Debt

=How much debt did the French owe?=

The French owed more than billion livres all together. The french already owed a lot of debt when Louie XV was King because of the their war against Britain. First number of ill-advised financial maneuvers in the late 1700s worsened the financial situation. France’s involvement in the Seven Year’s War of 1756-1763 drained the revenues.

Then King Louis XV died and when Louie XVI became king, the debts were increasing and the economy was going down more. This was because Louis XVI was too young take over after his grandfather as well as the cost of their palace Versailles. At first Louis XVI’s debt was only about 400 million however after he contributed to the American Revolution, the debts then increased. The fact that the government had a sizable army and navy to maintain, which was an spending of particular importance during those unpredictable times was exacerbating. France’s intervention with America cost 1.3 billion livres and this doubled her national debt.

By the 1788 the French government devoted about a quarter of its annual expenditure to the maintenance of the armed forces and about half to the payment of its debts. The British expenditures showed almost the same distribution as that of France. By then, the French debts stood at almost billion livres. Yet it was only half as great as the national debt of Great Britain. It was even less than the debt of the Dutch Republic. The French’s debt was apparently no great than the debt that was left by Louis XIV, who left it three quaters of a century before. Why then could the debt not be carried? This was because the revenues fell short of the expenditures. Much of what taxpayers paid never made it into the hands of Treasury. The most important tax, the taile was generally paid only by the peasants. Tax was imposted on each household and based on how much land it held. The church insisted that its property was not taxable by the state. Therefore although the country was thriving, the government treasury was empty. Moreover, Louis XVI’s extravagant place at Versilles and the foolish spending of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, did little to relieve the growing debt. Since the King nor the Queen didn’t do anything to help the financial state and rather than help made the situation worse. Therefore these foolish choices and happenings in France, their debts increased from 400 million livres to over a billion.



Citations:

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 * Last photo: (Versailles)**