ABSTRACT
The destruction of the French navy during the two mid-eighteenth century maritime and colonial wars with Great Britain remains a dismal period of French naval history and probably accounts for the relatively few studies of the navy of Louis XV. The emphasis in French naval historiography has been on battles, strategy and tactics. Biography when it appeared all too frequently became hagiography. The persistence of the "bad mistress" theory of history in studies of the maritime and colonial wars is demonstration enough of the inadequacy of current French naval studies of the eighteenth century. Regardless of the strength of character and influence of individual ministers, the French system of government had reached a state where the execution of the central will was severely limited by existing institutions and interest groups. Between 1748 and 1762 the French navy was unable to obtain sufficient cannon to arm the ships then in existence let alone new ones.
