As the ships loaded with potatoes from Metz, Lorraine, and other areas began to sail south, in the office of the director of the Paris Industrial Planning Bureau, Joseph was flipping through a thick stack of reports.
A fifty-something official with many smallpox scars on his face and wearing glasses stood solemnly to the side.
He was the Commissioner of Agricultural and Financial Affairs, reporting to the office of the Finance Minister, and these were the documents he had just delivered.
The content of the documents was the recently compiled number of manor owners and farmers in each province who were willing to grow potatoes, as well as the data on the planned planting area they had proposed.