The Age of Napoleon Podcast Episode 72: The Experiment
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Aug 23, 2020 Napoleon's reform agenda and efforts to reform the education system, the unlikely peace treaty with Britain, the lack of trust between the nations, French intervention in Europe and British perception, Addington's decision to strike first in the war.
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Regional Bias Shapes Policy
- Regional diversity shaped how Napoleon viewed and governed France during his tours of the provinces.
- He favored dynamic, proto-industrial northwestern regions as models for national development.
Meritocracy Meets Commerce
- Napoleon allied with emerging commercial elites who supported meritocratic administration.
- He saw organized commerce and law as central to modernizing France and securing political backing.
Capitalism Without Capitalists
- Napoleon embraced commerce but distrusted high finance, calling stock trading manipulative and destabilizing.
- He sought state-led economic dynamism without ceding control to speculative markets.