Although France existed for a long time, we believe that it,
being an Empire, started from the reign of Louis XIII. Since he
was still too young to rule, Cardinal Richelieu was appointed as
the first minister to the crown in 1628, thus marking the
beginning of the French economic revolution. Since France was
involved in many wars, Richelieu realized that more revenues
were needed through taxation. However, seventeenth-century
France remained “a collection of local economies and local
societies dominated by local elites”. Figure 1. Cardinal
Richelieu was the chief adviser to the young French King. The
government’s tax power was limited by the rights of assemblies
in some provinces to vote their own taxes. Richelieu, however,
solved these problems by securing cooperation of local elites.
But because the French monarchy could not tax at will, it never
actually completely controlled the financial system. When Louis
XIV came to power, the French economy was badly disrupted and
would take years to rebuild. Louis XI