Hey Guys,
In my ASB TL
'Tis To Glory We Steer I have Britain being ISOTed to the East Coast of North America, after which France, hoping to take advantage of Britain's literal absence from Europe, goes to war with Britain, as does Spain. The war ends up being a flop and France loses its entire American Empire (that's a minor island near Newfoundland, Saint Domingue and French Guiana), whilst in 'return' it gets the Channel Islands and Ireland gets independence (except for Cork, which is kept as a British port).
With the loss of Saint Domingue, which produced 40% of the sugar and 60% of the coffee consumed in Europe by the 1780's, is a major setback for France as Britain can now take the profits with Saint Domingue under the the Union Flag.
Anyway, now that I've set out the basic premise so far, I'd like to know how France should sort its economy out. IOTL after the American Revolution France's economy was doing very poorly, as it is ITTL, and Louis XVI failed to push reforms through, initially kicking out the de facto Finance Minister Jacques Necker after he demanded to be made a Minister to push his reforms through. Necker had the right ideas, primarily a tax reform to take the burden off the poorer in society, it was just his own religion halted his progress.
Louis XV was a big fan of reform too, however in my TL the 'Event War' between Britain and France ended in 1769, 7 years before Necker was made director-general of the finances, so in my TL it may be a little too early to have him in control of the finances of France. Oh and don't forget that the 'Great Fear' hasn't happened yet in France, that famine began in 1788...
So what do you think Louis XV would and could do? Who could be appointed to the finance role and take charge?