Nearly fifty years of wars left France with an empty treasury and huge debts. The population was declining. As Louis grew older, he began to doubt his military exploits. After a reign of seventy-two years, the longest in European history, Louis died, warning his heir to try to preserve the peace.
Although Louis' reign was called the Grand Century, all was not as it seemed. Versailles was an excellent example of the foolishness of some of Louis' policies. Versailles was an enormous expense and strain on an economy already weakened by war. The cost of such lavishness was high, and the government was never able to raise enough money by taxation to pay for it. Attempts to introduce taxes from which no one would be exempt, even the nobles and privileged wealthy, were failures. Remembering earlier problems, the crown did not want to press hard on groups who counted their exemption from taxation as a mark of prestige. Unable to tax the wealthy or to raise new revenues for the armies, the government was periodically forced to repudiate the national debt. This action made future borrowing difficult and expensive.
The sale of titles of nobility and useless offices to anyone who would pay for them brought in some money. Yet, at the same time these new nobles disappeared from the tax rolls and from business since social prejudice demanded the nobles' exclusion from business. The short-term gain for the government blocked the development of a commercial middle class and underlined the government's long-term goal of a strong economy.
Louis XV and Louis XVI
After the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and until 1789, the French government remained essentially the same. Louis XV grew up under the shadow of his great-grandfather. Lazy and indecisive, Louis XV refused to assume the burdens of kingship as Louis XIV had. The problems of government bored him.
Louis XVI wanted to be a reforming king, but he lacked the intelligence, decisiveness, and will to fill the role. Louis XVI was indifferent to politics. He spent his time hunting and working at his hobbies of lock-making and masonry.
Both Louis XV and Louis XVI maintained a government more arbitrary than ever before. France was governed by a king and ministers, supported by a bureaucracy, standing army, and police power. The king's power was not shared by anyone else. Absolute power meant power unchecked and undivided. Government ministers imprisoned without trial those people suspected of disloyalty. The courts were suppressed for refusing to approve decrees. France was brought to bankruptcy by wars and the kings' extravagance for the benefit of favorites. By the late 1700s great discontent had spread throughout France. The common people, the middle class, and nobles were all dissatisfied for different reasons. If revolution had been deliberately planned, it could not have been done better.
