amphibulous
Banned
I think the problem was not Louis XVI but Louis XV it was him that put France into a big mess.
They were both to blame. XVI continued to overspend and had even less excuse.
I think the problem was not Louis XVI but Louis XV it was him that put France into a big mess.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe, maybe not - it is not one attested to by that link!