EVER since the disasters of the Seven Years War Frenchmen had longed to
see British arrogance humbled, and the power of 'the modern Carthage'
broken. By the time Louis XVI ascended the throne that process seemed
well under way, as the quarrel between Great Britain and her thirteen
North American colonies deepened. French observers looked on with
growing interest, and by the spring of 1776 Vergennes, the Foreign
Secretary, was convinced that 'Providence had marked out this moment
for the humiliation of England'. ¹ He persuaded the king that it would be to
France's advantage to intervene. In April secret supplies began to be sent to
the Americans, and the first steps were taken to mobilize French naval
strength. Thus began a deterioration in French relations with the British
which culminated in February 1778 in a treaty of alliance between France
and the United States, followed by five years of all-out warfare. When it
ended, the British empire did indeed appear to have been shattered, France
was revenged, and her international prestige stood gloriously restored. But
the effort had brought the State to the brink of financial exhaustion.

It had not been unforeseeable. Aware of the burden of debt bequeathed
by previous wars, Turgot had warned the king on assuming office as
Comptroller-General in 1774 that economies were essential to the
restoration of financial health. Otherwise 'the first gunshot will drive the
State to bankruptcy'. ² A month before his fall from power in May 1776
Turgot denounced Vergennes's proposal to intervene in America on the
grounds that the cost would permanently destroy all hope of financial
reform without necessarily helping to weaken Great Britain at all. On both
counts time proved him right. In 1776, however, Turgot's fellow ministers
had lost faith in both his policies and his judgement; and in any case within
six months a successor had been found who seemed confident of squaring
the circle. In October 1776 Necker was appointed Director of the Treasury.

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