"In truth, these fish and pickled meats are already quite decent," the Duke of Leeds said earnestly as he carved up a piece of meat on his plate. "While I was in naval service, I once had to eat salted meat for two consecutive months, oh, and not these quality goods. That stuff had to be soaked in water for two hours and then hammered open before you could take a bite."
He shook his fork and added, "Perhaps you're not used to eating these things, but once you get to Saint Petersburg, it'll be better. The Russian court is full of French chefs."
Grenville laughed, "As much as the French people can be unpalatable, no one can resist their chefs."
"Especially the Russians," the Duke of Leeds took a sip of wine and continued, "In their court, it's a rule that the head chef must be French. Well, the Tsar is quite content to entrust his stomach to them."
"Oh, I must say, your journey this time is probably not an easy one."
"Indeed, I'm prepared for that," Grenville nodded in agreement. "After all, it seems the Tsar's granddaughter is still in Paris."
He sighed and then smiled again, "But I have confidence as well. Speaking of which, your side is also full of challenges."
The Duke of Leeds finished the last piece of bread and wiped his mouth with a napkin, "This old skeleton of mine can only warm up the scene for you, since I have some old friends in Vienna.
"But in the end, it's up to young people like you to sign the agreement."
As he spoke, he remembered something and complained, "Do you and Mr. Pitt really trust that Dutchman?
"When I lost 300,000 British Pounds in North Africa, those fellows in Congress barked at me like mad dogs, and now he's asking us to invest nearly 500,000 British Pounds here."
He leaned forward and whispered, "Have you ever considered that perhaps he has some kind of deal with the merchants of Vienna?"
"There's that possibility," Grenville nodded. "However, considering the potential profits, the risk is worth taking. Besides, of that sum, there's a loan of 170,000 British Pounds provided by Hope's bank, and I've heard the interest rates are very low."
"That poor creature blinded by hatred," muttered the Duke of Leeds before continuing, "Another issue is that the merchants of Vienna might not be willing to compromise their reputation for such an amount of money."
"It's a substantial sum," clarified the Foreign Minister. "Even divided among fifty merchants, they would gain more than their usual income of two to three years.
"What's more important is that you might have overlooked the Austrians' animosity towards France. They would quite enjoy seeing the French people in misfortune."
"Oh? But if I remember correctly, Austria is the initiator of the Rhine-Saone Treaty."
"That wonderful trade agreement is exactly the reason," Grenville had finished his lunch and stood up, gesturing towards the door, "Shall we go up on deck for some fresh air?"
"A fine idea, this quality of sunlight is hard to come by in London."
The two climbed the stairs leading to the deck, Grenville continued, "When the Austrians signed the treaty, they believed that with the low tariffs promised by France, their trade in France could significantly increase.
"Of course, in fact, they did achieve that, with a 35% increase in their trade with France last year. But at the same time, France's exports to Austria nearly doubled.
"And more importantly, France's trade with other Southern German states that joined the treaty increased even more. Baden's increased by 1.4 times, and Wurttemberg by 1.2 times.
"These places were originally Austria's markets. In the end, Austria found that they had made far less money in France than the French had made from them, while the South German market increasingly favored French goods.
"In fact, there are already quite a few merchants in Vienna calling for withdrawal from the Rhine-Saone Treaty, or to renegotiate after excluding France."
The Duke of Leeds chuckled, "So where does the 'Seine River' come into the treaty?"
"Who knows, perhaps they'll bring Switzerland in," Grenville too broke into a smile, "All in all, please trust that you will find a lot of support in Vienna. Your only concern should be to keep it confidential."
"I have an old friendship with the president of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, you can be assured of that," the Duke of Leeds said. "One last point, do you really believe that what the Dutchman said will happen?"
"I can only say that there is a very high probability," Grenville nodded. "To be honest, Hope really understands France, and he's timed this very accurately.
"France has just carried out fiscal reform, which means their Finance Minister couldn't secure the usual enormous sum of tax farming money as in previous years.
"This made their finances quite fragile. And those newly appointed government Tax Officers lack experience, which will only worsen their tax collection.
"Oh, I just got the news from Mr. Hartley last week, France's tax revenue in January only achieved 83% of the set target. Poor Mr. Hartley, his work is actually excellent, but he's to be dismissed due to the re-signing of the Eden Treaty, which hardly seems fair."
The two British officials walked past the sailors who saluted them on the deck and arrived at the bow of the ship.
"At the same time, Hope also pointed out the most critical issue, that is the French reliance on their 'Industrial Development Fund.'," Grenville clarified.
The Duke of Leeds looked out at the calm sea, puzzled, "Isn't that just an agency the French Government uses for industrial investments?"
"Yes," Grenville nodded, "but it also has another important role, which is the debtor of the French nobility.
"The French people used this organization to carry out the previous banking reorganization, drawing a large amount of debt into industrial investment."
The Duke of Leeds finally caught on, "So, if there's trouble with this fund, the nobles at the Palace of Versailles will go mad."
"Indeed so. Hope mentioned that although the fund has a large amount of capital, the majority is invested in French imitation, steel, coal, and other industries, with very limited cash on hand.
"If your actions are successful, French factories will experience a considerable shortfall in funds, and the Development Fund, as a major shareholder, will be unable to provide financial support. Once these factories go bankrupt, the fund will incur huge losses."
In 1723, Walpole ordered the taxation of tea, coffee, and cocoa. As tea and coffee consumption became increasingly popular in England, these taxes amounted to a substantial sum.
Among the excise duties, the largest revenue for the British Government came from the consumption tax on alcoholic beverages. It was estimated that in the 1730s, a third of the annual tax revenue of 4.5 million British Pounds came from this source. The British Government also levied taxes on bricks, starch, glass, salt, paper, soap, candles, leather, coal, sugar, tobacco, timber, silk, iron bars, and even foodstuffs and means of production.