A competent King Louis XVI

amphibulous

Banned
Of course, the british system was the most efficient and the most modern. But Britain could afford it and had the means to make it so efficient in a significant part and even in a decisive part because it was "doped" with Indian "money"/resources.

Utter nonsense. The British govt paid half the interest rate the French did because, unlike France, it never defaulted. It obtained more tax money for its own use while taking less from the country because it had a reasonable tax system instead of tax farming. It didn't destroy its own economy with internal customs barriers because.. well, the English just weren't that stupid. All these factors too place before India was acquired!

France was much better populated and richer than England, but it lost India to England because the French were so incompetent they forfeited their own potential superiority. India Empire was the result of superior ability, not the cause of it.
 
You know, I feel obligated to add that Louis XV's giving up of Flanders had, believe it or not, fairly practical reasons behind it--keeping them might have scuppered the peace process all together (England was about as fond of French Flanders then as it was a century later), and even if it hadn't, would have turned Austria into a permanent English ally, leaving France tied just as permanently to little, aggressive, self-aggrandizing Prussia. (That doesn't sound like a bad deal to us, but given how close Frederick the Great came to being Frederick the Foolhardy, I'm not so sure that Louis didn't have the right idea here.)

See, that was France's problem, as Louis XV was acutely aware--under the present system of balance of power, war just wasn't getting it any benefits anymore. It was just letting it keep an admittedly favorable status quo, which really isn't worth bankrupting yourself for. Of course, France could have always just chucked the system--but, well, that ultimately happened, and it didn't turn out very well. No, France was pretty much stuck with a great many bad options.
 
Many people seem to have though breaking the colonies off of Britain would be some devastating blow, due to flawed economic theories. In actuality it might have improved their economy.

I'm sure the Embargo Acts of Jefferson and the War of 1812 were huge boons.In some ways it might have improved the British economy (because there were no longer subsidies for certain cash crops), but the colonies were no longer a captive market for British products either.
 
Utter nonsense. The British govt paid half the interest rate the French did because, unlike France, it never defaulted. It obtained more tax money for its own use while taking less from the country because it had a reasonable tax system instead of tax farming. It didn't destroy its own economy with internal customs barriers because.. well, the English just weren't that stupid. All these factors too place before India was acquired!

France was much better populated and richer than England, but it lost India to England because the French were so incompetent they forfeited their own potential superiority. India Empire was the result of superior ability, not the cause of it.

This is tautology.

Before the creation of the BoE in 1694, the english government had the same financial difficulties as the french one. And even after, it was forced, like the other european powers, to make peace in 1713 or in 1748 because it would otherwise have gone bankrupt.

The main factor for the english successes was the massive development of its sea trade and of its commercial fleet. If Britain could raise more taxes per citizen, it is also because its "per capita GDP" was at that time higher than in most other european countries, tanks to its massive trade development.

And this trade development was mainly due to a very mercantilist policy started under Cromwell.

I also perfectly know when the conquest of India occured. What I was refering to, if you read my previous messages, was control of a dominant part of Indian trade. This was one of the main keys of british development and enrichment, as it had been for Portugal in the 16th century, Netherlands in the 17th century, France and Britain in the first half of the 18th century. And then Britain alone.
 
You know, I feel obligated to add that Louis XV's giving up of Flanders had, believe it or not, fairly practical reasons behind it--keeping them might have scuppered the peace process all together (England was about as fond of French Flanders then as it was a century later), and even if it hadn't, would have turned Austria into a permanent English ally, leaving France tied just as permanently to little, aggressive, self-aggrandizing Prussia. (That doesn't sound like a bad deal to us, but given how close Frederick the Great came to being Frederick the Foolhardy, I'm not so sure that Louis didn't have the right idea here.)

See, that was France's problem, as Louis XV was acutely aware--under the present system of balance of power, war just wasn't getting it any benefits anymore. It was just letting it keep an admittedly favorable status quo, which really isn't worth bankrupting yourself for. Of course, France could have always just chucked the system--but, well, that ultimately happened, and it didn't turn out very well. No, France was pretty much stuck with a great many bad options.

That was not the opinion of the Marshall de Saxe, France's leading general at the time. The low countries were impossible to hold for Austria for obvions territorial reasons. And a compensation for Austria could very easily have been found elsewhere in the HRE.

De Saxe proved right and Louis XV wrong with the reopening of hostilities by thé british who would not let their opportunity go away.
 
Maybe, maybe not - it is not one attested to by that link!

Yes it is if you follow and develop the links.

It reminds that : "In 1755, without declaring war, the british captured 300 french merchant ships and took 6,000 sailors captive. This preventive action seems to have had a great influence on the outcome of the Seven years' war."
 
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