Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 173 Alexander's Secret Committee
As Louisa's belly grew bigger, she was taken care of more and more by the servants sent by Alexander, and Solovyov's happy life of being ordered to chat was about to come to an end.

Moreover, he was very clear about his position, unlike those Guards officers. After all, he had succeeded, and like Louisa, both parties were playing an ambiguous game of maintaining a certain distance but being very close.

He was about to return to Alexander. After all, the Tsar also needed him, and the reward he received during the coup had not been paid.

"Your Majesty, Soloviev has been ordered to return."

"Ah, you are here. Sit here. I have been wondering what position you should take these days. Do you want to be a diplomat?"

"Your Majesty, although I can speak a few foreign languages ​​and even Chinese, I am not very good at diplomatic rhetoric, and I am as stupid as the British ambassador."

Speaking of Lord Whitworth, Alexander knew that he was not directly involved in the regicide, and all parties wanted Paul to step down, so his words were not overly angry, but rather contained some sarcasm.

"If you were in England, you might be sent to Petersburg as an ambassador. Going to London or Paris would be very suitable for you. I learned from Lisa that your stepmother is French."

"Yes, sire, my stepmother is French, but she is from the West Indies."

"Maybe it has something to do with the wife of the First Consul of France. I heard that lady was from the West Indies, I think Martinique. Where is the Baroness from?"

"It's Guadeloupe. Even though they are on the same island, they're not that closely related, are they?"

"That's fine. You can choose to go to Paris. The French always say Paris is the center of the world."

"Some people say that Cusco is the belly button of the world, Your Majesty."

"Haha. You are quite good at making jokes. You succeeded in making me laugh. So, you will be on duty in my restaurant at noon today. You are an adjutant who is willing to work hard and learn. You are hired by Peter's uncle, so you are one of us anyway."

Solovyov had no idea how many hidden figures were hidden in the Moscow Grenadiers. He had followed his superiors from the base to St. Petersburg. His old superior was from the Volkonsky family and had brought a lot of influence.

"Also, how is the relationship between Peter and Sonya going?"

"Your Majesty's staff officer and Her Majesty's maid are very close and always go for walks in the pond behind the Tafred Palace."

"That's great. I hope they can make some progress. But don't be nervous. I won't arrange a marriage for you like your father did. You have to get used to it. If you want to get married, you have to make sure you know what kind of families the girls come from."

It is no wonder that Alexander and Constantine both got along well with Duke Enghien. The Tsar was more willing to be a "friend of women" rather than a "marriage agency."

At lunch time, Solovyov knew all the people who came here, including Count Stroganov the Younger and Czartoryski, the "Little Poland next door", as well as Kochubey and Novosiltsev.

These four people can be said to be Alexander's closest friends in the inner circle. Although he failed to seduce Count Pavel's wife and was almost pushed down by his Polish friend, this did not affect their friendship.

In Solovyov's view, only Kochubey had served as Deputy Prime Minister of the Empire and had some diplomatic and administrative experience. The other three mainly provided advice on political policies as friends. In short, this was a high-end political exchange meeting, which was much higher than the level of keyboard warriors. After they finished speaking, they could really get on with it.

Standing behind Alexander was Pyotr Volkonsky, who was already an aide-de-camp, and Solovyov served as an aide-de-camp. Several other friends of Alexander had not returned to St. Petersburg yet, so some people were absent from the meeting.

They all have the right to come and go freely in Alexander's restaurant, and they can speak more freely, and occasionally they can change their name to Alexander when addressing "Your Majesty".

"Adam, it's great to have you back. Today our committee is fully staffed."

"But there is one more general and one more adjutant, Sasha, what are you going to do?"

"From today on, we can discuss political matters here. Betja and Misha are the aide-de-camp and the aide-de-camp. They are just here to supplement military issues. After all, you are court eunuchs, diplomats, and administrative officials. Among the five of us, I am the only soldier."

"We all know, Sasha, how are you and Lisa doing lately?"

Czartoryski was still obsessed with Louisa, and Alexander was relatively calm about asking about his wife.

"Liza is pregnant again. She has been resting in the Tauride Palace for a while. You know she is always sick or weak, but she is much better there. She looks like she was when she first arrived in Petersburg."

Alexander's best impression of Louisa was the image of a girl in a nightgown and a wreath on her head curled up in his arms. The best impression was always best when they had just gotten married.

“I hope she is in good health.”

Apparently, the guy from next door is still thinking about it, but he has no chance to go to the Tavrid Palace, as Alexander will assign him many tasks.

"Adam, you should also prepare to get married. You are the only one among us who is single. Oh, and we have to include the major, Misha, but you are too young, so the situation is different."

It seems that among all the suitors for Louisa, these two are the only ones who are closest to her, and one of them even succeeded.

Alexander often unconsciously performed the Great Prophecy, and it was unknown whether he really knew or not. This game sounded very exciting, and the risk factor was not low. "I can't get married before our common career and personal career have a result. Your Majesty, you also know Alexander, what you are going to do is not only groundbreaking in Russia, but also in the world."

"So I need you. Today we have to think about what we can do."

Alexander's problem is that he has a wide range of interests and the topics he covers are very broad, so it is easy for him to miss the point.

But Count Stroganov quickly summarized the topic. He said directly: "Your Majesty, I think at this time, what needs to be solved is the issue of the affiliation of serfs and the difficulties of the national finances. Our fiscal budget is always under great pressure. Her Majesty can save you 80 rubles, which is only the budget cost saved by the virtuous queen personally. Compared with our country's annual budget of tens of millions, this is just a fraction."

"Pasha, have you come up with any idea?"

"I think it is necessary for the royal family to save money."

"But it's hard for me to explain to my mother, and we have saved a lot of money in the past few years. It's not easy to save this money in the courts of Pavlovsk and Gatchina."

As for the dowries of Maria and Catherine, Paul established a "royal fund" for the royal family using existing jewels. All of this was already prepared and would not be touched unless it was an emergency. In other words, the two girls were relatively sensible and usually frugal in their spending. The biggest expense in the palace was mainly on the Queen Mother.

"But the pomp and circumstance here, Your Majesty and the Queen, can still be reduced appropriately."

Of course, Alexander's own expenses were not low, and the amount he could save was limited. In other words, Louisa herself did not want such a high amount of queen's funds, which cut down a lot of expenses at once.

"That's also feasible. I can save 25 rubles, but it has to be used as education funding, especially for running schools in St. Petersburg and other major cities."

Alexander's outfit was the same uniform he often wore during Paul's reign, which was considered economical for an emperor who spent money lavishly. In other words, both Louisa and Maria Naryshkina were not fond of dressing up. One was mainly a beauty with light makeup, and the other never liked to dress up, wanting people to focus on her tall figure. The expenses of both of them were really not high, and together they could save Alexander a lot. If it weren't for the hostile relationship between the main wife and the mistress, they might even become friends.

"This is just about saving money. What's important is how to improve our fiscal revenue on the basis of gradually abolishing the poll tax."

"Pasha is right, Your Majesty. We can't always have this kind of opportunity to confiscate property and make money."

Novolsitsev agreed with his cousin's advice, and the time he spent with Alexander was probably second only to the Tsar's private tutor, the Swiss Laharp. He also repeatedly stopped Alexander from doing stupid things at an immature age.

According to the confiscation statistics submitted by Alexei Kurakin, the income reached 10 million rubles. Although it is still not as much as Count Stroganov's family property, it is also a considerable expense for Russia's current budget.

"When confiscating property, we also have to consider real estate and artworks, which are slow to convert into usable wealth."

Stroganov said this, and Alexander kept nodding. In the Russian treasury settlement, there were many properties of the great nobles in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Due to various reasons such as renunciation of inheritance, donation and no heirs, they were actually collected and existed as state property. However, many properties were now vacant and still needed to bear maintenance costs, which consumed a lot of government expenditure.

In 1857, after the end of the Crimean War, Russia's fiscal budget for the year was 2.6 million rubles, but a large part of it was used to fill the fiscal deficit and various debts. Now it is 1801, and the fiscal budget left by Paul is close to 1 million rubles, and much of it is still used to fill the fiscal deficit and various expenses of the Queen's late period. In essence, four generations have faced this problem.

"Then there is another way. I will melt all the gold and silver in the palace to mint coins and use them as precious metal reserves. With sufficient precious metals as a guarantee, the issuance of paper money can be guaranteed."

The people who were in charge of the money were Kochubey, who would sometimes listen to reports from the finance minister's subordinates, and Solovyov, who had some financial knowledge. If he did this and over-issued banknotes, the exchange rate of the paper ruble from the Empress' era was finally improved to 68 kopecks for the silver ruble, and through Paul's series of new policies, the exchange rate was improved to 80 kopecks, and the banknotes would probably depreciate again.

"Your Majesty, the issuance of paper money must not be excessive."

Although Solovyov was listening in, he knew the dangers. After all, his family, three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, had been dealing with money.

"You can tell me, Misha. I know your family's ancestral craft is all about money, and..."

"Your Majesty, I'd better speak for myself."

Solovyov's grandfather embezzled money from smuggling in Arkhangelsk for several years, which was equivalent to 8% of the national tax revenue in one year during the late reign of Peter the Great. There are many issues involved in this family scandal.

If the governors of various places could crack down severely on the local nobles, they could actually dig out a lot of information.

Even when Solovyov himself talked about these family scandals, he did not forget to think about Peter the Great and the late Emperor Paul. Only these two had the time to have a good fight with the nobles. As a result, one insisted on going into the water to save people, which aggravated his kidney disease and caused him to die early, and the other was murdered by his own confidants. These two can be said to be the most feared by the nobles. After all, one wants life and the other wants money.

However, the local governors may not be able to get things done. Some of them went there to make money, while others were schemed against by local nobles.

After all, in Russia, there was a precedent that no one could afford to offend except Peter the Great, and that was the rural autonomy of local nobles.

The problems of these nobles are enormous. To be honest, the root of Russia's problem lies here. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the nobles were barely suppressed in accordance with the wishes of Peter the Great. Soon, a magical Peter III appeared. This man loosened the restrictions on the nobles, but also left all the problems to future generations.

The Queen's foundation was unstable, but she was able to suppress these people with her prestige in the later period. Among the huge national expenditures, the largest share was military expenditures, which once accounted for 73%. The royal expenses remained high, and the government could only control 12% of the expenditures.

These problems were left to Alexander. Paul himself cracked down severely and reduced the privileges of the nobles, but he did not kill them all. After all, he was still the largest landlord, and the basis of his rule was these people. He could see the power of the serfs, and he also knew that he had the prestige to use this power. The peasants all listened to the words in the emperor's edict, which listened to their opinions, but they could not afford to use it. If they were not careful, the Russian royal family would be overthrown. This dilemma was unavoidable.

(End of this chapter)