Spain, though its glory was fading like the setting sun, could still rank among the European powers, nourished by its vast colonial domains.
The Spanish fleet was also highly valued by Joseph.
After all, as a nation that once boasted the Invincible Fleet, even though it had fallen on hard times, its naval fleet still held the third-largest size in Europe.
If France wanted to maintain its minimal trade needs, which is to say, the security of the Mediterranean trade routes, it had to ally with the Spanish fleet.
Joseph was well aware that the navy was the most expensive of all the military branches, without exception.
Relying on France's current financial strength and using the traditional model to compete with England in naval power held no chance of success.
During the Napoleonic Wars, England's military expenditures ranged between one and 1.2 billion francs per year. Just the naval expenses were as high as 380 million francs, which wasn't far off from France's total military expenditure of 400 million francs.[Note 1]
Thus, racing in the number of ships, France could launch one while England would simultaneously launch more than two.
Moreover, England, which depended on maritime trade for survival, had trained a large number of elite sailors. Even if France had the same battleships as England, the probability of winning a naval battle was very small.
The only way out for the French Navy was to make a quantum leap forward by utilizing new technologies, which required a significant investment of capital and would take quite some time.
Before the navy acquired new types of battleships, France had to ally with the Spanish fleet in order to secure the time it needed.
However, when it came to new types of warships, Joseph suddenly thought of the new high-pressure steam engine that Murdoch was developing.
Although its power was still too low to be used on heavy battleships, in Mediterranean warfare, the nimble galley was always a combat force that could not be ignored—the Mediterranean was often calm, causing heavy sail ships to slow down significantly, whereas galleys could use the power of many rowers to compensate for propulsion, thereby having very high maneuverability in this sea area.
Murdoch's high-pressure steam engine only had an output power of 50 horsepower, but that was incomparable to the power of a few dozen rowers.
If two engines were installed, equivalent to 100 horsepower, the speed achievable would certainly surpass that of human rowing.
Moreover, the continuous output capacity of the steam engine was far superior to that of human power.
No matter how strong a rower you are, rowing continuously for two hours would undoubtedly exhaust you. Even with a large number of reserve rowers, at most you could sustain high speeds for five or six hours. Yet a steam engine could run for several days without stopping.
That is to say, if you could successfully install steam engines on galleys and make reasonable use of the "kite-flying" tactics, it would give the French Navy the capability to compete with the British in the Mediterranean.
This process would also promote the technological iteration of naval steam engines, paving the way for using larger power steam engines to drive third-rate or larger heavy battleships in the future.
Joseph had originally planned to wait until France's economic situation improved a bit before starting the development of new battleships, but now it seemed that time was of the essence.
If the security of the Mediterranean route could not be maintained, then the vast North African provinces would not be able to support the French homeland and might even become a burden.
Entering Egypt and embarking on the Suez Canal strategy was also out of the question. It was likely to repeat Napoleon's previous failed route through North Africa.
Joseph immediately made arrangements for Murdoch to take technicians to Brittany as soon as possible—that was where France's shipbuilding industry was based and also a major source of sailors.
Of course, since it involved a completely new concept in shipbuilding, he probably had to go there himself.
Joseph then shifted his thoughts from battleships back to diplomacy.
Beyond Spain, the most important was Russia.
He was not sure he could reach an alliance with Russia, after all Russia's trade was too deeply tied to England. If England really clamped down on sanctions, the trade gap for Russia would be something France alone could not fill.
This was also why Napoleon's Continental Blockade policy could be implemented across the European Continent, except for a loophole in Russia.
And Napoleon's later all-in attack on Russia was not driven by a wild "ambition to unify Europe." The core reason was to plug the leaks in the trade blockade.
But for Russia to strictly enforce this blockade policy, its own finances had to collapse first. Therefore, the Franco-Russian war was inevitable.
Therefore, Joseph's bottom line was to ensure that Russia would not join the British camp.
This meant that he had to quickly increase the volume of trade between France and Russia, making it impossible for Russia to give up on France. On the other hand, it meant increasing the development efforts in the Donbass area, deepening the entanglement of interests between the two countries.
Of course, if necessary, the contradictions between Russia and Austria in the Balkan Peninsula could also be exploited, but that would depend on the specific situation to determine the strategy later on.
Currently, the Franco-Austrian relationship was relatively stable.
And from what Joseph remembered, Leopold II was a rather principled person with a good vision; he most likely would not want to be sucked into the whirlpool of the Anglo-French conflict.
However, Joseph also knew that Leopold II was an emperor with a short reign; he seemed to be due to pass away early next year.
Franz II, who was to succeed him, however, was a conservative emperor prone to impulsive decisions and of mediocre ability.
Whether he could be swayed by England was uncertain to anyone.
If Austria did indeed stand against France at that time, it could actually be a good thing in some respects.
The first thing was that France could unhesitatingly take over Austria's interests in Italy.
After all, the wealthy northern part of Italy was essentially under Austrian influence. Plus, Tuscany in the central and southern part of the peninsula was directly ruled by a member of the Habsburg Family.
Currently, due to the dynastic marriage relations between France and Austria, France was really not in a position to move against Italy.
But once the two became hostile, the Austrian army alone could not block France's penetration into Italy.
Or Joseph could follow the historical development and make a deal with Sardinia to abandon central and southern Italy in exchange for the creation of an Italian state, cooperating with Sardinia to completely drive Austria out of the Apennine Peninsula.
Catherine II requested Alexander Suvorov go to the Caucasus and punish the Persians for "their atrocities against the Georgians."
Begin assembling the expeditionary force and formulating action plans. The first commander of the troops was Suvorov, but due to court conspiracies and the last favorite of Catherine, Platon Zubov (who resented Suvorov for including his brothers, Valerian and Nicolas Zubov, as commanders of his legions), he was dismissed, and Valerian became the commander with an iron jaw.
[Note 1] The British total military expenditure statistics include a significant amount of military aid to allies, but naval expenses were all spent by the British themselves, which later even reached 500 million francs a year.