Events in the Year of 1732
France
King Louis XV and Cardinal Fleury came to a decision early in 1732 that the Corporation system implemented by Jean-Baptiste Colbert had to go. The monopolies of a select few would be ended to promote competition. While they claimed it was for the good of the French economy, they faced significant backlash from the bourgeois who owned these monopolies. Nevertheless the reforms were pushed through, and competition began to increase in fields such as textiles and glass making. However this progress did not come unopposed, as the bourgeois attempted to drive their new-found competition out of business by price gouging, hiring goons to assault starting businesses, and pressuring creditors to deny them loans. Thanks to the efforts of Cardinal Fleury and Louis XV, this resistance was defeated, but tensions were rising in France, and the increased competition remained limited for now.
[Tiny economy boost for now, Moderate decrease to treasury, uncertain long term effects]
Much like Augustus II (see below), Louis XV also took an interest in the possible election of a new king in Poland. Louis’ ambassador in Poland, the Marquis de Monti, was to meet with the Polish nobility and convince them to support Stanisław Leszczyński as the next king of Poland. To accomplish this he was given substantial funds to “expedite” this process, i.e. bribe them. While most nobles quickly became aware of this, they were more than happy to accept. Unlike Augustus II, when Louis XV wanted to bribe the nobility of a nation, he sent ample money for the purpose, and nobles always love more money. Stanislaw now seemed the favorite candidate to win the election, but would Augustus’ supporters accept that?
[Moderate decrease to treasury, Stanisław Leszczyński preferred candidate by the Sejm]
The French colonies in the New World were wealthy, and Stain-Domingue was one of their most prized possessions. It produced large amounts of coffee, sugar, and other cash crops through its slave plantations. Louis XV believed it had much greater potential. He wanted large portions of the colony cleared for planting, and more slaves brought in from Africa. While it quickly became clear that he was right about the potential for the colony, the expansion efforts were difficult. Disease and logistics made clearing land costly, and the need for ever more slaves slowed growth as well. While the colony was growing richer, it was clear it would take some time before the colony reached the heights envisioned by Louis XV.
[Small decrease to French treasury, Small increase in colonial income]
Louis XV also wanted to increase the wealth of Saint-Domingue by expanding its sea trade potential. The port in the capital of Cap-Français began to be expanded to incorporate more ships. While progress started out well, disease began to take its toll on trained workers, slowing results. The port is expected to be done in 2 years, though costs are running somewhat high, but hopefully it would allow for enough trade to please His Majesty.
[Moderate decrease to French treasury, small increase to Royal/Other expenses for this turn and next two, potential for colonial income increase in two turns]
Great Britain
At the urging of King George II, Parliament passed several ordinances to support intellectuals and promote major thinkers of the Enlightenment. Specifically the ordinances invited such thinkers to the court of King George and building colleges and universities for them to hold discourses and conduct research, all while collecting wages from the crown’s pocket. Unfortunately these measure were greatly lacking in specificity, and the promise of easy money led many charlatans to claim to be intellectuals, of which there was little way to prove. Parliament had made no attempt to set guidelines of what constituted the type of thinkers it sought, which led to a large increase in the number of self-proclaimed “intellectuals” in a directly inverse proportion to the crown’s finances. Parliament would repeal most of these ordinances by the end of the year, quietly sweeping the matter under the rug.
[-3 Prestige, Mild treasury decrease]
Attempting to combat his political opposition within Britain, King George II declared that he would not seek or become involved in conflicts within the European mainland, specifically citing potential struggles over the Polish throne as a conflict to remain neutral in. While this was certainly popular in Britain, and enhanced the position of the Whigs under Walpole, it created significant concern within Austria, which wondered whether the Anglo-Austrian Alliance, signed just last year, was worth the paper it was printed on. The Ostend Company had been disbanded, but only at the price of an alliance and support, and if Britain would remain neutral, then the “alliance” was rather one-sided. Calls rose up in Vienna for the Emperor to restore the Company or otherwise press Britain on the issue. King George II also went on a hunt with his son, which could be described as lukewarm at best, though courtiers are confident progress is being made.
[-1 Prestige]
Published just last year, Jethro Tull’s The New Horse Hoeing Husbandry has certainly had an impact on someone in the British Parliament. An ambitious bill was put forward, sought to incorporate Tull’s ideas, introducing better equipment for farming specifically focusing on seed drills and horse hoes, all across the British Isles. While Tull was certainly ecstatic about the attention his work was getting, Parliament was less pleased about such a large project being directly undertaken by the Crown based on untested ideas scarcely a year old. A significantly reduced bill to introduce small amounts of the tools to some farms in England was passed, but results are expected to be limited.
[Negligible results]
Britain’s American colonies were overloaded with requests and commands from London this year. Lacking in time and manpower, they were unable to determine if they should try to follow all the commands of the Crown or if they should only attempt one of them to give them a chance of success. Fearful of ignoring direct orders, they decided to try and fulfill all the obligations. While attempts to increase ties with the Iroquois Nations were mildly successful, efforts in the south went far worse. The pitiful British efforts to court Spanish aligned native tribes failed utterly, and an ill-thought out raid by 12 British colonials at the edge of Spanish Florida saw most of their number die of malaria before the 4 survivors desperately sought aid from the very Spanish they were sent to raid. Subsequent questioning of the somewhat delirious men revealed their plans, escalating tensions between Britain and Spain.
[-1 Prestige, small decrease to treasury, tiny increase to colonial income]
In India, the British Crown attempted to infringe upon the British East India Company’s influence. A few hundred British regulars were sent to man forts near their factories and ports, while deals were attempted to be made with the locals. While initially the Crown had wanted to trade truly massive amounts of material in return for further trade post rights, their specification of making these deals with allies left the officials in India perplexed. As far as they could tell, the British had no allies in the region, not strongly enough to give them so much material. As efforts were made to attempt to forge such alliances, lobbying by the BEIC and increasing wariness by Parliament about the massive amount of material they were offering, led to a collapse of negotiations and a withdrawal of British interests back to where they were at the beginning of the year. While some Indian princes were rebuffed by British diplomacy stalling out, others became more interested in the wealth and power of the Europeans, increasing trade with them. Overall though, no new gains had been made, and the BEIC was incensed, even if their positions were slightly more secure by the British regulars.
[Tiny boost to colonial income]
In Hannover, King George grew increasingly worried about the border tensions with Prussia. Not wishing to harm relations with his brother-in-law, George commanded that the Hanoverian army be withdrawn from the Prussian border. While many grew worried about the lack of protection from possible Prussian invasion, George was confident this was an important step in his plan to have his son, Frederick, marry with a Prussian princess, as well as promoting trade between Prussia and Hannover. While it remained to be seen how Prussia itself would respond to these developments, it was mildly successful in promoting trade.
[+Small Trade Increase to Hannover, Prussia]
Austria
Russia
Spain
King Philip V of Spain wanted to centralize Spain, and remove the privileges held by Aragon, Valencia and Cataluña. He encountered significant resistance to this plan from the areas in question and his bouts of mania and depressive melancholy did little to help him enforced his reforms. By the end of the year no significant progress had been made in centralizing the state.
[Small decrease to treasury]
Philip had also commanded that the Spanish School be reestablished to train the army and officers. He also believed French officials would be joining the school to assist, but as of yet none had been sent from France. Progress was slow with the School only just having been recreated, but confidence is high in some sectors that the Spanish army will be a force to reckon with once again.
[Spain more likely to succeed in professionalism increases in the future, moderate hit to treasury]
In the Spanish colonies, a small expedition was sent north along the west coast of the Americas, north of New Spain. This area had been explored before, so without any specific instructions, the expedition wandered for a few months, before returning south with reports of little of interest in the region.
[Tiny decrease to treasury]
Ottoman Empire
Prussia
King Frederick William I of Prussia continued to push his successful policy of swamp and marsh reclamation. While this had seen great results previously, this year his engineers struggled to make significant progress, since most of the easiest marshes to reclaim ad already been reclaimed. While some land had been taken for farming and production, the costs were most likely higher than the gains were worth.
[Moderate decrease to treasury, small increase to economy]
Frederick William also consolidated the various army reforms he had been constructing over the past two decades into a single Canton System. His various holdings were divided into Cantons, which would enroll all male youths in the region. This system would streamline army growth, and replace the old style of recruitment with enrolled conscription. With this, Prussia's army reforms were secured on a long term basis, and was better prepared to mobilize its population for war.
[Prussian army professionalism secured against incorporation of new elements, recruitment costs decreased]
Poland-Lithuania
Aware that his remaining time on the mortal coil was short, Augustus II looked to securing his legacy. The Sejm was the bane of many a king, and Augustus feared that it would oppose his son as the heir to the throne. Thus he resolved to personally convince the electors that they should support his son as the next King of Poland. Unfortunately his method of persuasion amounted to be plain bribery, which distanced many with its unsubtle bluntness. But even worse than his efforts at bribery was the amount of money he intended for it. The amount was so paltry it would have scarcely swayed more than a single elector, let alone enough to decide an election. To make matters worse a few unscrupulous electors accepted the coin anyways, yet have no intention of supporting Augustus. The best that could be said about this embarrassing incident is that very little was lost materially.
[-4 Prestige, -1,000 from treasury]
Augustus II also believed the military of Poland needed greater focus, to safeguard the nation and protect his crown. He thus commanded that the greatest minds of the country should train officers to instill professionalism. While no one was sure who he meant by these greatest minds and the Polish generals were content with doing nothing for that reason since the Sejm hadn’t approved this, many lower officers felt differently. Brought up on stories of the glory days of Poland in the dark days of the Swedish invasion less than twenty years ago, these men were inspired by Augustus’ command to begin drilling the Polish army and making it a significant force in the east. While the enthusiasm of these men could not be doubted, they lacked the experience or know-how to make significant reforms, though the army can march in a more orderly manner and form up slightly faster. More importantly is the seeming loyalty the lower officer core now has to Augustus II. Whether this loyalty will continue post-mortem is an increasingly important question as Augustus’ health begins to fail him.
[+.05 professionalism, Army possibly more loyal to Augustus II]
Augustus’ efforts in his homeland of Saxony went far worse however. He ordered a handful of Polish officers to go to Saxony and raise 500 recruits. This command confused and insulted nearly everyone. The Sejm was furious at once more being ignored, the Saxons were angry that Poles were being sent to raise their troops, rather than raising the soldiers themselves. This was made worse by the commonly accepted fact that the Saxon army was more professional, and spoke German, while the Polish officers did not. While the 500 men were raised, they were of significantly inferior quality than the standing Saxon army. Luckily the Saxon army was large enough that 500 poor quality men had no impact on its overall cohesiveness, but that just made everyone question why their king had bothered to raise so few men in such a fashion to begin with. Perhaps worst of all this violated the verdict of the Silent Sejm from 1517 by having Poland-Lithuania interfere with the domestic affairs of Saxony. Many began to silently pray for the King’s quick passing, for he seemed to be going mad with age.
[-5 prestige, tiny treasury decrease, +500 infantry]
Dutch Republic
Fresh off a treaty of partition with the King of Prussia, William of Orange began to go around the Dutch Republics, hoping to gather support for the restoration of the Stadtholdership, with himself in the position of course. While the backing of a foreign king was significant, many were wary of the clause stating that William would support the ambitions of Prussia. While William has greater support in general for his efforts, no one of great significance has been swayed to his side, and any hope for restoration of the Stadtholdership seems far off.
[No effect]
Grand Pensionary van Slingelandt decided that the massive Dutch debt needed to be countered by raising tariffs. While this was certainly a large potential source of revenue, merchants were worried that increasing tariffs would decrease their trade significantly, and even worse, van Slingelandt neglected to indicate how much he wanted to increase tariffs. With the resistance to increased tariffs and lack of a clear goal regarding them, any support for raising the tariffs quickly dried up.
[-1 Prestige]
The Dutch left their colonies to their own devices for the year. Nothing noteworthy happened as a result.
Portugal
Bavaria
Inspired by the Rococo style prominent in Paris, Prince-Elector Charles Albert commissioned his court architect, the dwarf François de Cuvilliés, to create an elaborate hunting lodge. It would be called the Amanlienburg and built in the grounds of the Nymphenburg Palace. De Cuvilliés’ designs for the lodge were certainly impressive, enough to inspire envy in Paris and Vienna, but so were the costs.
[+3 Prestige/turn, large increase to Royal Expenses, Effects last for 5 turns]
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Ignaz von Törring was sent on a tour of the principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. He hoped to convince realms such as Baden and Württemberg to increase trade with Bavaria. With the center of culture Bavaria was becoming, this went quite well and by the end of the year Bavarian goods were being seen in greater numbers across the Empire.
[Moderate Trade Increase for Bavaria]
Sardinia
King Charles Emmanuel III was disturbed by the financial deficit of his realm, and wished to limit the rising debt by negotiating for lower interest rates. His agents sent for this purpose found creditors somewhat reluctant to lower the interest rates. Sardinia had been a nation operating beyond its means since the massive foreign subsides influxed its economy in the War of Spanish Succession. Though Sardinia seemed far from bankruptcy, the creditors were cautious. Thus the reduction in Sardinia’s interest rate was small.
[Small reduction to interest rate]
The King also wanted to streamline his bureaucracy which was overly bloated in his opinion. He thus ordered a review conducted to cut away unnecessary fluff and make the administration more efficient. While the review went suspiciously over budget, much of the administration was “streamlined”- by firing “corrupt” bureaucrats, who by total coincidence had bones to pick with members conducting the review. Charles Emmanuel III had his streamlined bureaucracy, but some questioned whether it was worth it.
[Small treasury hit, moderately decreased administration expenses, small decrease to taxation income, small decrease to tariff income]
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