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Révolution et finances. Réflexions sur un impossible bilan

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  • Michel Bruguière

Abstract

[fre] Révolution et finances Réflexions sur un impossible bilan. . Toute tentative de bilan financier de la Révolution se heurte à de redoutables problèmes de frontières. Frontières temporelles : la Révolution est un proces­sus ouvert dans le temps ; sa portée à long terme ne peut se comprendre que si l'on connaît en profondeur tant la société de l'Ancien Régime que l'histoire ultérieure du XIXe siècle. Limites spatiales : la France demeure, pendant un quart de siècle, un ensemble aux contours mouvants, avant de retrouver en 1815 quasiment ses frontières de 1789. Il faut de plus prendre en compte trois révolutions distinctes : une révolution institutionnelle, une révolution sociale, une révolution diplomatique. La révolution institutionnelle avait pour enjeu la remise en ordre des finances de l'État ; par delà une stupéfiante continuité entre les masses budgétaires de 1788 et de 1815, la modernisation des finances publiques est acquises à partir de la Restauration ; il s'agit là, toutefois, d'un succès différé, obtenu dans des conditions fort différentes de celles qu'avaient envisagées les Constituants. La révolution sociale s'identifie à l'« enrichissement républicain » lié à la spéculation sur les biens des émigrés, aux fournitures de guerre et à la mainmise des autorités politiques sur le commerce extérieur. La révolution diplomatique se traduit surtout par la rupture irréversible, dès 1790, de l'ensemble franco-espagnol, entramant un affaiblissement durable de la position navale, économique et financière de la France dans le monde. [eng] The financial impact of the french revolution : an impossible balance-sheet. . The impossibility to assign clear-cut boundaries, in time as well as in space, to the French Revolution makes the task of assessing its financial consequences most uneasy. In time : the Revolution should be viewed as an open process ; its long run significance cannot be appraised without a deep understanding both of the problems of the Ancien Regime and of the subsequent evolution of the XIXth century. In spaee : the French frontiers underwent repeated changes and remained unsettled for over two decades, until France was ultimately brought back in 1815 nearly to its 1789 frontiers. Moreover, three distincts aspects of the Revolution — institutional, social and international — have to be taken into consideration. The institutional revolution was meant to rationalize the public finances ; although the figures of the budget for 1815 are astonishingly close to those of 1788, the state of the Restauration did emerge with modernized public finances ; it was, however, a belated success and the final result showed quite different from what the Constituants had in mind. The social revolution boiled down to the process of « republican enrichment », benefiting only those who could speculate as buyers of biens nationaux, army contractors or intermediaries in foreign transactions under government control. As for the revolution in international relations, its main effect was to destroy the franco-spanish union ; such a break meant an irreversible weakening ot the French naval, economie and financial power.

Suggested Citation

  • Michel Bruguière, 1989. "Révolution et finances. Réflexions sur un impossible bilan," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 40(6), pages 985-1000.
  • Handle: RePEc:prs:reveco:reco_0035-2764_1989_num_40_6_409181
    DOI: 10.3406/reco.1989.409181
    Note: DOI:10.3406/reco.1989.409181
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