Why are the financial pollicies of Louis XIV considered his weak point as a ruler?What did he do that caused so may problems forr France?

Louis wanted to expand French territory to what he saw as its natural borders - the Pyrenees,the Alps,and the Rhine.This would give France a larger population and thus more taxpayers,and so greater revenue for the Crown.

However,gaining all this territory meant committing France to a lot of wars,not all of which were successful.This left France heavily in debt when Louis died in 1715.

Louis XI in his quest for military and domestic greatness nearly bankrupted France. In order for Louis to pay for his military adventures he just raised the taxes on the peasants and introduced new taxes. When he ordered the Palais de Versailles to be built he wanted no expense to be spared and gave no thought as to where the money was to come from.

In terms of personal; dress Louis spared no expense in his personal wardrobe- look at some of the portraits of him. He definitely isn't wearing cheap material nor is he wearing fake jewellery.

Perhaps his greatest financial weak point was that he kept the aristocracy at court. By doing this neither he nor the rest of the nobility had any firsthand knowledge of what was happening in the rest of France. The court would have been completely unaware of mini-famines in the rural areas nor would he have known about the number of peasants leaving agriculture and moving to urban areas. Agriculture is the foundation of a state's economy.

The best way to think about Louis' financial policies is to think about what he said about himself, "L'etat, c'est moi". If you consider yourself to be the centre of the universe what policies would you have to keep your status?

You will find a good chapter on all of that in your textbook.

It will have the answer your teacher is looking for.

Unfortunately, there were many factors in Louis XIV time that led to the problems in France. Not all of them were government caused. However, without the basic background of reading your textbook, you would not be able to understand theses other factors.

L'etat c'est moi.

All of his aims in his reign were rather self-centered.

Because he fought several major wars that he really didn't need to.

He was a war monger.