Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

Chapter 1145: Chapter 1051: The Persian Flames Rekindled

France and Spain quickly signed the treaty regarding the transfer of Louisiana.

Joseph obtained 2 million square kilometers of land from the west side of the Mississippi River to Wyoming, while Charles IV was gratified to see the gold mine map.

In California.

The Empire ruled there for nearly two centuries, yet never discovered a large gold mine there.

In fact, this wasn’t entirely due to the Spaniards’ ineptness, as there were barely twenty thousand immigrants in the area, and there was no habitation near the gold-producing waters.

Historically, the gold mine was only discovered after a vast number of westward migrating Americans poured in.

Now, Joseph has artificially shortened this process by nearly 40 years.

According to the “France-Spain Louisiana Treaty,” France could start migrating to Louisiana from today.

Once Spain confirms the scale of the gold mine, the administrative rights will be formally transferred.

The local Spanish military will continue to serve France for several years. The exact period depends on how long the French Government is willing to pay them.

Three days later, after enjoying an extended vacation, Joseph returned to Paris by carriage.

…

France, Lyon.

In the factory of the Bellette Fabric Company, the steam looms made a huge roaring sound as more than ten streams of black smoke poured from the chimneys on the roof into the sky.

This was one of Lyon’s top five large textile factories, and the entire factory was working overtime to produce a peculiar type of thick trousers.

General Manager Ratremu walked past rows of busy seamstresses, picking up a pair of newly sewn trousers for a careful inspection.

Suddenly, his brow furrowed, and he loudly called out to the quality inspector, “Mr. Chommon, I’ve told you, all these trousers’ folds must use rivets.”

The quality inspector in his forties hurried over, nervously defending himself as he looked at the manager’s trousers, “Mr. Ratremu, if rivets are used on both sides of the waist, it might be uncomfortable to wear. I’ve instructed the workers to use three more thick stitches for reinforcement…”

“I don’t want to repeat my order,” the General Manager shouted, “If this happens again, you’re fired!

“This is an order from the Twin Brothers Company, worth 250,000 francs, do you understand?

“If there’s a problem, even I will be dismissed!

“Yes, yes, I’ll have someone change it immediately.” Frightened, Chommon bowed repeatedly and turned to gather the seamstresses.

He clutched the trousers, thick to the point of being uncomfortable to hold, and, looking at the rivets all over them, shook his head in complete bewilderment, mumbling, “What kind of strange person would wear such a thing?”

It’s no wonder he was puzzled, as no one had ever used canvas to make trousers before.

They weren’t just thick and stiff, but also required reinforced pockets, while the waist, pockets, and trouser cuffs were all reinforced with rivets.

“This isn’t trousers; it’s completely armor.”

But if Mr. Chommon could travel to the 20th century, he’d be surprised to find people everywhere wearing such trousers. They called them “jeans.”

Nowadays, however, they are named “hard man pants.” Joseph gave them this name to better appeal to the workers toiling under the scorching sun for gold panning.

However, to reduce costs, they weren’t dyed the blue color they would later become, but retained the deep gray of the canvas.

Yes, these were custom-made work attire for the California gold panners by Joseph.

Historically, jeans emerged because of the American gold rush—the harsh working environment for gold panners caused their regular trousers to “die” within a month. At the same time, the pockets of regular trousers easily broke under the weight of the extremely high-density gold nuggets.

Thus, when the durable and pocket-reinforced “hard man pants” appeared in California, they were sure to sell out instantly.

And almost no one minded that their price was ten times the cost of production in Lyon.

Those who dealt with gold all day had lost the concept of price, and would unhesitatingly exchange their gold nuggets for anything that facilitated their fortune.

Just like the American gold panners of later times.

In fact, jeans were invented to facilitate the American gold panners.

This time, Joseph intended to present them as a gift to Lyon’s textile industry—the business of California miners was exclusively operated by France. Even if the British discovered this business opportunity, they couldn’t break in.

And he could also make a substantial profit.

Based on the calculation of 200,000 gold panners—during the American gold rush, nearly 400,000 people flocked to California from thousands of miles away; even if the current number were lower, it wouldn’t be less than half—at least 500,000 pairs of “hard man pants” could be sold every year, each priced at 15 francs. Added to this are “hard man shirts,” which could achieve half of that sales volume, each sold at 20 francs.

The total sales would be 12.5 million francs!

About seventy percent of this is pure profit. It’s crazy profitable.

Currently, over a dozen factories in Lyon are busy with “hard man pants,” increasing total production by nearly twenty percent.

…

South of Transcaucasia.

Hoy City.

Valerian Zubov showed the order personally signed by the Tsar to the officers in the room: “Then, under His Majesty’s command, we will launch an attack on Tabriz next Monday.”

The officers were obviously somewhat surprised and started whispering to each other, “Why so urgent? I thought we would at least stabilize the situation in Hoy before advancing south.”

“Reportedly, large tracts of land suitable for cotton cultivation have been discovered on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. To prevent Persian interference, they must first be defeated.”

“But this is too rash. Our forces are not enough, and some must be left to guard Armenia.”

“My uncle wrote that reinforcements have been sent from Saint Petersburg, at least twenty thousand men…”

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The city on the Sacramento River Basin is the county seat of Sacramento County and the state capital of California, the fifth largest city in California by population. It was established as a settlement in 1839, gold was discovered locally in 1848, and the city was rapidly developed by John Sutter in December 1849, being designated as the state capital in 1854. It was incorporated as a city in 1863. Sacramento originated from Fort Sutter, which itself was founded by John Sutter in 1839. During the gold rush of the 19th century, Sacramento was a crucial repopulation center and a commercial and agricultural hub, with freight wagon trains, stagecoaches, river steamers, telegraphs, Pony Express, and the western terminus of the first transcontinental railroad. Sacramento, meaning “sacrament” in Spanish, was the name given by Spaniards to the Central Valley of California and the Sacramento River upon their first arrival in the region, and later the town developed from Fort Sutter adopted the same name. The Chinese name “Shajiamento” derives from the Cantonese phonetic transliteration of “Sacramento” in the 19th century, still the only name used by local Chinese and Chinese-language media, while nowadays most places in mainland China translate it as “萨克拉门托”.

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