No Liberty, No Constitution, No Order
There are words like liberty (none), constitution (none), order (none). Refusing to pay taxes? Just make it happen to me. "Terray, declare martial law and force it through."
"Martial law."
Anyway, if you're going to die, might as well thrash around before you go. Better to fail and be branded a madman, confined for life, than wait decades for the guillotine. It's not even my life anyway.
"But, Your Highness, what is martial law?"
"Liberty, constitution, order... Huh? No martial law code?"
What? No way. Martial law doesn't exist in this era?
"It's when the military takes over policing, ruled by military law instead of civil law, parliament is dissolved, and freedoms of press and publication are suspended—something like that."
"Isn't that how it is now?"
Ah. Robespierre, you were right.
"Then, how do we collect money from the First and Second Estates?"
"Wouldn't issuing a lit de justice do it? Though it's just symbolic as a decree, the First and Second Estates won't actually comply."
"Better than doing nothing. To the Parlement. When is it convened?"
"Just go to the Parlement and declare it. Looks like the handover wasn't smooth."
What the hell. Something feels off.
"In fact, His Late Majesty Louis XIV used it often. He went to the Parlement in person and issued the lit de justice. Back then, he told them to register the decree first, then raise objections... Those were the days."
Terray's mutterings packed a ton of info. Louis XIV had been a highly capable reformist monarch, my father Louis XV a puppet king. And beyond puppet—a senile old puppet at that.
"—Are you now ignoring the sacred rights of parliament?!"
"That's not it. His Highness is merely worried about the realm and pondering that method..."
"What a load of crap. Anyway, I ain't paying your damn arbitrary taxes!"
"I understand your opinions well. But as the late king said, once the lit de justice is enacted, shouldn't you exercise your right of remonstrance afterward?"
The noble magistrates of the Parlement had run rampant under Louis XV, throwing tantrums over even a single tax.
"Your Highness, estates are determined from birth, a sacred rule bestowed by God."
"The Chief Magistrate is right. No matter what these self-proclaimed Enlightenment thinkers in the Third Estate prattle about social contracts, sacred duties come from heaven."
"The clerk is correct. Equality? It sounds plausible but it's hollow, without substance."
"Those who labor exist so that we fighters and pray-ers can focus fully on our purposes—that is the mission granted by heaven."
Watching them rationalize with such lame excuses, I could see why the Revolution happened in France. Infuriating.
"So, did your 'fighters' fight well and 'pray-ers' pray deeply enough that we lost the Seven Years' War?"
I couldn't hold back and spat it out. The magistrate nobles, who had been nodding along, all turned to stare at me.
"Your Highness, that's a bit harsh."
"They just fought a little better and prayed a little deeper."
The Parlement magistrates glared daggers, refuting me. Their words were polite, but their faces weren't.
The Comptroller-General sighed deeply, as if my outburst solved nothing, and turned away.
"In any case, whether First Estate, Second, or beggars rolling in the gutters—all are subjects of France! I won't withdraw the decree, so comply with the new tax law!"
I bellowed out of fear, but the magistrate nobles still glared murderously. Insolent bastards.
France, Tuileries Palace, king's office.
After the Parlement fiasco, I fled not to Versailles Palace but here. I could no longer show my face at Versailles.
"Terray. Did Grandfather—no, the late king—do this too?"
"Yes, even before I became Comptroller-General, His Late Majesty pushed various reforms. But they were always blocked by the Second Estate, forcing withdrawals..."
"It worked, huh."
"Pardon?"
Not my place to say, but...
"Never mind. I get the gist. I fired Turgot thinking he was dead weight, but surprisingly, he got a lot done."
Anyway, I read the reports left by the previous—original history's—Comptroller-General Turgot. They were well-structured, good for paperwork study. For paperwork, that is. Policies were full of holes, optimistic lumps ignoring worst-case scenarios.
Lifting flour trade restrictions to stimulate the economy? Obviously, the Second Estate and bourgeoisie would hoard and speculate.
"Terray. They won't follow the lit de justice, right?"
"Yes, having forced the late king's withdrawal before, the First and Second Estates will demand the same precedent this time."
Precedent. The damn precedent is about to bankrupt the country, yet they cling to it. Nobles are idiots. 18th-century people?
"How many French subjects are there?"
"Roughly twenty million in the early to mid-range. Including vagrants, gypsies, and wanderers, about twenty-five million."
"Huh. And the First and Second Estates are just 2% of that?"
"Yes. Sometimes pegged at 3%, but that's when they push their interests; Treasury usually uses 2%."
Got it.
"Terray. From now on, as King of France, I'm shirking my duties."
"The First and Second Estates won't care."
"Exactly. So I won't either."
"What do you plan to do?"
"What do you mean 'do'?"
Just endure.
"Terray, calculate and report: total national debt, annual expenditures, revenues, population, consumer spending, capitalist investments, government public works costs, net exports."
"Very specific. Total debt around 1.525 billion livres, annual expenditure 470 million livres, revenue about 372 million... Combined consumer spending etc., roughly 1.8 billion livres. Mercantilism means negligible import-export. Treasury, as mentioned, about 20 million livres."
Hmm, hopeless finances no matter how many times I hear it. Better to overhaul than half-ass fixes.
"Terray. Know Prussia's traditions?"
Technically its successor Weimar Republic's, but...
"You don't mean war? Our military is weak now. Habsburg Austria, its puppet Holy Roman Empire, military powerhouse Prussia, and Britain's navy—unspeakable. France is now second-rate land, third-rate military, fourth-rate economy: a third-rate nation."
"Terray, calm down. What I'm saying is..."
"Calm? 'Shirk duties' means ruin the country?"
"Terray. What do you need for war?"
"Military, obviously."
Terray's old-school; misses the most important thing.
"Terray, in war, the most important thing is money. Money."
And I know how to print it.
Prussia has two ancient traditions: war, and "borrow and repay later" mindset. Debts you can't repay normally? Loot another country.
But I'm Korean. So I'll loot France to repay.
"Terray, circulate through this channel."
"Your Highness. Prussia runs like this?"
"It'd collapse if it did. I'm planning to burn all national debt, so scale's big."
"Set up ghost companies via unidentified vagrants, issue 10-year promissory notes, buy wheat and iron from nobles and bourgeoisie, dump goods to civilians or invest in industry, then vanish the ghost company—shifting all losses to worldly clergy, nobles, bourgeoisie."
In jargon, MEPO bills. No state guarantee's the difference.
"If caught, duels for a week straight."
Overworry.
"Don't get caught."
1930s folk didn't know till war's end.
"That... makes sense. Nobles won't even know their debts..."
"Terray, don't blab anywhere?"
This op ends if either of us talks.
"Don't worry. I hate seeing clergy strut too. Nobles... well, for the nation, they'll bear the loss gladly."
Meaning, both shut up.
"Need proxies in fine clothes... Fine. I'll buy 1 billion livres' wheat and iron."
"Don't flood at once. Bourgeoisie price controllers will notice sudden money supply spike, claiming famine. Slowly. Over 10 years, skim 2 billion livres. Supply won't even match."
Not bubbling yet. That's later, post-normalization.
"This'll balloon near-bankrupt treasury fast, and ghost company bread at low prices will secure public sentiment."
Public sentiment. Yes, crucial. Guillotine in years maybe.
"Too cheap invites pushback; lower gradually. Cartels collapse if one traitor defects."
"I know that much."
Too many don't, world's this mess.
"They don't know the aftermath. First and Second Estates are dumb. Think cartel jacks bread prices forever."
"You know how to raise prices permanently?"
"Raise and never lower."
"What merchant does that?"
"Yeah, I thought so too."
Didn't expect chicken to hit 30,000 won.
"Anyway, good luck with the 'MEPO bills' op, Terray. Your 'invisible hand' will feed and save France."
"Your Highness. Even radical like Adam Smith wouldn't dream this."
"Radical... Right. Smith couldn't imagine."
Conservative icon's a radical. Funny era.
"Haven't seen hope in French finances for ages; I'm uncharacteristically excited. Your Highness, know other fiscal strategies?"
"Yeah. Save for crushing Britain."
"Oh? A hint?"
"You'd hear but not get it."
Ponzi scheme.