continued to waste the
public money. His disastrous expedition for the conquest of the kingdom of
Naples forced him to borrow at the rate of forty-two per cent. A short
time previous to his death he acknowledged his errors, but continued to
spend money, without consideration or restraint, in all kinds of
extravagances, but especially in buildings. During his reign the annual
expenditure almost invariably doubled the revenue. In 1492 it reached
7,300,000 francs, about 244,000,000 francs of present money. The deficit
was made up each year by a general tax, "which was paid neither by the
nobles nor the Church, but was obtained entirely from the people" (letters
from the ambassadors of Venice).

When the Duke of Orleans ascended the throne as Louis XII., the people
were again treated with some consideration. Having chosen George d'Amboise
as premier and Florimond Robertet as first secretary of the treasury, he
resolutely pursued a course of strict economy; he refused to demand of his
subjects the usual tax for celebrating the joyous accession, the taxes
fell by successive reductions to the sum of 2,600,000 livres, about
76,000,000 francs of present money, the salt tax was entirely abolished,
and the question as to what should be the standard measure of this
important article was legislated upon. The tax-gatherers were forced to
reside in their respective districts, and to submit their registers to the
royal commissioners before beginning to collect the tax. By strict
discipline pillage by soldiers was put a stop to (Fig. 288).

Notwithstanding the resources obtained by the King through mortgaging a
part of the royal domains, and in spite of the excellent administration of
Robertet, who almost always managed to pay the public deficit without any
additional tax, it was necessary in 1513, after several disastrous
expeditions to Italy, to borrow, on the security of the royal domains,
400,000 livres, 10,000,000 francs of present money, and to raise from the
excise and from other dues and taxes the sum of 3,300,000 livres, about
80,000,000 francs of present money. This caused the nation some distress,
but it was only temporary, and was not much felt, for commerce, both
domestic and foreign, much extended at the same time, and the sale of
collectorships, of titles of nobility, of places in parliament, and of
nominations to numerous judicial offices, brought in considerable sums to
the treasury. The higher classes surnamed the kin