Re: Royaume de France

[Ottoman]

1786 state of the countryside,

Given the unstable climate as result of the Icelandic eruption on the France farmlands. A ever growing number of peasants are fleeing to the cities and other urban areas looking for work, food and shelter. The price of bread was rising steady as the eruptions has greatly impacted the availability of grains in France.

The middle class and rural classes were showing their disdain for face they paid the most in taxes, whereas the Church and Nobility pay close to none in these harsh times.

[TLS]

France carries over the same debt as before, having made minimal progress on addressing it in 1775. However, the new King Louis XVI—at the behest of Turgot, who is increasingly influential in financial circles--decides that a combination of fiscal prudence and realism is the order of the day. France commits itself to paying off its debts incurred during the Falkands war, on time and in full. However, the Seven Years’ War debt is to be only paid off as possible. France makes no attempt to pay the interest in full, banking on the good will earned by paying off the Falklands War debt and the good-faith payment (20 points a year once the Falkands War debt is paid down) as enough to leave France with access to international credit. However, as France already has the worst possible credit rating, the King and His ministers figure that there is little more that can be done to France.

French Builds, 1776

France 1776

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 4.5 (9 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 15
Income From East Indies: 2.75
Total Income: 55.2

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1779 (25 points, 15%): 8.75 [5 principle, 3.75 interest, principle down to 20]
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, debt down to 20]
-Repay Venetian Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, debt down to 20]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 9.3 [110.7 short on interest payment, principle up to 910.8]
-3 Commercial Fleets: 9
Total: 39.45

Total Spent: 51.1

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French West Indies, 1776

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 2 (4 fleets)
Total Income: 23

Maintenance:
-5 Forts: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1

Expenditures:
-Fortress (New Orleans): 2 (Year 2/2, Cost 4/4)
-Upgrade Fort to Fortress (Port-au-Prince): 2
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 15
Total: 22

Total Spent: 23

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French East India Company, 1776

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Total Income: 7

Maintenance:
-2 Forts: .2
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .4

Expenditures:
-Rebuild Trading Post at Saint-Louis (West Africa): 1.85 [1.85/1.85 points]
-Upgrade Fort to Fortress (Pondicherry): 2
-Transfer to France: 2.75
Total: 6.5

Total Spent: 7
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1777

France 1777

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 6 (12 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 17.2
Income From East Indies: 4.7
Total Income: 60.85

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1779 (25 points, 15%): 8.75 [5 principle, 3.75 interest, principle down to 15]
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 15]
-Repay Venetian Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 15]
-Repay Milanese Loan, due by 1783 (50 points, 5 years, 15%): 17.5 [10 principle, 7.5 interest, principle down to 40]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: .45 [119.65 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,030.45]
-2 Commercial Fleets: 6
Total: 39.45

Total Spent: 51.1

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1777

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 2.5 (5 fleets)
Total Income: 23.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.3

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-1 Fort (Baton Rouge): 2
-Transfer to France: 17.2
Total: 22.2

Total Spent: 23.5

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1777

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .25 (Saint-Louis [Senegal])
Total Income: 7.25

Maintenance:
-1 Forts: .1
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .55

Expenditures:
-Build Fort (Saint-Louis [Senegal]): 2
-Transfer to France: 4.7
Total: 6.7

Total Spent: 7.25
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1778

France 1778

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 7 (14 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 19.6
Income From East Indies: 3.6
Total Income: 63.15

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1779 (25 points, 15%): 8.75 [5 principle, 3.75 interest, principle down to 10]
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 10]
-Repay Venetian Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 10]
-Repay Milanese Loan, due by 1783 (50 points, 5 years, 15%): 17.5 [10 principle, 7.5 interest, principle down to 30]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 2.75 [117.25 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,147.7]
-2 Commercial Fleets: 6
Total: 47.5

Total Spent: 64.15

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1778

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 3 (6 fleets)
Total Income: 24

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 19.6
Total: 22.6

Total Spent: 24

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1778

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .25 (Saint-Louis [Senegal])
Total Income: 7.25

Maintenance:
-2 Forts: .2
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .65

Expenditures:
-Build Trading Post (Dakar): 3
-Transfer to France: 3.6
Total: 6.6

Total Spent: 7.25

_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1779

France 1779

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 8 (16 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 20.1
Income From East Indies: 4.85
Total Income: 65.9

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1779 (25 points, 15%): 13.75 [5 principle, 5 additional, 3.75 interest, principle down to 0]
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 5]
-Repay Venetian Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 5]
-Repay Milanese Loan, due by 1783 (50 points, 5 years, 15%): 17.5 [10 principle, 7.5 interest, principle down to 20]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: .5 [119.5 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,267.2]
-2 Commercial Fleets: 6
Total: 47.5

Total Spent: 64.15

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1779

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 3.5 (7 fleets)
Total Income: 24.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 20.1
Total: 24.5

Total Spent: 24.5

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French East India Company, 1779

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Total Income: 7.5

Maintenance:
-2 Forts: .2
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .65

Expenditures:
-Build Fort (Dakar): 2
-Transfer to France: 4.85
Total: 6.85

Total Spent: 7.5
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1780

France 1780

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 9 (18 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 20.6
Income From East Indies: 3.75
Total Income: 66.3

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Swiss Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 0]
-Repay Venetian Loan, due by 1780 (25 points, 5 years, 5%): 6.25 [5 principle, 1.25 interest, principle down to 0]
-Repay Milanese Loan, due by 1783 (50 points, 5 years, 15%): 17.5 [10 principle, 7.5 interest, principle down to 10]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 11.65 [108.35 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,375.55]
-3 Commercial Fleets: 9
Total: 50.65

Total Spent: 66.3

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French West Indies, 1780

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 4 (8 fleets)
Total Income: 25

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 20.6
Total: 25

Total Spent: 25

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French East India Company, 1780

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Total Income: 7.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .75

Expenditures:
-Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 3.75
Total: 6.75

Total Spent: 7.5
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1781

France 1781

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Craft Centers: 9 (Paris, Lille, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 12 (Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 21.1
Income From East Indies: 4.25
Total Income: 68.8

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.5
-1 BB1s: .5
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 2
-24 BB2s, laid up: .6
-7 FF1s: 1.4
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .7
-9 Fortresses: 2.25
-20 Garrison Divisions: 5
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.4
Total: 15.65

Expenditures:
-Repay Milanese Loan, due by 1783 (50 points, 5 years, 15%): 17.5 [10 principle, 7.5 interest, principle down to 0]
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 15.65 [104.35 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,479.9]
-10 Garrison Divisions: 20
Total: 53.15

Total Spent: 68.8

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French West Indies, 1781

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 4.5 (9 fleets)
Total Income: 25.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 21.1
Total: 24.1

Total Spent: 25.5

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French East India Company, 1781

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: .5 (1)
Total Income: 8

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .75

Expenditures:
-Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 4.25
Total: 7.25

Total Spent: 8

_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1782

France 1782

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 21.6
Income From East Indies: 4.75
Total Income: 72.8

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-1 BB1s: .45
-3 BB1s, laid up: .15
-8 BB2s: 1.8
-24 BB2s, laid up: .55
-7 FF1s: 1.3
-7 FF1s, laid up: .15
-7 Brigs: .65
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-30 Garrison Divisions: 6.75
-14 Garrison Brigades: 1.3
Total: 16.5

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 20.3 [99.7 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,580.2]
-10 Garrison Divisions: 18
-14 Garrison Brigades: 13
-10 BB2s: 5 [5/30 points, Year 1/6]
Total: 53.15

Total Spent: 68.8

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1782

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 5 (10 fleets)
Total Income: 26

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 21.6
Total: 24.6

Total Spent: 26

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1782

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 1 (2)
Total Income: 8.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .75

Expenditures:
-Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 4.75
Total: 7.75

Total Spent: 8.5
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1783

France 1783

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 16.1
Income From East Indies: 2.25
Total Income: 64.8

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-1 BB1s: .45
-3 BB1s, Reactivating: 2.7
-8 BB2s: 1.8
-24 BB2s, reactivating: 10.8
-7 FF1s: 1.3
-7 FF1s, reactivating: 2.55
-7 Brigs: .65
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-40 Garrison Divisions: 9
-28 Garrison Brigades: 2.55
Total: 35.2

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 20.1 [99.9 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,680.1]
-10 BB2s: 5 [10/30 points, Year 2/6]
-9 FF1s: 4.5 [4.5/13.5 points, Year 1/4]
Total: 29.6

Total Spent: 68.8

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1783

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3 , Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 5.5 (11 fleets)
Total Income: 26.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-3 Commercial Fleet: 9
-Transfer to France: 16.1
Total: 25.1

Total Spent: 26.5

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1783

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 1.5 (3)
Total Income: 9

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .75

Expenditures:
-2 Commercial Fleet: 6
-Transfer to France: 2.25
Total: 8.25

Total Spent: 9

_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1784

France 1784

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 23.1
Income From East Indies: 2.25
Total Income: 71.8

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-4 BB1s: 1.8
-32 BB2s: 7.2
-14 FF1s: 2.55
-7 Brigs: .65
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-40 Garrison Divisions: 9
-28 Garrison Brigades: 2.55
Total: 27.15

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 20.65 [99.35 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,779.45]
-10 BB2s: 5 [15/30 points, Year 3/6]
-9 FF1s: 4.5 [9/13.5 points, Year 2/4]
-11 FF1s: 5.5 [5.5/16.5, Year 1/4]
-4 Garrison Divisions: 7.2
-2 Garrison Brigades: 1.8
Total: 29.6

Total Spent: 68.8

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1784

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3, Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7 (14 fleets)
Total Income: 28

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-Transfer to France: 23.1
Total: 26.1

Total Spent: 28

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1784

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 2.5 (5)
Total Income: 10

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-2 Garrison Brigades: .2
Total: .75

Expenditures:
-1 Commercial Fleet: 3
-4 Garrison Brigades: 4
-Transfer to France: 2.25
Total: 9.25

Total Spent: 10
_______________________________________________________________________

French Builds, 1785

France 1785

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 24.1
Income From East Indies: 2.35
Total Income: 72.9

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-4 BB1s: 1.8 [3 carried over to 1786]
-32 BB2s: 7.2 [26 will remain in 1786]
-14 FF1s: 2.55 [11 carried over to 1786]
-7 Brigs: .65 [6 carried over to 1786]
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-44 Garrison Divisions: 9.9
-30 Garrison Brigades: 2.7
Total: 28.2

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt: 20.7 [99.3 short on interest payment, total debt load: 1,878.75]
-10 BB2s: 5 [20/30 points, Year 4/6]
-9 FF1s: 4.5 [13.5/13.5 points, Year 3/4]
-11 FF1s: 5.5 [11/16.5, Year 2/4]
-10 Garrison Brigades: 9
Total: 29.6

Total Spent: 68.8

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1785

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3, Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 28.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .5
-5 Garrison Brigades: .5
Total: 1.4

Expenditures:
-3 Garrison Brigades: 3
-Transfer to France: 24.1
Total: 27.1

Total Spent: 28.5

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1785

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-6 Garrison Brigades: .6
Total: 1.15

Expenditures:
-7 Garrison Brigades: 7
-Transfer to France: 2.35
Total: 9.35

Total Spent: 10.5

[TLS]

France: 1776 to 1785

After the thoroughly-middling performance in the Falklands War resulted in France, by some miracle, emerging with slightly more land but a much-reduced military, the stage was set for King Louis XV to leave his son a disappointing inheritance. Finally passing from the stage in early 1776, the new king’s coronation was, by dint of France’s financial situation, an altogether new affair. For the first time in centuries, the King was forced to forego a costly coronation in Reims and, instead, be crowned in Paris itself, at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris While a disappointment to the most arch-conservative forces in the King’s Court, especially his youngest brother, the comte d’Artois, the new King made the most of his situation. Alongside his Savoyard bride, Marie-Josephine, the young Louis-Auguste was crowned Louis Catorze before the whole host of Parisian—and, by extension, French—society. While awkward, stilting and torn between tradition and the demands of modernity, the King had the self-awareness to insist on not just the historical “tacit consent” of the assembled crowd but, indeed, to take advantage of the unique situation. Always insistent on securing the love of the people, the coronation culminated in a thunderous “Oui!” from the crowd.

The aftermath of the pageantry, however, was a quick come-down from the angelic heights. France was in a disastrous financial situation. While the recent war with Britain had not been as expensive as the Seven Years War—if only because it was so quickly decided—the Crown had inherited substantial debts. When Turgot, Louis XV’s chief financial advisor, began promoting a strategy of “open trade” and new debts, Louis XVI turned to the Genevan (Protestant, even) financial wunderkind, Jacques Necker, as his new “Director-General of Royal Finances,” since it was inconceivable that a Protestant could be made Minister of Finances. Necker was immediately concerned by the state of the Kingdom’s finances, but recognized the value of the opportunity promoted by the new period of extended peace promised in the aftermath of the Falklands War. Using his guile and connections with the banking world, Necker set out on a strategy to restore France’s financial underpinnings by paying back the Falklands War debt first, to assuage the most favorable banking houses, while paying only the barest possible in money to creditors from the previous war.

Merely paying back the smallest sliver of its debt would not, however, be enough to dig France out of its extensive hole. Necker turned his eyes towards reforming the systems that underpinned the French economy. First and foremost, the easiest holes to plug were the commercial damages incurred during the last war. Necker poured what little he could, from France’s initially meager fiscal surplus, into restoring commercial fleets, reestablishing trading posts in West Africa, and generally restoring France’s ability to generate income. The army and navy both especially contested Necker’s strategies, as they left both substantially underfunded. However, the King weighed in decisively on Necker’s behalf; the army and navy had both demonstrated their deficiencies in the last war, but, most importantly, France’s inability to match England’s financial heft was what had doomed the Bourbons. While France and Spain had entered the war roughly at parity with Albion, they were simply unable to match England’s un-ending ability to borrow. If France ever hoped to match England in battle, it would need the fiscal capacity.

While France managed to pay off its Falklands War debt by 1780, France remained deeply indebted and still in the economic aftermath. What’s worse, the stinginess in Necker’s outlays—especially to the military, but also his unwillingness to continue the sale of venal offices—had built up resentment among the nobility. As such, to restore confidence in his ability and the soundness of the French budget, Necker moved to counter his enemies and publicly released the Compte rendu au roi—in essence, the royal budget—in 1781 to the public. Maurepas and Vergennes, the Chief Minister and Foreign Minister, respectively, moved to counter Necker’s bold-faced attempt to, in essence, blackmail his way into the Council of State. They argued that Necker’s move had damaged the standing of the French state by outlining just how little France was spending on military affairs. Necker, in retort, noted that he had saved the Kingdom from bankruptcy on behalf of the wars that Maurepas and Vergennes had both failed to win.

Ultimately, Necker was saved by the fact that his loan management scheme had paid off sufficiently to allow France a measure of fiscal breathing room. Indeed, he was ultimately even granted a formal title as Minister of Finance. This concession, however, was bought at the price of France belatedly moving to restore its military prowess. Rather than continuing to pay down the debt from the Seven Years War to the best of France’s ability, Necker was forced to concede to only a sliver of the interest payments—which resulting in a quick ballooning of debt from the last war—as France moved to restore its lost martial glory. France’s army, which had barely seen action in the Falklands War, was quickly approaching miniscule size, while the navy was rotting away in drydock. Even with the much-vaunted “fiscal breathing room” purchased by Necker’s machinations, France was only able to begin barely plugging the gaps in its navy. By 1786, France’s navy was a shadow of itself prior to the Falklands War—though replacement ships were on track to emerge before the end of the decade—while the army barely matched that of Prussia, let alone the other great Empires of the continent.

Culturally, the decade after the Falklands War was a fetid one for the French cultural imagination, though politically it was caught in a rut. The war had provided few great heroes—the planned heroic liberation of Quebec, which had promised to provide a suitable victory, had crashed along the Breton coast, while other naval and land engagements had been limited in scope. It had, of course, boosted a sense of patriotic glory, but two defeats at the hand of England over two decades had proven a bitter pill to swallow. Extensive thought was poured into why, exactly, France had continually lost at the hands of Britain. The ideas of Montesquieu, Rosseau and Voltaire were common throughout the salons of Paris, while the regional parlements debated the efficacy and rights of the French crown over the people. While radical republicanism exists on the margins, including the ravings of mad Englishmen, the tide of the last few decades has proven that the English model of parliamentarianism perhaps exhibits the strongest claim to the current political zeitgeist. The King’s own cousin, the duc d’Orléans, began expanding his Parisian home, the Palais-Royal, into one of the freest marketplaces in the city, home to the free exchange of pamphlets and ideas critical of the status quo and the French establishment.

Economically, France saw itself slowly and haltingly entering the developing industrial economy of the late 18th century. The emergence of an industrial hub at Lille began to accelerate and facilitate France’s military re-armament, but France still lagged the industrial powerhouse of England. France’s emerging powerful bourgeoisie, led most notably the tax farmers of the ferme générale and the Bordeaux-based traders with the Caribbean, began to agitate powerfully for protection from harmful British competition. Necker’s own brand of fiscal protectionism—far different from his predecessor Turgot’s physiocratic liberalism—kept the threat of British goods low at first, but the salons increasingly featured passing versions of Scottish Enlightenment freedom. Meanwhile, Necker was fundamentally unable to counteract the arcane mix-match of internal tariffs, regulations and customs zones to facilitate freer internal movement and trade, limiting the degree to which France’s internal economy could truly prosper and progress. While Paris, Lille, and some other coastal cities were able to engage in the hustle-and-bustle of global development and progress, vast swathes of rural life remained unchanged from centuries prior.

That is, until the Icelandic volcano erupted. The ensuing poor harvests of the mid-1780s began to take a toll on France’s agricultural hinterland. Peasants and rural nobles alike became overwhelmed by the debt load incurred by failed harvest after failed harvest. In disregard to the technical and feudal limitations placed on their movement, impoverished rural bands moved across the countryside—either settling in towns and cities or, when they were pushed away from them, instead becoming roving bands of itinerant laborers. The French state, wholeheartedly dedicated to military and financial restoration, essentially vacated any ability to provide for those impoverished by the grain failures, instead relying on the Church for its largesse. While the extensive Catholic landholdings were able to provide some measure of relief, preventing widespread poverty from cascading into nationwide famine, French peasants remained on the edge of the abyss for the middle part of the decade, as the urban poor both ballooned and suffered under the limited supply of grain.

France’s fiscal salvation, to that point, was based entirely on the burgeoning colonial trade. In India, the French East India Company had staved off defeat for itself and its allies in Mysore, and spent the following decade preparing for an eventual English attempt to push them out of the subcontinent and to strengthen Hyder Ali and, thereafter, Tipu Sultan. In turn, the Mysoreans provided even more trade for French training and weapons, allowing the East India Company to re-establish its trading posts in Africa and secure its holdings. In the Caribbean, the sugar islands reached unimagined heights of production, benefitting from their relative safety during the last war, but maintained by a diabolical and infernal machine propelled by the hundreds of thousands of kidnapped and brutalized slaves. Finally, in the restored French Louisiana, the Crown settled on an unusual method of securing its hold: in addition to maintaining and developing the sugar and plantation economy, thousands of Polish emigres are resettled far away from the salons of Europe as part of a plan to both secure the frontier and keep their enflamed passions away from prying eyes.

Thus, by 1786, France is in a difficult, though not entirely precarious, predicament. King Louis XVI, who has spent by the previous decade largely in the world of books, figures, and finances, finishes his first 10 years on the throne with a France that is less militarily mighty than that of his father but, hopefully, on better financial ground. However, the risks proliferating on his borders are manifold and quickly multiplying. The new territorial imbalances in the East, caused by the final destruction of Poland, threatens the all-important balance of power. In the Low Countries, the Patriottentijd further threatens to enflame Europe. All the while, France’s own economic concerns constrain its ability to act both at home and abroad, leading Louis XVI to finally begin negotiating with his creditors about a suitable conclusion to his father’s sordid debt from his failed wars.

[TLS]

After a decade of scraping the barrel to pay down debts inherited from His father--including his disastrous Falklands debacle and the even more back-breaking Seven Years' War--Louis XVI finally believes that the time has come to formally renegotiate the terms of his country's indebtedness. As evidence from France's ability to pay down the debt from the Falklands' War in about 6 years' time, France is not unable to meet its obligations. However, the debt burden imposed by France's creditors after the Seven Years' War was unreasonable and, frankly, dishonorable. Even if France were to allocate the entire income of France itself and its colonies only to debt servicing, it would barely be able to cover the interest--let alone the principle. As such, France's original 800 points in debt from that war is now 1800. Clearly, France is heading only to bankruptcy and default.

Louis XVI firmly notes that he is not above declaring that France is unable to meet this obligation. France's credit rating is already F, and cannot be punished any more than it has been. France has worked closely to ensure that the banking houses of Genoa, Milan, Venice and Switzerland have been made whole for its most recent war, but it is also willing to forego the debts of Louis XV if necessary. Additionally, since 1768, France has already paid approximately 230 points in debt servicing to cover the cost of the loans taken out to cover the Seven Years' War, and it is only due to the ruinously high original debt that France has not been able to pay that debt off.

After a series of negotiations with the various banking houses of Europe, Minister of Finance Jacques Necker is able to delineate a firm repayment table for France’s astronomical debt. In return for forgiveness of 500 points of the accrued interest payments, France agrees to adhere to the following repayment timetable, based on tranches:

A tranche - 440 points to be paid by France within 30 years at 2.5% interest, for yearly payment of 14.7 principle, 11 points interest payment must start in 1786.

B tranche -  430 points to be paid by France within 40 years at 2.5% interest, for yearly payment of 10.75 principle, 10.75 points interest payment must start in 1796.

C tranche - 430 points to be paid by France within 50 years at 2.5% interest, for yearly payment of 8.6 principle, 10.75 points interest payment must start by 1806.

Necker thus returns from his negotiations something of a victor—he has, after all, bought the Crown some much-needed breathing room—but also aware of a ticking time-bomb. Though France could conceivably make the A and B tranche payments at current expenditure levels, it would leave the French budget in 1796 with no discretionary spending, and the addition of the C tranche would require huge cuts to military matters. He thus begins to counsel economic and fiscal reforms within the halls of power. However, at least at first, his arguments fall on deaf ears: Vergennes and Malesherbes, in particular, now finally see the necessarily funding to expand the woefully underfunded military, and believe that, certainly, by 1796 France will have redeemed itself by force of arms and earned the necessary economic base.

French Builds, 1786

France 1786

Income
Taxes: 4.95
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 26.9
Income From East Indies: 5.75
Total Income: 79.1

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-26 BB2s: 5.85
-11 FF1s: 2
-6 Brigs: .55
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-44 Garrison Divisions: 9.9
-40 Garrison Brigades: 3.6
Total: 26.65

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 26.3 points (14.7 principle, 11 points interest, + .6 additional principle payment principle down to 424.7)
-10 BB2s: 5 [25/30 points, Year 5/6]
-9 FF1s: 0 [13.5/13.5 points, Year 4/4]
-11 FF1s: 2.25 [13.25/16.5, Year 3/4]
-10 Garrison Divisions: 18 points
-1 Garrison Brigades: .9 points
Total: 52.45

Total Spent: 79.1

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1786

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3, Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 28.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .45
-8 Garrison Brigades: .75
Total: 1.6

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 26.9
Total: 26.9

Total Spent: 28.5

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1786

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-13 Garrison Brigades: 1.2
Total: 1.75

Expenditures:
-Upgrade 1 Garrison Brigade to Fortress (Mahe): 1.5 (1.5/3 points, Year 1/2)
-Upgrade 1 Garrison Brigade to Fortress (Karikal): 1.5 (1.5/3 points, Year 1/2)
-Transfer to France: 5.75
Total: 8.75

Total Spent: 10.5

[Ottoman]

France: 1776 to 1785


Economically, France saw itself slowly and haltingly entering the developing industrial economy of the late 18th century. The emergence of an industrial hub at Lille began to accelerate and facilitate France’s military re-armament, but France still lagged the industrial powerhouse of England. France’s emerging powerful bourgeoisie, led most notably the tax farmers of the ferme générale and the Bordeaux-based traders with the Caribbean, began to agitate powerfully for protection from harmful British competition. Necker’s own brand of fiscal protectionism—far different from his predecessor Turgot’s physiocratic liberalism—kept the threat of British goods low at first, but the salons increasingly featured passing versions of Scottish Enlightenment freedom. Meanwhile, Necker was fundamentally unable to counteract the arcane mix-match of internal tariffs, regulations and customs zones to facilitate freer internal movement and trade, limiting the degree to which France’s internal economy could truly prosper and progress. While Paris, Lille, and some other coastal cities were able to engage in the hustle-and-bustle of global development and progress, vast swathes of rural life remained unchanged from centuries prior.

That is, until the Icelandic volcano erupted. The ensuing poor harvests of the mid-1780s began to take a toll on France’s agricultural hinterland. Peasants and rural nobles alike became overwhelmed by the debt load incurred by failed harvest after failed harvest. In disregard to the technical and feudal limitations placed on their movement, impoverished rural bands moved across the countryside—either settling in towns and cities or, when they were pushed away from them, instead becoming roving bands of itinerant laborers. The French state, wholeheartedly dedicated to military and financial restoration, essentially vacated any ability to provide for those impoverished by the grain failures, instead relying on the Church for its largesse. While the extensive Catholic landholdings were able to provide some measure of relief, preventing widespread poverty from cascading into nationwide famine, French peasants remained on the edge of the abyss for the middle part of the decade, as the urban poor both ballooned and suffered under the limited supply of grain.

An unhappy middle class, the Third Estate By 1786

The growing number of bourgeoisie, were becoming ever apparently aware of their economic weight given the fact they run the PC, craft centers,port and shipping fleet in France, but also aware of the fact they paid the most in taxes and have next to no political say on setting economic policy and taxes. Most of the bourgeoisie is a say in policy making and away with old feudal system that they believe that is holding France back in terms of economic development. Consensus along the bourgeoisie is push for reform, but not outright republicanism for now at least.

[Ottoman]

1787- lingering effects of the Icelandic volcanic ash are still impacting global climates.

For the year of 1787- terrible weather, heavy rain, hard winters and too hot summers led to bad harvests in France. This impacts the peasants and farmers see a sharp increase in the price of grain and near collapse of their incomes as they aren't able to grow anything. Which is resulting a ever increasing number of peasants going to the cities looking for work and food. However there isn't jobs to employ the masses. Which is fueling unrest along the lower classes and bourgeoisie who see the the nobility, the clergy and King Louis and his family continued to live in the lap of luxury, in their palaces and chateaux.

In game effect, income taxes fall by 50% as many farmers aren't able to pay anymore.

The fall in income tax receipts is noticed by many in French Government who are alarm at the trend and push for reforms to fix the tax system to be not dependent on third estate for income.

[TLS]

French Builds, 1787

France 1787

Income
Taxes: 2.5
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 26.9
Income From East Indies: 5.75
Total Income: 76.65

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-26 BB2s: 5.85
-20 FF1s: 3.6
-6 Brigs: .55
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-54 Garrison Divisions: 11.7
-41 Garrison Brigades: 3.7
Total: 30.15

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 26.1 points (14.7 principle, 11 points interest, + .4 additional principle payment principle down to 409.6, Year 2/30)
-10 BB2s: 5 [30/30 points, Year 6/6]
-11 FF1s: 3.25 [16.5/16.5, Year 4/4]
-6 Garrison Brigades: 5.4 points
-15 PatRons: 6.75 points
Total: 46.5

Total Spent: 76.65

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1787

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 16 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 3, Port-au-Prince 3, Les Cayes 3, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 28.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .45
-8 Garrison Brigades: .75
Total: 1.6

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 26.9
Total: 26.9

Total Spent: 28.5

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1787

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-13 Garrison Brigades: 1.2
Total: 1.75

Expenditures:
-Upgrade 1 Garrison Brigade to Fortress (Mahe): 1.5 (3/3 points, Year 2/2)
-Upgrade 1 Garrison Brigade to Fortress (Karikal): 1.5 (3/3 points, Year 2/2)
-Transfer to France: 5.75
Total: 8.75

Total Spent: 10.5

[Ottoman]

The Crown Jewel of the French West Indies empire-Saint-Domingue

With improve ways of working the slave population to produce more income, French slaveowners report higher incomes in 1788 to the Crown.

For each resource in Saint-Domingue(Haiti), they now produce a extra .5 points of income.  

Many observers note the high level of slave imports in the colony to support this found productivity....

The slave population alone in Saint-Domingue, now stands at 800,000, with only 40,000 French Settlers, and 40,000 free coloreds/others.

[Ottoman]

1787- lingering effects of the Icelandic volcanic ash are still impacting global climates.

For the year of 1787- terrible weather, heavy rain, hard winters and too hot summers led to bad harvests in France. This impacts the peasants and farmers see a sharp increase in the price of grain and near collapse of their incomes as they aren't able to grow anything. Which is resulting a ever increasing number of peasants going to the cities looking for work and food. However there isn't jobs to employ the masses. Which is fueling unrest along the lower classes and bourgeoisie who see the the nobility, the clergy and King Louis and his family continued to live in the lap of luxury, in their palaces and chateaux.

In game effect, income taxes fall by 50% as many farmers aren't able to pay anymore.

The fall in income tax receipts is noticed by many in French Government who are alarm at the trend and push for reforms to fix the tax system to be not dependent on third estate for income.

Harvest still don't improve for 1788 and grain shortages are becoming more apparent, and more peasants are heading to the cities in vain search for food and work...In 1788, an unskilled labourer in Paris would spend around half of his daily wages on bread. Angry and resentment was building along the lower classes. Meanwhile in North France as news spreads of oppressive measures the Austrians have taken to restore order in Flanders, many people in France start viewing the Austrians foes then friends. Along the frontier with Austrian Netherlands, many French villages are providing safe haven to Flemish/ Wallonian refugees.

[TLS]

French Builds, 1788

France 1788

Income
Taxes: 2.5
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 21.4
Income From East Indies: 3.75
Total Income: 69.15

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-36 BB2s: 8.1
-31 FF1s: 5.6
-21 Brigs: 1.9
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-54 Garrison Divisions: 11.7
-47 Garrison Brigades: 4.25
Total: 36.3

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 26.1 points (14.7 principle, 11 points interest, + .4 additional principle payment, principle down to 394.5, Year 3/30)
-Bread Dole: 2 points
-14 Frigates: 4.75 points (4.75/18.9 points, Year 1/4)
Total: 46.5

Total Spent: 69.15

----------------------------------------------------------

French West Indies, 1788

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 20.5 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 4.5, Port-au-Prince 4.5, Les Cayes 4.5, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 33

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-2 Fortresses: .45
-8 Garrison Brigades: .75
Total: 1.6

Expenditures:
-Upgrade 3 Forts to Fortress (Cap-Francais, Guadeloupe, Martinique): 6
-Build 2 Forts (Les Cayes, Baton Rouge): 4
-Transfer to France: 21.4
Total: 31.4

Total Spent: 33

----------------------------------------------------------

French East India Company, 1788

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-1 Fortress: .25
-13 Garrison Brigades: 1.2
Total: 1.75

Expenditures:
-Settlement at Saint-Alouarn (RL Perth, Australia): 3 points
-1 Fort at Saint-Alouarn: 2 points
-Transfer to France: 3.75
Total: 8.75

Total Spent: 10.5

[TLS]

La faim – The Hunger

1787 and 1788 saw France essentially immobilized in the face of an activist British policy and the collapse of the Dutch colonial empire. French diplomatic overtures behind the scenes were, if anything, counterproductive: the Prussian invasion of the Netherlands involved no French participation, French threats to safeguard Dutch colonial interests were waived aside by the British, and France emerged from the wreckage of the Dutch colonial empire with nothing more than British permission to settle Western Australia—the vaguest promise of future income in return for losing the East Indies back to the Dutch and Ceylon to England. Needless to say, the Salon-going public was not pleased, and knew just who to blame: Jacques Necker.

Necker, of course, had little oversight over foreign affairs, but was the most powerful man in France after the King for one simple reason—he controlled the purse. France’s navy had atrophied in the last decade and, despite a late ship-building push, it wasn’t until early 1788 that France had even made back the losses incurred from mother nature, let alone British gunnery. Meanwhile, though the army had expanded on paper, the budget lacked any ability to meaningfully mobilize the French armies without plunging back into debt. This had all been by Necker’s design, as he sought to return France to profitability by rationalizing expenditures and prioritizing debt repayment, but the French nobility was, to put it mildly, furious at France’s ineptitude on the global stage.

Meanwhile, the aftermath of the Icelandic eruption meant that hunger stalked the land. While Necker had been cajoled into shelling out a nominal amount of help to the most impoverished urban peasants (2 points in the budget allocated to the “bread dole,”) this was inadequate for the scale of the challenge presented—and, in fact, was dwarfed by the outlay on new frigates demanded by the Navy. This resulted in the mass migration of peasants across the French countryside in direct opposition to the feudal norms of sedentary life, not to mention the influx of peasants into the city as underpaid day laborers. Not only did these roaming bands bring poverty and disease, but they began to displace the inhabitants of their new homes—peasants or urban workers—who were similarly precariously perched above the abyss of famine. In an attempt to siphon off some of the demographic pressures, Necker acquiesced to a program by the French East India Company to take landless peasants as the primary settlers of the newly-founded colony of Saint-Alouarn, at the mouth of the Swan River in western Australia. However, though the first ships embarked for the Antipodes in early 1788, the small scale of this new venture was nowhere near enough to meet the demand for land.

Eventually, this pressure reached into the middle echelons of urban society, the bourgeoisie, who were sandwiched between the disgruntled nobility and the agitated lower class. While the bourgeoisie were broadly in favor of Necker and his reforms, and had benefitted from the past decade of economic growth, they were politically powerless, much to their chagrin. The petty nobility of the parlements often mingled with the bourgeoisie, and there was much intermarriage and not-infrequent ennoblement of the more successful members of this merchant caste, but the fact remained that Necker’s strongest constituency was also his weakest.

By early 1788, as the scale of the food shortages became even more evident and increasing incidents of unrest took place, Necker’s enemies in the Court were able to finally, after over a decade, dispatch the uppity Protestant interloper. King Louis, at the behest of the machinations of Vergennes, his First Minister, finally sacked Necker and replaced him with Charles Alexandre de Calonne. Calonne, who had been inspired by Turgot’s incipient attempts at free trade and recoiled at Necker’s mercantilist view of economic growth, immediately turned to the King to present a strategy of pushing through the necessary reforms to grow the economy.

Knowing the parlements would recoil at increased royal authority, he pushed the King to call for an Assembly of Notables to ratify the creation of a Bank of France, which would assume part of France’s war debt, and the raising of new taxes on all landholders, regardless of their estate. While the Assembly of Notables would technically be a merely consultative body, with no rights to oppose or promote legislation, the endorsement of the Notables would be key to building support for the overhaul of fiscal government. Relying on the royal governors to select the future participants, it was hoped that the body would be broadly amenable to the royal program—though there was no way to know for sure. The Assembly was scheduled to assemble in September 1788, and Calonne began a fervent plan of drumming up support among the nobility for the reforms.

[TLS]

The Assembly of Notables
September, 1788

The King’s, or, more correctly, First Minister Calonne’s, plans for an orderly and pliable Assembly of Notables are thrown into disarray by the outbreak and escalation of revolution in the neighboring Austrian Netherlands. While France had provided moral and diplomatic support to the Prussian campaign to liberate the Netherlands proper from revolutionary control, the outbreak of violence in Brabant and Liege has exacerbated the threats facing the Crown. When the hotheaded young minor noble, the Marquis de Lafayette, embarked on his expedition to aid the revolutionaries, his actions were immediate castigated by the French court at Versailles. Lafayette, whose only military experience came from surviving the doomed expedition to liberate Quebec, is widely denounced as a misled youth whose wild ideas derived from a failed military career (having declared himself “Major General” with only a junior officer’s experience) and the lack of a firm father figure. The fact that Lafayette is supporting a rebellion against the Austrian Crown, which is tied to France by blood, is further decried.

However, though Lafayette finds little support in the salons of Paris, French societal animosity towards Austria does run deep—that the King is married to a Savoyard, rather than an Austrian, is proof of this concern. The King’s brother, Louis Stanislas, the comte de Provence, begins to argue forcefully in favor of French intervention on behalf of his brother-in-law, the Holy Roman Emperor. He furthermore castigates Calonne’s plan—publicly, in the eyes of the whole court at Versailles—to assemble the notables for their assent to Calonne’s reforms. Instead, Provence believes that the way to a strong France is for the King to issue lits de justice over the objections of the local parlements to pass new taxes and fund the French military. His equally, if not more, reactionary brother, the comte d’Artois, joins in the agitation in favor of a stronger royal hand.

Louis, hammered by his brothers, decides to continue with Calonne’s course of action—to a point. His First Minister is empowered to request the following of the Assembly of Notables:

• The enactment of a universal land tax applicable to all estates,
  
• The creation of a caisse d'escompte, a de facto national bank, to assume war debts,
  
• Reviving free trade internally (through the lifting of internal customs barriers) and externally
  

The Assembly, in turn, consists solely of representatives of the Nobility—eschewing the other estates in the hope that, with the acquiescence of the noble class, the parlements can be circumvented quickly and the necessary reforms can take place in time for France to react to the devolving situation in neighboring Austria.

[Ottoman]

September-October 1788


After much heated debate,the measure fails because the 120 assemblymen, who included princes of the blood, archbishops, noblemen and other people from the traditional elite, did not wish to bear the burden of increased taxation.

The more liberal wings who very pro Dutch/Flemish revolutions who actually support Lafayette mission in Flanders. Present the following proposal

1.a single land-value tax
2.the conversion of the corvée into a money tax
3.the abolition of internal tariffs
4.the creation of elected provincial assemblies

The conservatives wings reject this one out of hand as well. However a general consensus is made along the factions that Estates General( First,Second, Third Estate) must be called for assembly to debate and discuss how to enact these reforms.

Meanwhile, despite the views of the Royal Court on Lafayette, more of the local population near Lilies begin to see Lafayette as hero for joining the revolt against the Austrians. The local young nobles were seen joining the ever growing Flemish rebel army as sign dissent against the official policy of the Court.

[TLS]

French Builds, 1789

France 1789

Income
Taxes: 2.5
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 5 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 8 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 11 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 30.8
Income From East Indies: 8.4
Total Income: 83.25

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-36 BB2s: 8.1
-31 FF1s: 5.6
-21 Brigs: 1.9
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-54 Garrison Divisions: 11.7
-47 Garrison Brigades: 4.25
Total: 36.3

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 26.2 points (14.7 principle, 11 points interest, + .5 additional principle payment, principle down to 379.3, Year 4/30)
-14 Frigates: 4.75 points (9.5/18.9 points, Year 2/4)
-Mobilize 3 Cavalry Brigades: 12
-Mobilize 1 Infantry Divisions: 4
Total: 46.95

Total Spent: 83.25

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French West Indies, 1789

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 20.5 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 4.5, Port-au-Prince 4.5, Les Cayes 4.5, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 33

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-5 Fortresses: .1.15
-8 Garrison Brigades: .75
Total: 2.3

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 30.8
Total: 30.8

Total Spent: 33

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French East India Company, 1789

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-3 Fortress: .7
-11 Garrison Brigades: 1
Total: 2.1

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 8.4
Total: 8.4

Total Spent: 10.5

[TLS]

The Pause

Winter 1788-1789

After the stunning defeat of his plan before the Assembly of Notables, Calonne is replaced as First Minister by Archbishop Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne--one of the leading figures of the opposition in that body. While Brienne had lead the opposition to Calonne, however, once in office he broadly agreed with the principles set out: new land taxes, free internal trade and a sovereign bank to handle the loan. Where Brienne differed with Calonne was in viewing the Assembly as an untenable halfway position between royal authority and the traditional prerogatives of the Estates--either the King had to use his royal authority to rule, or he had to concede to the Estates. Brienne had no intention of calling the Estates.

As the Winter of 1788 began, and the trickle of lower French nobility to the incipient Austrian rebellion increased, Brienne settled on a course of action: the Estates would not be called, and the King would, instead, use his royal prerogative (the lit de justice) to enforce internal free trade. While greatly in favor some of the even more liberal proposals, such as the conversion of the corvee into a money tax, Brienne is unwilling to test the reaction of the parlements further until his free trade trial balloon goes up. The King does, however, formalize the current de facto situation of replacing the corvee with a money tax for all royal tenants, hoping that more inclined nobles will follow suit.

Brienne adamantly argues in Versailles that the royal treasury is not yet sufficiently strained to necessitate the calling of the Estates-General: France can currently afford to make good on her debts, at least through the middle of the next decade, and her military expansion has proceeded at an acceptable rate. The crisis in the neighboring Netherlands also highlights that the current European environment is, to say the least, combustible. French subjects are currently taking up arms in another revolution, much to Brienne's chagrin, and the Assembly of Notables already showed that a not-insignificant number of nobles are at least somewhat in favor of Lafayette. Whether it is born out of anti-Austrian sentiment, appreciation for his bravado, or more political goals is uncertain. Regardless, the time is not right to call an Estates-General, and the King makes this well known in Versailles: while the Estates-General remains a theoretical construct, the King has no intention of summoning it in the year 1789.

Part of the King's strategy is based on hoping that the situation in neighboring Austria will simmer down before any major tax overhaul is required, avoiding the risks. However, the Austrian situation complicates his calculus. In order to stem the tide of French volunteers, the Army of Flanders is put into partial mobilization; however, the budget can only afford to mobilize 3 Cavalry Brigades and 1 Infantry Division. Adam Philippe, Comte de Custin, is put in charge of this border force and given strict orders to interdict any Frenchmen moving north. Those of noble birth are to be put into custody and letters sent to their family--as French law allows for family patriarchs to imprison their wayward sons, it is hoped that older nobles will take advantage and solve this problem on the Crown's behalf. Furthermore, orders are sent to interdict any weapons heading north, and notice is reiterated that any French officer or soldier who serves in the rebellion will be considered a deserter. Though the Comte de Custin is not given any orders to treat those he arrests with the full force of the law (he is expressly forbidden from hanging those he captures), this strategy is aimed at depriving the erstwhile-rebels of their French salaries, income and supplies while working against the interests of the Crown.

[Ottoman]

Winter of Discontent and Rage of Spring 1789

The French Nobility was greatly outrage by the actions of the King by calling Assembly of Notables and not listening or allowing them to partake in process of making policy changes. Whereas the Middle classes of the Third Estate were becoming more outspoken about their resentment of not being able to partake in the political system and Kings refusal to summon the Estates-General has angry many.  A majority of both nobles and middle class were greatly angered by the King's method of change which was from top down without consultation.

Meanwhile abbé Sieyès published a  political pamphlet in January 1789 on his ideas of why the Estates General needs to be summon and the Third Estate is most important estate. The pamphlet becomes wildly popular along the middle classes and liberal wings of the nobility.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_the_Third_Estate%3F


To add to growing unrest along the upper and middle classes, was the fact the winter of 1789 was very brutal and cold. Which causes springtime floods that ruin the grain corps for many regions within France. Causing the price of bread to spike to 90 percent of the daily income of French worker by Spring of 1789.

The remaining tax base for 1789 collapses with many farmers being unable to provide any meaning income. Meanwhile grain riots break out all over France has hungry peasants attack shops, they think were hoarding grains and raising prices.  Forcing local forces to quell the riots by shooting at the peasants to break up the riots.

The riots even spread to France, and cause significant to the local craft centers as labors were rioting over misunderstandings of wages and bread prices.  The local French military garrisons were called into to restore law and order with some level of success, but morale was falling quickly as many of the soldiers sided with the their kinsmen and share a disdain for their noble commanding officers. But in the countryside the situation was falling part of bands of peasants roaming looking for food and shelter.


Meanwhile the French army of Flanders to prevent supplies and volunteers from marching into Flanders. However the effectiveness of the French troops was piecemeal at best,since partols refuse to carry out any orders to stop their kinsmen in fact. Whole companies of troops cross into the frontier to join the revolt.  But the overall effort was successful in terms of slowing down the flow of men and supplies to Flanders, but is not able to stop the flow of supplies completely.  More alarming to the French Commanders was the fact the morale of the army was falling rapidly and the ability to maintain combat readiness was questionable at best.


In game effect 1790 so far

No income tax revenue
All resources in France take 25% income lost*
Craft Centers in France take 25% income lost*
PC takes 15% income lost*
*Due to disputations to the Labor markets and riot damage

[TLS]

The King's Hesitation

June, 1789

King Louis XVI is many things: an autodidact, a keen intellect, a caring father, and a dutiful monarch, but he is not, it increasingly appears, resolute. His series of half-measures and halting reform have succeeded, so far, in upsetting wide swathes of his kingdom: conservative nobles find them too much, liberals find them too little, the bourgeoisie ignore their economic benefits for the lack of political representation while the peasants and urban workers chafe at the rising costs of food. While the King himself still retains the love and adoration of his people (or so he is told), he is quickly forced by circumstance to bend to the drastically rising costs imposed by the unrest. Archbishop de Brienne is dismissed as the King's First Minister and, in light of the financial and political demands, the King brings back the most popular man he can think of to tackle the twin crises of economic and political legitimacy: Jacques Necker.

Necker comes into office amid widespread popular outcry, and quickly works to leverage his existing popularity with the bourgeoisie and the bankers. His primary focus is on restoring stability, and he is concerned about the prospect of calling the Estates-General amidst widespread economic and political chaos. The bread riots of 1789 have left much of the country's economy on edge, while the conflict in the neighboring Austrian Netherlands is exacerbating radical sentiment. Necker fundamentally believes that France requires an overhaul of its economic structure, not least of all to authorize a national bank to address the issue of its long-term loans, but the crushing second tranche will not come due until mid-next decade--an eternity, in political terms.

The government thus settles on a course of action that seeks to address demands as much as possible. The Crown announces that it will take immediate steps to provide bread to those in need, re-allocating part of the budget from naval construction (2 points from the frigates) to providing a bread dole in the short term, and that the budget of 1790 would include even more funding to stabilize the price of food staples. Additionally, the government announced its intention to summon an additional Assembly of Notables in the Spring of 1790, which would be explicitly tasked with consulting with the King on the two most significant issues Necker faces: the creation of a national bank and calling the Estates-General. This assembly would consists of hand-picked representatives "known for their zeal for France," and assurances are given that the body would include representatives of all three estates.

[Ottoman]

Summer of 1789

The Kings actions and Necker appointment help calm some tensions along the middle and nobility classes who want to see what Assembly of Notables will bring and eventually summons of the estates generals.

The Summer Panic of 1789

Meanwhile along the peasants the food aid is welcome in Urban areas, but too late for those in countryside…in the Rural area fueled by rumors of an aristocrats' "famine plot" by withholding food aid promise to starve or burn out the population, both peasants and townspeople mobilized in many region. In response to these rumors, fearful peasants armed themselves in self-defense and, in some areas, attacked manor houses. To add to unrest, was consumption of ergot, a hallucinogenic fungus. In years of good harvests, rye contaminated with ergot was discarded, but when the harvest was poor, the peasants could not afford to be so choosy.

The panic began in the Franche-Comté, spread south along the Rhône valley to Provence, east towards the Alps and west towards the center of France. Almost simultaneously, a panic began in Ruffec, south of Poitiers, and travelled to the Pyrenees, toward Berry and into the Auvergne. The uprising coalesced into a general 'Great Fear' as neighboring villages mistook armed peasants for brigands.

During the attacks by the peasants on the estates of the feudal nobility and convent estates, their main objective was reported to have been finding and destroying the documents of the feudal privileges, granting the feudal lords their feudal privileges over the peasantry, and burn them. In some cases, the manor houses were burned along with the documents. Hundreds of manor houses are reported to have been burned this way, but they belonged to the minority, and there was no indiscriminate pillaging. In most cases, the peasants simply left when the letters of feudal privileges had been destroyed. The members of the feudal aristocracy were forced to leave or fled on their own initiative; some aristocrats were captured and among them, there were reports of mistreatment such as beatings and humiliation, but there are only three confirmed cases of a landlord actually have been killed during the uprising. Only a few areas of France (primarily Alsace, Lorraine and Brittany) untouched.

Enraged French Nobles call on the King to send the army to suppress the unrest and restore order to the countryside.

Late September 1789

Meanwhile in the Saint-Domingue..


A French patrol encounter a group of Maroons who were partaking in Voodoo ritual near a major plantation, the newly arrived French officer from Paris mistakes their actions as threat to the French Colonial Plantations owners. He orders his men to open fire on the Maroons and kills 10 of them with gun fire. The remaining Maroons flee in panic. The French officer doesn’t even bother to report the incident to his superiors, he merely remarks to his colonel, that dealt with some bandits near the plantation…

News of the incident spreads all over the Island slave communities and Maroon settlements….

[Ottoman]

Fall of 1789

The situation in the major urban centers is relatively stable, things are still touch and go with peasants still flooding the cities for food and work.

Meanwhile in countryside, the situation is chaotic with peasant mobs attacking manors and other noble holdings.

[TLS]

b]French Builds, 1790[/b]

France 1790

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 4.25 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 6 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 8.25 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 30.7
Income From East Indies: 8.75
Total Income: 69.45

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-36 BB2s: 8.1
-31 FF1s: 5.6
-21 Brigs: 1.9
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-53 Garrison Divisions: 11.9
-44 Garrison Brigades: 4
-3 Cavalry Brigades: .7
-1 Infantry Division: .9
Total: 37.85

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 25.7 points (14.7 principle, 11 points interest, additional principle payment, principle down to 364.4, Year 5/30)
-14 Frigates: 4.7 points (12.2/18.9 points, Year 3/4)
-Bread Dole: 1.2 points
Total: 31.6

Total Spent: 69.45

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French West Indies, 1790

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 5 (Cap-Francais, Port-au-Prince, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 20.5 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 4.5, Port-au-Prince 4.5, Les Cayes 4.5, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 33

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-5 Fortresses: .1.15
-8 Garrison Brigades: .75
Total: 2.3

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 30.7
Total: 30.7

Total Spent: 33

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French East India Company, 1790

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-1 Fortress: .25
-13 Garrison Brigades: 1.2
Total: 1.75

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 8.75
Total: 8.75

Total Spent: 10.5

[TLS]

The Pre-Estates

Winter and Spring, 1790

With the rising tumult in the cities and chaos in the countryside, Necker's planned Second Assembly of Notables is as dead on arrival as the first. When the assembled personages, all hand-picked for their reputations for fealty to the Crown, begin to demur and hem and haw over their jurisdiction to approve any new fiscal or financial matters, Versailles begins to awaken to the fact that, indeed, the Estates-General must be called. The Crown's hand has not been helped by the economic costs of continued chaos. The Government had anticipated revenues to broadly remain in line for 1790, but the unexpected shortfalls meant that the plan to buy off the crowds with more bread doles was off the table. Military reforms had also led government penny-pinchers to misjudge the costs of mobilizing even the meager forces on the frontier, reinforcing the breakdown in law and order. While garrison brigades across the country were ordered to maintain law and order, they simply lacked the requisite funding and supply to do so effectively.

As such, the Assembly of Notables turns most of its focus on the particulars of calling the Estates-General. Of particular concern is the notion that, as the Estates have not been called in nearly 200 years, no one has any practical knowledge on their constitution, selection and powers. Indeed, the Estates-General remains a purely consultative body--the King retains all rights and privileges to do as He wishes--but the issue of voting within the Estates soon becomes heated. Advocates on behalf of the Third Estate, both liberal nobles and empowered lawyers, argue in favor of giving the Third Estate a majority of the seats, as it provides the majority of the income. Meanwhile, the Nobles and Bishops argued vociferously in favor of each of the three estates having the same share of seats, in representation of their equal weight below the King. Ultimately, a compromise is reached, allowing for "doubling the third." A total of 1,200 delegates will be sent to the Estates-General; 300 from each of the First and Second Estates, and 600 from the Third. Each Estate, however, will vote en bloc.

Thus, by April 15, the Assembly of Notables presents its recommendations to Necker. While they vaguely endorse the government's plan to enact certain financial reform, they make their endorsement contingent on ratification by the Estates-General. They also pass along their compromise solution on the composition of the Estates-General to the King. King Louis makes a show of receiving their submissions gracefully, and swears to studiously take their advice into consideration as He prepares for the coming year. While the Sovereign's remarks are, characteristically, non-committal, Necker assures all that ask that the King is preparing to release the necessary edicts to pave the way for the Estates General by early Fall.

[Ottoman]

Spring 1790

The cost of bread somewhat has stabilized to 80% of the daily income of the French worker, which is still causing unrest in the urban areas. The importation of cheaper grains from British North America has help the supply situation for the urban centers, but in the rural regions. Many are still heading to the urban centers for work and adding more pressure to cities to support them with jobs, food and housing. Which is not always available and was quickly becoming issue for local governments.

[Ottoman]

Spring 1790

The cost of bread somewhat has stabilized to 80% of the daily income of the French worker, which is still causing unrest in the urban areas. The importation of cheaper grains from British North America has help the supply situation for the urban centers, but in the rural regions. Many are still heading to the urban centers for work and adding more pressure to cities to support them with jobs, food and housing. Which is not always available and was quickly becoming issue for local governments.

Summer/Fall 1790

In Paris

As hungry peasants who recently arrived from the countryside are driving up the local demand for food faster then the local economy as support. There is a localized spike in bread prices in the poor sections of the city. Many peasants and poor workers are led to believe a local baker Denis François was hiding bread to help spike the prices to have a higher profit margin. The locals accuses him as being part of a plot to deprive the people of bread. Despite a hearing which proved him innocent, the crowd dragged François to the Place de Grève, hanged and decapitated him and made his wife kiss his bloodied lips.

The local garrison was force to step and restore order before the angry mob attempt to burn other bakers. They force them to open fire on the rioters. Killing 25 peasants in the process. Order is restored, to much resentment of the lower classes and increasing disillusionment of the local rank and file garrisons troops.

[TLS]

The Empty Coffers

As France prepares for the coming Estates-General, Controller-General and First Minister Jacques Necker presides over what is probably his worst fear: a rapidly dwindling budget. While he had believed France was safely on the path to financial stability, the twin crises of extended crop failures in France and the slave revolt in Saint-Domingue ushered in a state of complete financial meltdown. As nobles clamored for the army to be mobilized to restore order and merchants agitated for an expeditionary force to cleanse Saint-Domingue of rebellion, Necker found that France couldn't even afford to make its targeted loan payment for the year. While frugality and foresight in the past half-decade had helped, and ensured that even after falling short in 1791 the Crown was still on track to meet its obligation, this crushing realization left Necker acutely aware of what was riding on the coming Estates-General.

French Builds, 1791

France 1791

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 7 (Marseilles, Bordeaux, Brest, Le Havre, Toulon, La Rochelle, Calais)
Production Center: 4.25 (Lille)
Craft Centers: 6 (Paris, Metz, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg)
Resources: 8.25 (Paris, Bordeaux, Reims, Marseilles, Toulouse, Nancy, Lyon, Strasbourg, Nantes, Vichy, Corsica)
Commercial Fleets: 10.5 (21 fleets)
Income From West Indies: 15.4
Income From East Indies: 8.75
Total Income: 60.15

Maintenance:
-3 Naval Yards: 1.35
-3 BB1s: 1.35
-36 BB2s: 8.1
-31 FF1s: 5.6
-21 Brigs: 1.9
-9 Fortresses: 2.05
-53 Garrison Divisions: 11.9
-44 Garrison Brigades: 4
-3 Cavalry Brigades: .7
-1 Infantry Division: .9
Total: 37.85

Expenditures:
-Repay 7 Years’ War Debt (A Tranche, 440 points over 30 years at 2.5% interest): 22.3 points (11.3 principle, 11 points interest, principle down to 353.1, Year 6/30)
-14 Frigates: 0 (12.2/18.9 points, Year 4/4) [on hold]
Total: 31.6

Total Spent: 69.45

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French West Indies, 1791

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 3 (Cap-Francais 0, Port-au-Prince 0, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Nouvelle-Orleans)
Resources: 7 (Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Martinique 2, Guadeloupe 2, Cap-Francais 0, Port-au-Prince 0, French Guiana 1)
Commercial Fleets: 7.5 (15 fleets)
Total Income: 17.5

Maintenance:
-3 Forts: .3
-5 Fortresses: 1.15
-6 Garrison Brigades: .55
-1 Light Infantry Regiment: .1
Total: 2.1

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 15.4
Total: 15.4

Total Spent: 17.5

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French East India Company, 1791

Income
Taxes: 0
Ports: 2 (Pondicherry, Saint Louis [Mauritius])
Resources: 5 (Trade with Indian Clients 4, Reunion)
Trading Post: .5 (Saint-Louis [Senegal], Dakar)
Commercial Fleet: 3 (6)
Total Income: 10.5

Maintenance:
-4 Forts: .4
-1 Fortress: .25
-13 Garrison Brigades: 1.2
Total: 1.75

Expenditures:
-Transfer to France: 8.75
Total: 8.75

Total Spent: 10.5

[TLS]

French Supplemental Budget, Summer 1791

Income:
Loans: 25 points (domestic, 5 year, 15% loan)

Expenditures:
-Upgrade 4 Garrison Brigades (Nouvelle-Orleans, Baton Rouge, Port-au-Prince, Cap-Francais) to Infantry Brigades (7.2 points)
-Upgrade 2 Garrison Brigades to Cavalry Brigades (Nouvelle-Orleans, Cap-Francais) (1.8 points)
-Upgrade 5 Garrison Divisions to Infantry Divisions (3 Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon) (13.5 points)
-Evacuate Saint-Domingue (1.6 points)

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