French revolution- financial crisis
In the beginning, and most of the 18th century the French economy moved forward. The population had increased from 18 million people to 25 million in 74 years (1715-1789), the farming and the harvests were very good and the textile and mining industry went forward as well. But in the year of 1770 the economy collapsed, bad harvests led to starvation and they could not import anything to the country because of the expensive duty (tullavgift). But the major reason for the collapse of the French economy was enormous amount of money that France borrowed to afford to finance war. When Louis XVI took over the throne 1774 he realized that he needed to change the economy to the better. He suggested that the nobility would charge to taxes to even out the class differences but this was not successful. So we can say that the financial crisis was a big cause to the French revolution.
So why do we handle financial crisis better today than they did back then? I think one explanation is that we simply have learnt from our mistakes, the reason why Sweden handled the crisis in 2008-2009 so good was because we learnt from our crisis in 20th century. But the biggest explanation (I think) is the global society. We help each other out in a fantastic way, through e.g. the UN. Most of the countries these days have a financial back-up if something were to go wrong. One more explanation is that we are friendlier towards each other than they were back then.
As a final statement, another very good difference today is that a leader today does not have to fear that he or she will be executed if he or she fails.
//Hedvig
A very nice entry Hedvig!
I agree with you that France’s financial problems were a major cause for the revolution. It is really good that we have learnt from our mistakes and nowadays try to stay together and that we actually try to help each other.
Once again, well written!
