 The French spent 1.3 billion "livres" on war costs equivalent to 100 million pounds sterling (at 13 livres to the pound).After the war ended, France had a debt of 3,315.1 million "livres", a colossal sum of money at the time which put an enormous strain on the country's total fortune in terms of usable assets and productive capacity.The French tax collection system was highly inefficient.