Suchergebnisse

The French monarchy and the foreign exchange system in the era of Louis XIV -- The logistical geography of French remitting -- The price of foreign exchange -- The gathering storm : the development of a remittance system, 1700-06 -- Overloading atlas : Samuel Bernard and the crisis of French banking

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

In the period after the Thirty Years War central state organization of armies went hand in hand with the hiring of foreigners for military service. This article sets out the importance of foreign soldiers for Louis XIV's military power, and outlines how they were incorporated under the aegis of the French state after 1663. It proposes a fresh typology of foreign recruitment and service, moving beyond simple categories such as mercenary, auxiliary, and entrepreneur, and in the process it further reveals the complexity of Louis XIV's international dealings. The French government had multiple motivations for setting up foreign units, and this article aims to pave the way for more profound exploration of the Soldatenhandel as it related to western Europe in the period after 1648.