The financial decline of a great power : war, influence, and money in Louis XIV's France / Guy Rowlands.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rowlands, Guy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Louis XIV, King of France, 1638-1715.

Louis.

Spanish Succession, War of, 1701-1714--Economic aspects--France.

Spanish Succession, War of, 1701-1714.

France--History--Louis XIV, 1643-1715.

France.

History.

France--Economic conditions--18th century.

Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

xvii, 267 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Summary:

The financial humbling of a great power in any age demands explanation. In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) Louis XIV's France had to fight way beyond its borders and the costs of war rose to unprecedented heights. With royal income falling as economic activity slowed down, the widening gap between revenue and expenditure led the government into a series of desperate expedients. Ever-larger quantities of credit, often obtained through fairly novel and poorly-understood financial instruments, were combined with ill-advised monetary manipulations. Moreover, through poor ministerial management the system of earmarking revenues for spending descended into chaos. All this forced up the cost of loans, foreign exchange, and military logistics as government contractors and bankers built the mounting risks into the price of their contracts and sought to profit from the situation.

Contents:

Part I The Strategic Management of War and the Financial Chain of Command

Introduction 19

1 Geostrategy, International Politics, and the Burden of War, 1688-1714 20

2 The King, His Ministers, and the Direction of Financial Policy 31

Part II Raising Money, Finding Money, Making Money: Sourcing Revenue in an Age of Crisis

Introduction 53

3 Taxing to the Hilt? Structural Weakness and Falling Revenues 57

4 Borrowing to the Limit 72

5 Manipulating the Coinage 90

6 Paper Money and Absolute Monarchy 108

Part III The Degeneration of Military Funding and the Rising Costs of War

Introduction 131

7 The Treasury of the Extraordinaire des Guerres in the Era of the Spanish Succession 133

8 The Crisis of Spending and Appropriations in Louis XIV's Personal Rule 157

9 The Overdraft of War: Short-Term Debt and Military Finance 176

10 Rent-Seeking in the Military Paymaster World 199.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [240]-245) and index.

ISBN:

9780199585076

0199585075

OCLC:

782105707