Christian community of Tunis, consisting mainly of European merchants, to enlarge their small church near the Bab el Bhar. In June and July 1846 the Duke of Montpensier, son of King Louis Philippe of France visited Tunis and Carthage. He was received with great solemnity by Ahmad Bey. During this visit the idea of a reciprocal visit of the Bey to France was proposed. This visit was organised by his advisor Giuseppe Raffo (whose sister was married to his uncle) and the French consul, and took place in November 1846. King Louis Philippe received Ahmad Bey with great ceremony. This visit confirmed the Bey's wish to modernise his country by learning from Europe. An 1897 article in La Revue tunisienne described it effect on his plans: Among all the marvels he had occasion to admire, he was most particularly struck by the ingenious applications of industrial engineering; he conceived at that time the noble project of pulling native industry out of the routine into which it had fallen by encouraging it to embark on the road to progress and of endowing his country with modern industry, equipped with the means of production, of which the economic benefits had been revealed to him. The Bey's visit to France, and the fact that he had been received with the honours customarily reserved for an independent sovereign, displeased the Ottoman authorities as the Bey was, at least theoretically, an Ottoman vassal. Modernising ruler According to the Tunisian historian Mohamed Bayram V, the Bey's reforms were focused on state structures, the army and education. He established a modern structure of government and gave his high officials the title of 'minister'. His senior ministers were his Grand Vizier Mustafa Sahib at-Taba'a, Mustapha Khaznadar, Minister of Finance and of the Interior, Mustafa Agha as Minister of War, Mahmoud Khodja as Minister of the Navy and Giuseppe Raffo as Foreign Minister. At certain times Mahmoud Ben Ayed also served as Trade Minister, Kuchuk Muhammad in the honorific post of Minister in charge of the security home of Ahmad Bey's reforms wasted money, such as the large frigate built at La Goulette that could not make it through the channel to the sea. of Tunis and Mohamed Lasram IV as Minister of the Pen. The historian Ibn Abi Dhiaf was the Bey's private secretary. Among Ahmad Bey's successes may be counted the abolition of slavery in January 1846.