In this light does the state of the French affairs appear, from the sketch I have been able to give of it.
Had the sum of 86 millions, remaining as unappropriated at the peace, been any way sufficient for paying off claims which have not appeared upon the state we have given, and for all extraordinary expences, the credit of France would not have been so low as it then was, and still continues to be.
The expence of a kingdom must constantly exceed the amount of all regular and permanent income.
At the end of a war what great sums of debts unprovided for are constantly found! Taxes also, when stretched as they were, and imposed in so great a proportion upon possessions, in respect of what was raised upon consumption, must always diminish in their produce; but the expence and charges never fall short. This is more especially the case in a country where paper credit is not established.
The constant complaints for want of money to carry on circulation in the time of war, is a proof of it. When peace returns, and money is kept at home, then all taxes are readily paid in France, and half the burden of them is not felt, although they be more productive than before.
As I said in setting out, I do not pretend that the account I have given of this dark affair, is in any degree so correct as to satisfy a French minister; but it is a rough sketch, which contains the general state of their affairs; and if it be worth any man’s while, who is better informed, he may correct it, and thereby bring on a farther inquiry into the true state of the question.
What interest a nation, which is not in an actual state of bankruptcy, can have in concealing its affairs, I cannot find out. How much more then is it not the interest of a mighty kingdom, which possesses such amazing resources, to expose its situation in a fair light to the world, to which it must, upon all occasions, have recourse for assistance in point of credit?
Of the many branches which compose this great national revenue of above 550 millions, there are several articles which must of necessity be cut off, so soon as the debts are brought into a regular form. The double poll-tax is most oppressive on the poorer sort, and therefore was imposed only for a time: the three twentieths, as they are levied, are no less so upon the higher classes of the people.
These four articles amount, however, to 116 millions. If we deduct this from the revenue, as we have stated the account of it, it will not only exhaust the balance of 86 millions, but it will create a deficiency, upon the whole, of 30 millions, which can only be compensated by discharging a corresponding part of the burden of debts, while those branches do subsist.
But then the same resources are open upon every new emergency; and as they have now begun to be collected, they will be more easily paid at another time.