing in industrialization and tech support simultaneously.
"That one machine does the work of thirty men."
"Wait—don't tell me?"
Naturally, machinery introduction spiked worker anxiety.
"What, got a problem?"
"No, sire."
But it never escalated to Luddite machine-breaking. Government officials and police patrolled constantly to oversee narcotic crops.
"Well, royal special treatment, isn't it? He only bought four before the subsidies were announced."
True, but France's hemp and opium farms were too small to spark machine-breaking over. Just 31,000 hectares out of 54.4 million on the mainland—hardly grounds for a movement.
* As the shady opium industry went legit, Louis XVI legalized one related trade.
"Sigh. Why stare like that?"
"Nothing, heh heh."
Prostitution.
"Ha. Such upright bastards."
The reason was simple.
"If you hate it, quit. If you do now, you'll just get simple medical quarantine."
"Tch."
Shady industries didn't vanish with bans.
"Even if they come, there's not much we can do about it. You know our value skyrocketed going legit, right?"
So Louis XVI decided to control them and purge shady ills.
"Things will be different now, Mademoiselle Petit. The 'British overcoat' is ready."
"Call me Emily. Or Esther."
But shady was still shady. It dented royal morals badly. Louis XVI didn't care.
"Emily it is. Anyway, mass production of the 'British overcoat' is sorted. Care to inspect?"
"Hm. This passes."
Brothels had outsized impact on France.
"What's the cost?"
"About 3 sols each. Linking southern factories and roads might not hit 2 sols, but down to 2 sols 5 deniers."
"That cheap? Ours cost 8 francs to make."
"Shady handmade stuff. Go legit at scale, and it's doable."
Brothels, not prostitution, were the problem—parasitic evils clinging to it: opium labs, hitmen, theft fences, extortion gangs. All fueled by brothel crowds.
"Now even regular customers can use prophylactics."
"That's Your Majesty's goal."
To purge those, Louis XVI legitimized prostitution.
"How are the public brothels?"
"Chaos. Resentment over the late arrival, some kids already broken."
Public brothels.
"At least no more worrying about disease."
18th-century brothels lacked safety nets unlike modern ones. No STD countermeasures, prophylactics too pricey for all but rich or noble bastards. This premium pricing flooded brothels with disease.
"Academy biology and epidemiology departments started STD research. Ignored for centuries, no cure this decade."
"Mercury treatment?"
"Mint precedent means it's getting banned too."
Louis XVI couldn't ignore public health collapse. STDs weren't like cholera or typhoid, erasable with laxo.
Best immediate fix: public brothels.
"Speaking of, amazing how 'British overcoats' dropped to 3 sols. How?"
"Spanish merino sheep from trade payments multiplied; culling old Breton breeds in Brittany for guts. Washing and bleaching standardized with laxo. Limewater and brine? Too premodern. Gluing—day-long unskilled shady work—now mechanical compression. Twenty seconds flat. Total costs high, but scale keeps unit low."
Public brothels weren't all bad for the trade. Endure public stares, and upsides galore.
"Laxo's pricey from markup, but cheap to make. No unskilled alley labor costs either, so of course it's cheaper."
Legit meant no room for parasitic evils.
Ironically, prostitution—shady bedrock—thrived less in shadows. Mostly women, no state protection. Gangs extorted "protection," unskilled hacks sold crap—no recourse.
Until now.
"Madam Petit! Been looking everywhere!"
"Who are you? Do I know you?"
"Mm. Yes. Very well."
"Six nabbed this week, they said. Heading here soon—prep the cash."
No more buying kidnapped girls from near-pimps. Now, state protection.
"Mademoiselle Emily. Your orders?"
"Handle it. Hm..."
Unlike medieval times, Louis XVI's revamped 18th-century state power was mighty. Parasites severed from prostitution forever.
"On duty, call me Monsieur Thermidor."
France's state power—National Intelligence Agency agents and police—gladly welcomed the parasites tailing Paris brothel madams.
With bullets and bayonets.