Gwynne Lewis

France’s economic woes under Louis XVI have often been cited as causing the French Revolution. However, as Gwynne Lewis asserts in the following viewpoint, the revolutionary government did little to improve the nation’s economic situation. Although Lewis acknowledges that some industries, notably cotton and iron, flourished during the revolution, and she concedes that France began to take steps toward modern capitalism, she argues that the revolution worsened the preexisting recession. According to Lewis, the value of France’s overseas trade was reduced by half between 1789 and 1799 while the textile and coal industries also experienced losses and stagnation. She notes that hyperinflation and war led the nation to further economic disarray. Lewis is a professor of history at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, and the author...