Member-only story
Why Did France Sell The Louisiana Territory for Pennies on The Dollar?
Surely Napoleon could have secured a better deal
The Louisiana Purchase is one of the most famous land deals in history. Americans still like to croon about the savviness of the deal as though they negotiated the terms themselves. With the deal, the United States doubled in size by adding 828,000 square miles of territory. It also opened the way for the United States to control the entirety of the Mississippi River, from its headwaters in the northern wilderness all the way to its mouth in New Orleans.
(In fact, the United States initially approached France about purchasing the city of New Orleans alone and was stunned when French negotiators turned around and asked if they’d also like to purchase the rest of the territory.)
In 1803, the United States of America agreed to pay France, then under the nominal control of Napoleon, who would crown himself emperor just a year later, 60 million francs and assume 20 million francs of French debt left over from the American Revolution. The terms equalled out to roughly 80 million francs, which equated to $15 million.
That seems like a paltry sum today, but it was three times as much as the United States had cash on hand. Bonds, dated out to 1822 at 6% interest, were issued to…
