4.32 Europe: a.d. 1801 to 1900  (Page 16/27)

Overall, the French Revolution led not to popular and republican government, but to military dictatorship, followed by monarchial restoration. It did not result in universal suffrage. Property was necessary and in 1815 only 1% to 3% of the population was qualified to vote. Even as late as 1846 the total French electorate was estimated at 241,000 or 2.8% of the total male population over 21 years of age. Yet much was accomplished in that there was wholesale cancellation of seigneurial rights and f airly extensive dispersal of land ownership through conf iscation and sale of church and noble properties, making 19th century France a nation of peasant farmers. Out of 12,000,000 families in the nation, perhaps 200 to 300 could be called opulent. (Ref. 292 ) But the canny peasants, unwilling to divide their land among large numbers of children according to the Napoleonic Code, restricted the size of their families. The resulting slow population increase inhibited a really rapid rate of industrialization so that even at the end of the century industry was still relatively small. A fundamental French weakness was the dependence on costly overland transport. A great effect of the war years was to choke off the Atlantic face of France and build up the Rhine-Rhone valleys' industries. (Ref. 279 ) The government did overcome the old church condemnation of interest with an 1807 law which fixed the interest rate at 5% on loans and 6% on commercial paper, while anything above that was considered usury. (Ref. 292 ) There were a few industrial advancements. Having been cut off from imported sugar by the British counter-blockade early in the century, by 1840 France had built 58 sugar-beet factories. The population control was helped in 1830 when cholera killed 1,000 people a day. After that the population of Paris did increase rapidly, however, from 1,242,000 in 1851 to 2,212,000 in 1872. Alfred Sauvy, French sociologist, calculated that between 1810 and 1900 the purchasing power of the average worker in that nation increased by 80%. Napoleon's administrative reforms in the Code Civil contained 2,281 articles and countless amendments and still constitute the basic French legal text.

Second only to Napoleon in interest and influence in Europe in this century was Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord. Born with a clubfoot, he over-compensated in his young adult days by becoming both a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church and at the same time a gambling, wenching, rogue. As one of the leaders of the Revolution, he had written a good part of its Declaration of the Rights of Man, but by 1794 even he had to escape the "Terror" by going to America. Back in Paris as foreign minister in 1796, he had soon insulted an American delegation and accumulated an enormous private fortune from the bribes of various other foreign delegations and from "percentages" of such transactions as the Louisiana Purchase, which he helped to negotiate for Napoleon. In 1808, however, when Napoleon kidnapped the Spanish royal family so that his brother Joseph could have the throne and then made Talleyrand the family's jailer, in effect, the aristocratic French- man suddenly turned from faithful servant to the emperor's foe. He started correspondence with the Russian czar, setting in motion the alliances which eventually led to Napoleon's downfall. When the little emperor was out of power in 1816, a new provisional government, headed by Talleyrand, called a Bourbon king back to power and extracted France from its damaging wars. Throughout all that time, that indefatigable man continued his elegant living - fulfilling his desires with multiple women, young and old. It is said that the painter Eugene Delacroix was his natural son. After the Revolution of 1830, Talleyrand survived and remained in favor with the victorious Duke of Orleans. He served as ambassador to England from 1830-34, helping to avert another general European War. Just before his death in 1838, he signed an agreement with Rome, repenting his multiple sins and re-entering the folds of the Catholic Church. (Ref. 232 )