Fund, administered by La Bouillerie under the authority of Daru, the
Intendant-General of the occupied countries; between 18os-o9 this fu nd
allegedly received 734 million francs. In 1810, as his wars created greater
and greater demands for money, Napoleon put the Fund on an official
basis. A senatus consultum of 30 January set up an Extraordinary Domain,
which was to be used only by the Emperor and only by decree for
subsidizing the expenses of the Grande Armee; to soften the blow, it was
announced that the Extraordinary Domain would also be used to reward
great military or civil services, for public works and to encourage the arts.
The financial situation was far worse in the satellite states, where
expenditure on the Army reached the dizzy levels of 8o% of the total
budget. In Westphalia the economics of the madhouse finally took over:
Napoleon imposed a contribution to the Army of 31 million francs, plus
u.s millions for upkeep, when the total state budget was only 34
millions. The irony of this was that the rationalization of finance and the
consequent increases in income were simply wasted on the Army. Heavy
demands for taxes from Napoleon went hand in hand with more efficient
land registers, collection methods and fiscal mechanisms. In Berg tax
revenues tripled between 1808-13, while in Naples they rose so% in the
three years after Murat's accession; all this was while the Continental
System was anyway biting deep into the local economies. In Holland tax
revenues yielded about 30 million florins in 18os but so millions in 1809,
and in addition there was a quite separate forced loan levied in 1807.
When Napoleon annexed Holland in 1810, he liquidated two-thirds of
the national debt, leaving penniless the bourgeoisie who had been fo rced
to buy government bonds.
The predictable result of having to pay fo r the total costs of an Army
conscripted unwillingly in the first place and for the costs of any French
troops billeted outside France was national bankruptcy in many of the
satellite states. The debt of the Kingdom of Italy rose from one to five
million lire in 18os-11; the Grand Duchy of Warsaw's national debt
trebled in the years 1807-1 1; while luckless Westphalia, which enjoyed
the additional 'privilege' of having to pay the costs of 3s,ooo French
troops quartered there in November 1811, saw the national debt rise from
sixty million francs to over two hundred million, for in addition to
Napoleon's exactions, there was the lunatic prodigality of his brother,
King Jerome.
Napoleon did not mete out such severe financial punishments only to
his 'favoured' allies. Those who made war on him paid through the nose
with war indemnities. Austria was mulcted of 3SO million francs for the
two ill-judged campaigns of 18os and 18o9; Prussia had to disgorge SIS
marcin
(Marcin)
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