10.4 Louis XV: 18th Century France

The period of French history between the death of Louis XIV in 1715 and 1789 is often identified as the Ancien Régime, the “Old Regime.” It was that period of royal absolutism and privileged estates prior to the Revolution. It was during the Old Regime that we saw the flourishing of the French Enlightenment in the Parisian salons through the writings of Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot, and Rousseau. The prevailing style of art was the Rococo, reflecting rather frivolous themes reflective of the tastes of the French aristocracy. The name synonymous with the Old Regime was that of the king, Louis XV.

The Reign of Louis XV, 1715 – 1774

In 1725, having earlier rejected a proposed marriage to the daughter of Philip V of Spain, Louis was married to Princess Maria Leszczynski, daughter of the deposed King of Poland. He was 15, she was 23. They would have ten children in ten years, only one of whom would survive into adulthood. While at first their relationship was close and loving, Maria would lose her attractiveness and Louis turned to other women for companionship and pleasure. We have already seen the remarkable woman who served as his mistress, Madame de Pompadour

Louis’ reign began with a spectacular financial debacle known as the “Mississippi Bubble.” Between 1718 and 1720 France was excited by an investment scheme proposed by John Law, a Scottish financier. Orleans, the Prince Regent, commissioned Law to organize a central bank for France (similar to Britain’s Bank of England). To this end Law formed a joint stock company known as the Mississippi Company which was granted a monopoly of all trade with the French colony in Louisiana. (It is on this background that New Orleans was founded in 1718.) Under Law’s management the Mississippi Company absorbed the other French trading companies giving it a complete monopoly of all of France’s colonial commerce. On Law’s proposal, the Prince Regent authorized the Mississippi Company to assume the entire royal government debt. The Company then exchanged the loan certificates (bonds) held by individual creditors for shares of stock. The idea was that as the company made profits through its control of colonial trade, it would pay dividends (share the profits of the company) to the stockholders and thus pay off the royal debt. The scheme was accompanied by a plan to reform the entire French taxation system that would make taxation fairer and more profitable. The result was a frenzied wave of public speculation as investors bought up the company stock, inflating its value higher and higher to unrealistic levels.

Convinced that the Mississippi Company was a golden egg-laying goose, many people overextended their resources by committing savings and mortgaging properties to get additional money to buy shares. [1] When it was realized that the Mississippi Company’s actual earnings came nowhere near expectations, investors began to unload (sell) their stock. The market collapsed and the “Mississippi Bubble” burst. Fortunes, life savings, and estates were lost as the dreamed-of profits vanished when no buyers could be found for the rapidly deflating stocks.

There were some positive results. Those who sold their stocks before the crash made great fortunes. Under the Mississippi Company a French colony took root in Louisiana (New Orleans was founded in 1718) and French shipping increased. On the negative side, the royal debt remained unpaid, and the tax reform plans never went into operation. Above all, a painful lesson had been learned in investment. Paper securities (stocks) became suspect, and the growth of commercial capitalism and credit institutions was retarded. John Law fled to Brussels.

Between 1726 and 1743, the King’s Chief Minister was the aged Cardinal Andre Hercule de Fleury. Under Fleury’s direction, France continued its role as the major force underlying Europe’s international affairs. In 1733 France participated (with Spain and Sardinia) in the War of the Polish Succession supporting the claim of Stanislas Leszczynski (the Queen’s father) against that of Augustus of Saxony (supported by Austria and Russia). In the 1738 Treaty of Vienna, Augustus became king of Poland, Austria gave up Naples and Sicily (which became the independent Kingdom of Naples), and Leszczynski became the Duke of Lorraine, a large autonomous ducal territory tucked between France and the Austrian Netherlands. Between 1740 and 1748 France participated in the War of the Austrian Succession.[2]

Following the death of Fleury, the direction of royal government fell to a succession of chief ministers, the first of which were heavily dependent upon the king’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, who exercised a guiding hand over policy as well as arts and letters. A great champion of the Enlightenment, Pompadour was influential in court life from 1745 to her death in 1764.

In 1754 a colonial dispute over control of the Ohio River valley in North America led to war with Britain. (In American history, this war is known as the “French and Indian War”). The Anglo-French colonial war would become part of the greater European war that began in 1756. It was on this background that Maria Theresa of Austria sought a diplomatic rapprochement with France. The two countries entered into the negotiations that would result in the Diplomatic Revolution of 1755 - 1756.

The Diplomatic Revolution saw Austria and France enter into a formal alliance that not only ended two centuries of hostility but also restructured the European balance of power. With France now allied with Austria, Britain and Prussia were compelled to join. The agreement was solemnized by the betrothal of the Habsburg princess, Marie Antoinette, to Prince Louis.[3] They would be married in 1770.The Seven Years War, however, did not go well for France. While successful on the Continent, French military forces were defeated in both North America and India. Through the Treaty of Paris (1763) France was required to cede all of Canada and the Ohio Territory to Britain and all of Louisiana to Spain. France’s possessions in India were ceded to Britain. The cost of this war and the wars earlier in the century had severely strained France’s financial resources. As was the case for Louis XIV, royal revenues were not sufficient and the crown had to borrow heavily to meet government expenses. That debt, compounded by another war, would, in 1789, throw France into revolution.

Despite the loss of significant colonial territory, France did expand in Europe. With the death of Stanislas Leszczynski in 1766, the Duchy of Lorraine reverted back to French sovereignty. And, in 1768, France purchased the island of Corsica from Genoa.

In 1771 Louis angrily abolished the parlements, claiming that the courts sought to limit royal absolutism by claiming the right to rule on the legality of royal decrees. This policy proved highly unpopular and the parlements were later restored by Louis XVI. This, and revelation of the crown’s involvement in a scheme to monopolize the French grain trade, contributed to popular disillusionment with Louis.

Louis, no longer “well-loved” by his subjects, died in May 1774. The crown passed to his 20-year-old grandson. On being informed of his grandfather’s death, the new king, Louis XVI exclaimed, “Oh God, protect us. We are too young to rule! …. It seems that the universe will fall on me” (Durant and Durant 848)! The Deluge was coming.

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Portrait of Louis XV is from Wikipedia.

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Sources for Louis XV

Castries, Duc de. The Lives of the Kings and Queens of France. New York: Knopf, 1974.

Durant, Will and Ariel. The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965.

---. Rousseau and Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967.

Goubert, Pierre. The Course of French History. New York: Watts, 1988.

Knapton, Ernest. Europe 1450 – 1815. New York: Scribners, 1958.

Palmer, Robert R. et al. A History of Modern Europe. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2002.

[1] The value of stocks as commodities is determined by the laws of supply and demand. There is only a limited amount of shares, so if there is a high demand for those shares, the value of the shares increases. This has nothing to do with the actual value of the share in relation to the company’s earnings.

[2] The War of the Austrian Succession, Diplomatic Revolution, and Seven Years War are all covered in the reading, “The Great Powers of Central and Eastern Europe – an 18^th Century Overview.”

[3] Then a child, Prince Louis was the grandson of Louis XV. He would become the direct heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1765.