 Debt service was 43% of the budget (251 million livres = 18.8 million pounds).In 1788 this had grown to more than 50 million which provoked a crisis in Europe's most populous nation (not counting Russia) with a population almost 3 times that of Great Britain's, 9 million vs. 28 million.The debt caused major economic and political problems for France, and, as the country struggled to pay its debts, eventually led to the Financial Crisis of 1786 and the French Revolution in 1789.