Chapter 273: Gazing Toward New Zealand
Joan seemed somewhat regretful as he spoke, "If we could also use those tens of thousands of Janissaries for road construction, the 'King's Road' between Tunis and El Ariana might already be completed by now."
Currently, across Tunisia, they're mimicking France by building roads such as "King's Roads," "Local Roads," and "Side Roads." However, these roads can't be as luxurious as those in France; what they call a King's Road here is only about ten meters wide.
"Janissaries?" Joseph looked at Joan. He had nearly forgotten about that group.
"Yes, Your Highness. Although many Janissaries fled to Anatolia during the great uprising, over 30,000 remained in Tunisia. They're currently confined on Djerba Island."
Djerba is a small island off the eastern coast of Tunisia with a very harsh environment. Without supplies from the Tunisian mainland, the island could never sustain 30,000 people.
Joan continued, "These people are not like the prisoners captured from Algiers. They are very familiar with Tunisia and even have some connections here. If we put them to work on the roads, many would soon escape."
Joseph narrowed his eyes. So many people in this era represent a tremendous resource!
But don't misunderstand—he had no intention of selling the Tunisian Janissaries as slaves. Engaging in human trafficking was beneath him.
But where could he put these tens of thousands of people to good use?
Joseph pondered for a moment and then said to Joan, "Letting these people slowly die on an island is too inhumane. We need to find a way to give them a new purpose."
"What do you mean?" Joan asked, curious.
"There's an untapped 'Golden Island' in the Pacific—New Zealand. We could send the Tunisian Janissaries there to work and live."
Joan hesitated, recalling something, "But, Your Highness, I remember the British have claimed that area for colonization..."
Joseph smiled, "They only discovered it a few years ago and haven't done any real colonization. Right now, New Zealand still belongs to the Maori natives."
In reality, New Zealand was first discovered by the Dutch, and the name "Zeeland" is from a city in the Netherlands. When British explorers arrived, they found the island extremely desolate, with fierce natives. It wasn't until 1837 that the British began to consider colonizing New Zealand.
But Joseph intended to get there first. After all, New Zealand is an important wool-producing region. The natural conditions there are so favorable that you only need to herd sheep onto the grasslands and send people to collect the wool annually. There's hardly any need for shepherds. Before Australia developed, New Zealand was the world's largest wool producer!
Compared to Britain, France's textile industry had two major disadvantages: a lack of extensive colonial markets and a shortage of wool sources.
Britain was Europe's largest wool producer, and if France wanted to compete with Britain in the future, it couldn't afford to fall behind in the textile industry. That's where New Zealand's value came in.
In this era, Europeans were generally reluctant to move to the distant Pacific. When the British colonized New Zealand in the 19th century, they only sent around 2,000 people. But Joseph had over 30,000!
Even though many were old or infirm, at least half could be put to work. With just a few thousand Frenchmen to manage them, the colonization of New Zealand could be quickly established.
Of course, dealing with the native Maori people would be a key challenge in successfully taking New Zealand. However, Joseph had the benefit of hindsight, having studied the lessons learned by the British during their colonization of New Zealand.
Joan, being a local official in Tunisia, had little knowledge of the country's Pacific strategy. He would do whatever the Crown Prince instructed. He nodded and said, "Your Highness, I'll have food sent to Djerba Island and dispatch people to take a headcount. Once the navy's transport ships arrive, they can be loaded and sent off."
"Thank you," Joseph replied, "but it won't be the navy picking them up; it will be the Twin Trading Company."
Initially, Joseph had considered partnering with the Dutch to form a joint East India Company to handle the development of New Zealand. However, after the Dutch were severely beaten by the British in the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War a few years ago, they became wary of Britain and had been hesitant to fully commit to cooperation with France.
Thus, the task of developing New Zealand would fall to the Twin Trading Company.
Since incorporating the Tunisian navy's ships, the Twin Company's transport capacity had significantly increased. Now, it handled over 70% of Russo-French trade, along with activities in Nauru, the Caribbean, and the United States, making it a rather substantial company.
Reflecting on this, Joseph couldn't help but admire the Russians. Unlike the Dutch, the Russians were decisive. Moreover, when a Russian considered you a friend, they genuinely helped you. Alexei had secured nearly every possible trade concession from Russia, greatly boosting Russo-French trade.
Of course, even with close friends, business should be clearly defined. The Twin Trading Company could manage trade and transport in New Zealand, but the settlers had to be French.
The main course at the dinner was Joseph's favorite, tagine. However, due to the hurried nature of his trip, he hadn't brought his palace chefs, so the flavor was slightly less refined than what he was used to at Versailles. Nevertheless, the meal included local Tunisian specialties like roasted camel meat, nut sausages with yogurt, and... a dish that seemed to be fried meat moths.
Joseph naturally ignored the last dish and enjoyed his meal before returning to the conference room.
Only then did Joan bring up the main issue that Joseph had come to Tunisia to address.
"Your Highness, rumors began circulating last month," Joan reported. "Besides spreading rumors on the streets, there's also a pamphlet about it."
He signaled an assistant to retrieve a pamphlet, which he handed to Joseph.
"The central idea is that most Tunisians originally came from Egypt and are descendants of the Prophet. The Berbers, on the other hand, have always lived in the desert and have no connection to Rome. The rumors also invent many stories of Europeans, especially the French, persecuting Tunisians, encouraging them to kill or expel us from North Africa."
"Oh?" Joseph was surprised as he read the pamphlet. These rumors were clearly designed to disrupt French control over Tunisia, a form of psychological warfare. Whoever came up with this idea in the 18th century was undoubtedly a political genius!
However, in matters of psychological warfare, even an 18th-century genius couldn't compare to someone with firsthand experience in 21st-century strategies.
(End of Chapter)
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