Walsh frowned upon hearing this. "If I understand correctly, you're planning to have people burn coal at home?"
"It's coal processed into a special form."
"Good God, the smoke'll choke them to death."
Rochefort smiled. "That's true of French coal, but I'm talking about hard coal from the Rhineland."
Walsh was very familiar with hard coal, since England was currently the largest producer of it in Europe. When he was young, his family used coal for heating. That was one of the main reasons the Industrial Revolution had started in England.
Even so, he still shook his head. "To transport it from such a distance to Paris, the freight alone must be very expensive."
"There's a government subsidy," the chubby young man said at once. "Every ton of coal transported to Paris gets a shipping subsidy of six francs."
