Some assumptions behind medicine for the poor during the reign of Louis XIV.

Abstract

The reign of Louis XIV is well known as an era of contrasts. The monarch called himself the “Sun-King”, and his support of Moliere, Racine, Lully, and others continued the cultural flowering that earned for the seventeenth century the epithet “le grand siecle”. But Louis’s war policy damaged the finances of the kingdom and the French statist economy never equaled either its English or Dutch competitors. In one respect, however, the French kingdom admitted no rivals. In a time when wealth was measured by manpower, France had the largest population in Europe. His twenty million subjects made Louis the wealthiest ruler on the continent. Even this resource was jeopardized by inequitable taxation, inefficient agriculture, and an unusually inclement climate. The majority of French were peasants whose poverty rivaled that of the urban poor, and whose condition deteriorated during the reign.