Katie+Follette

Economy of France in the 1700's

During the 1700's the wealth of France grew greatly; materials for making coins and other types of pay expanded, as well as more gold and silver was being found. Prices of everything inflated because more people had money, there were also increases in production which meant more merchandise to sell. By the middle of this century, France is known as one of the world's richest nations. Even though money from industries was present, most profit was still from farming, and it had been this way for a while. Being one of the leading nations in farming was good, but when other powerful countries started the Industrial Revolution, it then made France look behind the rest of the group. The French then tried producing new tools to help catch up with other countries economies, but agriculture was France's big selling point, so the economy slowly started to decline after the 18th century ended.