The best illustration of this relative French weakness
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
In both countries, servicing the debt consumed half the state’s annual expenditures, but after 1783 the British immediately embarked upon a series of measures (the Sinking Fund, a consolidated revenue fund, improved public accounts) in order to stabilize that total and strengthen its credit—the greatest, perhaps, of the younger Pitt’s achievements. On the French side, by contrast, large new loans were floated each year, since “normal” revenues could never match even peacetime expenditures; and with yearly deficits growing, the government’s credit weakened still further. The startling statistical consequence was that by the late 1780s France’s national debt may have been almost the same as Britain’s—around £215 million—but the interest payments each year were nearly double, at £14 million.
chapter: The “Financial Revolution”