cus--about 45,000,000 francs of present
money--to 3,600,000 ecus--about 95,000,000 francs. Towards the end of the
reign they exceeded 4,700,000 ecus--130,000,000 francs of present money.
Louis XI. wasted nothing on luxury and pleasure; he lived parsimoniously,
but he maintained 110,000 men under arms, and was ready to make the
greatest sacrifices whenever there was a necessity for augmenting the
territory of the kingdom, or for establishing national unity. At his
death, on the 25th of August, 1483, he left a kingdom considerably
increased in area, but financialty almost ruined.

When Anne de Beaujeu, eldest sister of the King, who was a minor, assumed
the reins of government as regent, an immediate demand was made for
reparation of the evils to which the finance ministers had subjected the
unfortunate people. The treasurer-general Olivier le Dain, and the
attorney-general Jean Doyat, were almost immediately sacrificed to popular
resentment, six thousand Swiss were subsidised, the pensions granted
during the previous reign were cancelled, and a fourth part of the taxes
was removed. Public opinion being thus satisfied, the States-General
assembled. The bourgeois here showed great practical good sense,
especially in matters of finance; they proved clearly that the assessment
was illegal, and that the accounts were fictitious, inasmuch as the latter
only showed 1,650,000 livres of subsidies, whereas they amounted to three
times as much. It was satisfactorily established that the excise, the salt
tax, and the revenues of the public lands amply sufficed for the wants of
the country and the crown. The young King Charles was only allowed
1,200,000 livres for his private purse for two years, and 300,000 livres
for the expenses of the festivities of his coronation. On the Assembly
being dissolved, the Queen Regent found ample means of pleasing the
bourgeois and the people generally by breaking through the engagements she
had entered into in the King's name, by remitting taxation, and finally by
force of arms destroying the power of the last remaining vassals of the
crown.

[Illustration: Fig. 286.--The Mint.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the
Translation of the Latin Work of Francis Patricius, "De l'Institution et
Administration de la Chose Politique:" folio, 1520.]

[Illustration: Fig. 287.--The receiver of Taxes.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut
in Damhoudere's "Praxis Rerum Civilium."]

Charles VIII., during a reign of fourteen years,