The Wealth of France

Versailles

France has been a wealthy country for centuries. The evidence of France's past wealth is everywhere. As you ride through the countryside it seems that there is a chateau around every corner.  In every city there seem to be amazing cathedrals and mansions. All of this causes me to wonder: "how did France accumulate so much wealth?" Does France have an unusually large amount of mineral resources? Has France avoided the wars that have impoverished other countries?

Clock at Versailles Palace

Surprisingly, France does not appear to have an unusually large amount of mineral resources and it seems to have more than its share of wars - war with the Romans, wars with the Visigoths, wars with the Celts, the Hundred Years War, internal religious wars, the French Revolution (which was sort of an ongoing civil war), Napoleon's wars with most of Europe, multiple wars with Germany, and colonial wars in Vietnam and Algeria. Not only was France almost constantly at war, but it was on the losing end of many of these wars.

France had a colonial empire in the 18th and 19th centuries, including large portions of North America, but unlike Spain, Portugal and England, there is very little evidence of colonial wealth today.

Where did the wealth come from? Certainly France has some very productive agricultural land, but many parts of the country do not have rich soil. Nonetheless, the French use this rocky soil to grow one of their most valuable crops - wine. France has also managed to market its fashion and art culture, but the most common evidence of wealth does not seem to come from these sources.

Mansion in Toulouse

Perhaps France does not have more wealth than other countries but the wealth was unevenly distributed, which allowed the construction of massive cathedrals and chateaux, but left the masses in poverty. While this was probably true in the past, today the wealth of France seems to be remarkably evenly distributed. I've been taking language classes with illegal refugees and immigrants and the French system makes sure that even these uninvited newcomers live better than the working poor in the United States.

One of many chateaux in the Loire Valley

The current wealth of France is less obvious than the Palace of Versailles and the Loire Valley Chateaux (culture, great food, etc.), but nonetheless real. It is difficult to measure the intangibles. Perhaps the best measure of a country's wealth is the number of foreigners who choose to live here. Not only does France have a flood of refugees from Africa and the Middle East seeking a better life in France, but the country is full of Americans, British, Canadians, Swedes, Germans and many other nationalities who have chosen to make France their home. There must be something right about a place that attracts such a wide spectrum of people.

Fixer-Upper Chateau for sale

Ultimately, I don't have a good answer to the question of why France appears to have so much wealth, but I do know that they have made a conscious choice to distribute the wealth more evenly than in the United States, and it seems to be working.  While there are the usual complaints about the inefficiency of government and high taxes, in general, people seem pretty proud of their government and the economic system of France.

Mansion in Paris