Researching On The French Financial Issues During The Seven Years War

In the eighteenth century France, the financial problems were inevitable to be mentioned. Louis XIV left behind a myth of absolutism and a financial difficulty. In the years of1715,1720,1763and1788, France had frequently crashed into financial difficulties. This thesis, which bases on the financial problems caused by the Seven Years War, will deeply analyze the confrontation between the administrative authority and the judicial power on the financial problems, and will consider the public debate at that time, and then will illustrate the specialness of the French liberty and the limitation of absolutism. This thesis mainly points out that the crisis of the finance was actually the crisis of the absolutism.The French financial system was full of varieties from fourteenth century to eighteenth century. At the reign of Louis XIV, as the absolutism was consummated, the financial system was confirmed. The absolute monarch set up some new institutions to manage the finance. But he did not abolish the old financial system. Regional difference, traditional custom and the privilege were reserved. The old financial system and the new financial system were overlapping. A unified and efficient financial system can not be established under the absolutism. The establishment and the consolidation of the absolutism were accompanied by the war. The war was the direct element which affected the finance. The war caused a great leak of the finance and the financial reformation must be implemented.The Seven Years War was notable as the most expensive war which France had experienced. The fiscal revenue could not cover the fiscal expenditure. The default debased the credibility of the royalty. The financial policy which was based on the debt did not work any more. The financial minister was changed frequently and the financial policy was introduced constantly. In order to remedy the fiscal crisis, the government had to resort to a "just" taxation. The vingtiemes, said to be the most fair tax, had been collected three times during Seven Years War.The just taxation violated the privilege in the French society. The fundamental law, the ancient freedom and the traditional custom shielded the privilege, and resisted with the absolute monarch. Especially, the parliaments strongly disagreed the tax policy. Focusing on the decrees of tvingtiemes, the administrative authority of the monarch and judicial power of the parliament confronted on the financial problem. The authority of the absolute monarch was challenged.As the peace was coming in1763, the confrontation between the monarch and the parliament was intensified. The parliaments brought the fiscal issues to the public sphere. The physiocrat, the liberal nobles and the royalists expressed their opinions on the fiscal issues. The French pubilc sphere was shocked. The absolute monarch lost the control of the opinion. The finance, the privilege and the liberty were combined together. The absolutism had an impassable limit on the dispose of fiscal issues. The public opinion became the new authority, which brought far-reaching effect to France.Under the French absolute monarchy, the ancient freedom and privilege were legal. The fiscal revenue brought by the "just" and direct tax was confined, while the indirect tax filled with controversial brought tremendous revenue. The France did not have a platform to integrate the interest of the privileged and the unprivileged in the eighteenth century. The parliaments claimed to represent the public liberty but it could not break through the limit of narrow interests. The public opinion was still seeking the solutions of the fiscal crisis, but it had already showed the powerful force. The absolute monarch had lost many opportunities to take a radical reform several times. When the French society was trapped in the fiscal difficulty in1788, the Estate-General of France was convened and the absolutism was ended.