The balance of Power in Europe around 1700

Sources of national power

When considering the Balance of Power in Europe one has to take a lot of factors into account apart from the actual investment of nations in military power. These can be said to be the resources of a state.

Population

Demography is very important in understanding why a conflict evolves as it does or did. It is especially dangerous to look at a historical conflict while basing one's opinion's on a premisse that in the past there lived less people on earth, but that the overall balance between the populations of the states would be about the same. Nowadays France has 63 million inhabitants and England 59 million and both are of about equal wealth and therefore about equally powerful. The Netherlands now have about 16 million and are somewhat richer and therefore somewhat more powerful than the population figure might suggest. Things were however quite different in 1700.

In 1700 France was the most populous country of Europe with around 21 million inhabitants. The United Kingdom had about 13 million inhabitants, the Dutch around 2 million, and the hopelessly divided Germans were also less populous than the French. I do not know the approximate number of inhabitants of the Austrian state, but although about equal in size to France it had far less inhabitants, I would guess not more than 10 million.

Wealth

In 1700 the Dutch were uncontestedly the richest citizens of Europe, meaning their population as a whole was about twice as rich as the average European, but also the average Dutchman was rich because of the far more even division of wealth. Sources for this wealth were the international trade of the Dutch, industry, and their domination of International finance based in Amsterdam. The Colonial empire of the Dutch included Surinam, some Carribean islands, fortified slavetrading posts in West Africa, the Cape, posts controlling Indonesia and the straits of Malakka, Ceylon, cities controlling the southern coast of India. All this making them the biggest traders of East Asia.

The English would probably come in second. Per capita they were not as rich as the Dutch, but they had far more inhabitants (six times as much). Sources for their wealth were a flourishing trade and a good management of the resources the island posessed. Their colonial empire included the east coast of the nowadays United States, that was also populated by Englishmen and gave them Tobacco and other resources, very important caribbean possessions that yielded sugar, and east-Indian possession on the sub-continent that gave them a second position in the trade of eastern luxuries.

The French were of reasonable wealth. Sources for it were the soil of France itself yielding all kinds of agricultural produce, a fine industry, and an effective administration. However the effective royal administration had the sad tendency to wage incessant wars, accrue a huge national debt, and making the population pay for everything. The great and super-wealthy French nobility partying and the citizens paying the tab off course had negative effects on industry and trade. The French Colonial empire included Canada and vast stretches of land among the Mississippi, important caribbean possessions, and some possessions in India.

The Spanish were rich only in potential. The Spanish mainland was dominated by feudal lords owning the soil, and industry had been ruined by taxation, a lack of civil liberties and general mismanagement. The vast Spanish colonial empire was also crippled by mismanagement to a degree that Dutch and English traders had taken over trade to and from it.

The German empire had been devastated by the 30 years war and existed in name only. Its first state was the Habsburg empire, including nowadays Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Transsylvania. After the peace of Westphalia in 1648, which had effectively dissolved the German empire, Austria had only become a great power again by its victories over the Turcs which had given this state a surface about equal to France. Its resources were its soil and industry. It had no colonial empire.

Credit

In his famous book 'The rise and fall of great powers' Paul Kennedy pointed to the great role credit played in these times. At a time when most soldiers were mercenaries and regular state income never covered the cost of war, the Dutch and English could regularily loan at 2-3%, while the French and others had to loan at 6-7% or higher, it is understandable that the Anglo-Dutch could loan about three times more money to the same interest burden. Paul Kennedy put it like this: 'As long as the outcome of a war depended on the depth of one's pocket the Dutch would always win'. Proof of this can be found in important conflicts were the Dutch were losing on the battlefield, but the enemy had to vacate it because he could not pay his fleet or army anymore.