Editing Louis XV (section)

===Finances and the brief ministry of Silhouette===
The prolonged war drained the treasury of the Kingdom; France paid not only for its own army, but subsidized the armies of its allies; in 1759 France paid 19 million livres to its allies, an amount which Choiseul reduced by one-third in 1761.<ref>Antoine (1989), p. 790.</ref> His new finance minister, [[Étienne de Silhouette]] imposed new taxes aimed at the wealthy; taxes on horses, carriages, silk, paintings, coffee and furs, and other luxury goods. The new taxes were extremely unpopular with the aristocracy and wealthy; Silhouette was dismissed after eight months, and his name became the common expression for paper cutouts made from a shadow, which, like his ministry, lasted only a moment.<ref name="Antoine 791">Antoine (1989), p. 791.</ref> The King announced that he was giving his silver service to the mint, to be melted down and made into money.<ref name="Antoine 791"/>

The new Controller of Finances, [[Henri Bertin]], a protege of Madame de Pompadour named on 23 November 1759, reduced the luxury taxes of his predecessor, and instead proposed a broadening of the tax base to include those classes which had long been excluded, and a new survey of the wealth of the nobility. Once again the Parliaments rebelled. When the Lieutenant General of Normandy appeared before the Parliament to register the decree, it refused to register or collect the new taxes. The same scene was reproduced in the other Parlements. Once again the King yielded to Madame de Pomapdour and her allies; the new decrees were withdrawn, Bertin was moved to a different position, the tax rolls were not enlarged, and no new taxes were collected; the debt remained.<ref>Antoine (1989), pp. 799–801</ref>