French And Indian War Cost

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) brought smashing fiscal burdens on Neat Britain, Kingdom of Prussia, Austria, France, and Sweden. The costs of fighting a protracted war on several continents meant Britain's national debt about doubled from 1756 to 1763, and this fiscal force per unit area which United kingdom tried to alleviate through new taxation in the Thirteen Colonies helped cause the American Revolution.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

Belligerents [edit]

Great U.k. [edit]

British ships during the Seven Years' War. The British regime spent around £45 million on the Royal Navy during the conflict.^[4]

On the eve of the disharmonize, British statesmen feared war would increment Britain's national debt to unsafe levels, which by 1756 was £74.6 million.^[five] Philip Stanhope wrote a letter of the alphabet to a friend in 1756 alarm that "our greatest danger arises from our expense, considering the nowadays immense National Debt."^[6] Britain's national debt was already quite large by the start of the war: nigh the beginning of the 18th century it had around fourscore% of Gross National Product.^[vii] Given that Britain had already spent substantial amounts of coin on warfare throughout the late 17th and early 18th century, the Seven Years' State of war would exacerbate U.k.'due south indebtedness (military spending as a percentage of central government spending averaged 74.half dozen% between 1685 and 1813).^[eight]

Corking Great britain spent more than £45 one thousand thousand on the navy during the war - effectually a quarter of its entire war expenditure.^[four]

By the cease of the war, Britain'southward national debt stood at £132.6 million.^[nine] Interests payments on the debt exceeded half of the British Government'southward budget.^[10] By Dec 1762, British naval debt had increased to £5,929,125 from £3,072,472 in 1749.^[11]

Thirteen Colonies [edit]

Commercial activity boomed in the Thirteen Colonies during the early years of the conflict. American merchants sold state of war supplies to British troops, and bought large stocks of materiel through inexpensive credit provided past British financiers.^[12] Imports into the American Colonies increased essentially. In 1757 there were £168,246 worth of imports; in 1758, £260,953; in 1759, £498,161; and in 1760, £707,998.^[12]

Once the British war effort started to focus more on the Caribbean and less on Canada in the 1760s, however, the American colonies' economies started to decline. American merchants had become over-supplied with consumer appurtenances which they had bought with credit from British financiers. When the state of war attempt in Canada eased up, the merchants institute they could no longer sell the surplus goods so easily. American merchants establish it difficult to repay the loans when the market for state of war materiel dried up. Additionally, merchants' operating costs rose when shipping insurance firms increased premiums afterwards Spain entered the war.^[xiii]

In 1766, Benjamin Franklin said in an accost to Parliament that American colonists had spent millions of pounds contributing to the war effort.^[fourteen]

France [edit]

French republic gave financial support to its allies. It gave a full of 11 meg silver riksdalers (sd.) in subsidies to Sweden during the war.^[15]

France lost thousands of livres worth of shipping during the war. Royal Navy ships and British privateers took 1,165 French merchant ships as prizes.^[16] Great Great britain did non make whatever substantial fiscal gains taking French ships during the war, all the same. According to Larry Neal, the taking of prizes "contributed a derisory share to the state's foreign trade" which peaked at 10% of Great britain's international trade in 1757.^[16] French republic'due south aircraft loses acquired a abrupt rising in maritime insurance costs. Before the war maritime insurance for merchant ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean costed roughly 3% of the alleged value. During the commencement twelvemonth of the war insurance rates costed 10 times that and went upwardly to lx% by the stop of the state of war.^[17] The conflict prevented France from importing equally much raw materials from its colonies every bit it had prior to 1756, which resulted in increased unemployment equally French industry halted due to a lack of raw materials.^[18]

British forces captured French enclaves in Senegal and Republic of the gambia in 1758 which dealt ii blows to the French economy: France lost its gum senega reserves necessary for its silk manufacture, and it lost a key trading station used for exporting slaves to the Caribbean, which gradually weakened France'south carbohydrate product in Guadeloupe and Martinique.^[19]

Bang-up U.k. annexed nearly all of French Canada during the war, only allowed France to keep its Caribbean colonies.^[xx] The Duc de Choiseul, who was involved in the mail service-war negotiations which stripped France of its Canadian colonies, believed that the profits from the sugar trade in France's Caribbean colonies would make upward for the loss of Canada, especially given that the fur trade had already collapsed before.^[21] Guadeloupe, for instance, produced more sugar than all of Britain'south Caribbean possessions.^[22] See: A few acres of snow.

Nevertheless, the state of war did disrupt France's trade income.^[23] The lucrative sugar and molasses trade between French republic's Caribbean colonies and United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland'due south N American colonies fell apart when the war broke out, leading many merchants to turn to smuggling.^[24] French colonial trade declined by 81% following the Seven Years' War, according to i gauge.^[25] Some other gauge puts France'southward colonial trade losses at 90%.^[26]

The following table shows French republic's average yearly value of overseas trade (in millions of livres) indicating a significant turn down in merchandise during the Vii Years' War, specially from its American colonies.^[27]

A French livre note from the mid-18th century.

Year	America and W. Africa	Republic of india	Europe	Ottoman, Levant, N. Africa	Total Overseas Trade
1740–48	62.one	22.v	288.8	34.4	407.8
1749–55	100.4	37.five	389.8	54.8	582.5
1756–63	27.vii (-72.4%)	nine.7 (-74%)	325.5 (-16.5%)	37.3 (-31.9%)	437.6 (-24.ix%)
1764-76	147.1	xxx.two	448.1	59.2	684.6

Spain [edit]

Republic of chile [edit]

Kingdom of spain's international wars in the second one-half of the 18th century evidenced the empire's difficulties in reinforcing its colonial possessions and provide them with economic help. This led to an increased local participation in the financing of the defense and an increased participation in the militias by the Chilean-born.^[28] Such development was at odds with the ethics of the centralized absolute monarchy. The Castilian did besides formal concessions to strengthen the defense: In Chiloé Spanish government promised liberty from the encomienda those ethnic locals who settled near the new stronghold of Ancud (founded in 1768) and contributed to its defence. The increased local organization of the defenses would ultimately undermine metropolitan say-so and bolster the independence movement.^[28]

Sweden [edit]

Prior to the war Sweden'south government ran yearly deficits financed by the National Banking company of Sweden, and so it had inadequate cash reserves upon the outbreak of hostilities.^[29] Sweden continued to have loans from the National Bank during the war and these accounted for 44% of its income.^[30] The Swedish East India Company lent 2 million sd. to the government in 1762 and 1763.^[31]

Inflation increased during the war. In 1755 there were 13.8 million sd. in circulation and 44 million sd. in circulation by 1763, affecting prices for all appurtenances.^[32] A barrel of herring in Uppsala, for instance, costed 12 sd. in 1756 and 27 sd. past 1763.^[32]

Sweden likewise relied on state of war subsidies from its ally France. French republic paid subsidies to Sweden eight times between 1757 and 1761. The largest unmarried subsidy was that of 1759 when France paid 3,797,699 sd. In total, French republic paid over 11 million sd. during these years.^[15]

Sweden's authorities established a nation-broad public lottery to raise funds in 1758 and 1759 which raised 5,800,000 sd. The winnings from the lottery were paid as government bonds rather than cash.^[fifteen]

References [edit]

^ Country 2010, p. 17.
^ "French and Indian War". Encyclopaedia Britannica. 26 October 2018. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
^ Niall Ferguson (2012). Civilization: The Half dozen Killer Apps of Western Power(London: Penguin), p. 115.
^ ^a ^b Baugh 1988, pp. 159–sixty.
^ Land 2010, p. 35.
^ Land 2010, p. sixteen.
^ Country 2010, p. 33.
^ Land 2010, p. 28.
^ Country 2010, p. 36.
^ "Against the National Debt: The Aftermath of the French and Indian War". The states History I (Os Drove). OER Services. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
^ State 2010, p. 49.
^ ^a ^b Berg 1946, p. 186.
^ Anderson 2000, pp. 588–89.
^ Walter Isaacson (2004). Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (Simon & Schuster), pp. 229-30.
^ ^a ^b ^c Winton 2012, p. 24.
^ ^a ^b Neal 1977, p. 28.
^ Boulle 1974, p. 53.
^ Boulle 1974, p. 54.
^ Borneman 2006, p. 177.
^ Colin One thousand. Calloway (2006). The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (Oxford: Oxford University Printing), p. 8
^ Sophus A. Reinert and Pernille Roge (2013), The Political Economic system of Empire in the Early Modern World (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 206
^ Borneman 2006, pp. 170–71.
^ James C. Riley (1986), The Seven Years War and the Quondam Regime in French republic: The Economic and Financial Toll (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 104
^ Borneman 2006, pp. 171–72.
^ Thomas M. Doerflinger (1976), "The Antilles Trade of the Old Regime: A Statistical Overview", Journal of Interdisciplinary History six (three), p. 401
^ Robert Louis Stein (1979), The French Slave Merchandise in the Eighteenth Century: An Old Regime Business. Madison, Wisc, p. 109
^ Boulle 1974, p. 50.
^ ^a ^b Ossa Santa Cruz, Juan Luis (2010). "La criollización de un ejército periférico, Chile, 1768-1810". Historia. 42 (2): 413–448. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
^ Winton 2012, p. 21.
^ Winton 2012, p. 22.
^ Winton 2012, p. 25.
^ ^a ^b Winton 2012, p. 23.

Bibliography [edit]

Anderson, Fred (2000). Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British Northward America, 1754-1766 . New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Baugh, Daniel (1988). "Why did Britain Lose Command of the Sea?". In Blackness, Jeremy; Woodfine, Philip (eds.). The British Navy and the Use of Naval Power in the Eighteenth Century. Leicester: Leicester University Press. pp. 149–69.

Berg, Harry (1946). "Economical Consequences of the French and Indian State of war for the Philadelphia Merchants". Pennsylvania History. 13 (3): 185–193.
Borneman, Walter R. (2006). The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America. New York: Harper Collins.
Boulle, Pierre H. (1974). "Patterns of French Colonial Merchandise and the Seven Years' War". Histoire social/Social History. 7 (13): 48–86.
Land, Jeremy (2010). The Price of Empire: Britain'due south Military Costs During the Seven Years' State of war (PDF) (Main'south thesis). Appalachian State University.
Neal, Larry (1977). "Interpreting Power and Profit in Economic History: A Case Written report of the Seven Years' War". The Journal of Economic History. 37 (ane): 20–35. JSTOR 2119442.
Winton, Patrik (2012). "Sweden and the Seven Years State of war, 1757-1762". State of war in History. 19 (1): v–31. doi:10.1177/0968344511422308.