Everyone's eyes in the conference hall suddenly burned with excitement.
It was as if they could already see the dawn of an era belonging to the French Navy just ahead.
Joseph was only announcing the total number of warships to be built here; once the Toulon Shipyard finished calculating the budget for expanding the dock and the shipbuilding costs, the Navy Department would sign a formal contract with the shipyard.
The construction costs in Toulon might be slightly higher than in Brest, but to achieve strategic surprise, spending a little more is perfectly acceptable.
Joseph estimated that the total expenditure for building 25 fourth-level steam battleships would be around 35 million francs. To reach 40 ships, it would only require another 13 million francs—the shipyard's construction was already complete, so building costs would decrease accordingly.
