"The French have no word for 'entrepreneur'" - George W Bush
It was the 28th of March 1847, and King Louis-Phillipe of France, son of indecisive parents, boarded the lavish train laid on for him in celebration of the first railroad service to run from Dunkirk to Marseilles, spanning the French nation from North to South.
As he took seat on a silken throne, he thought back to the policies that had made this economic miracle possible...
His ministers had strongly recommended high taxes on everyone, apart from wealthy landowners and merchants. Probably because they were weaalthy landowners and merchants themselves, though there seemed to be some sort of justification behind this. Since the last war against Britain and the German states hadn't gone too well there didn't seem to be much point preparing for another one. The only thing the ministers wanted to fund was education: after all, if the poor could read and add, they could calculate their tax bills correctly, couldn't they?
Bankers in Paris seemed to be quite happy under the new economic policy...
... even if some industry, particularly luxury furnishings and artillery manufacture, were slowed down by lack of resources.
Shortly, those Paris bankers seemed to become very well-off..
... in fact something called a 'Bank Sector Hausse' seemed to happen, meaning that a lot of junior clerks were able to buy houses, or horses, or hats, or whatever those 'hausse' things were. Ah well, more wealthy people would be a good thing, surely?
It was the 28th of March 1847, and King Louis-Phillipe of France, son of indecisive parents, boarded the lavish train laid on for him in celebration of the first railroad service to run from Dunkirk to Marseilles, spanning the French nation from North to South.
As he took seat on a silken throne, he thought back to the policies that had made this economic miracle possible...
His ministers had strongly recommended high taxes on everyone, apart from wealthy landowners and merchants. Probably because they were weaalthy landowners and merchants themselves, though there seemed to be some sort of justification behind this. Since the last war against Britain and the German states hadn't gone too well there didn't seem to be much point preparing for another one. The only thing the ministers wanted to fund was education: after all, if the poor could read and add, they could calculate their tax bills correctly, couldn't they?
Bankers in Paris seemed to be quite happy under the new economic policy...
... even if some industry, particularly luxury furnishings and artillery manufacture, were slowed down by lack of resources.
Shortly, those Paris bankers seemed to become very well-off..
... in fact something called a 'Bank Sector Hausse' seemed to happen, meaning that a lot of junior clerks were able to buy houses, or horses, or hats, or whatever those 'hausse' things were. Ah well, more wealthy people would be a good thing, surely?