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| 1808, July 5 |
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| Departmental dépots de mendicité were established to control begging. | 1 |
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| 1810 |
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| A penal code required all beggars to go to poorhouses. | 2 |
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| April 1 |
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| Napoleon married the Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Francis I of Austria. Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister after 1809, arranged the match. The Church Court of Paris had annulled the marriage between Napoleon and Josephine (Jan. 14, 1810) although Josephine was by law too old to be divorced. Marie Louise bore Napoleon a son on March 20, 1811. | 3 |
| Economic crisis occurred as the result of the heavy cost of war, and sluggish growth in the French economy and the Continental System. | 4 |
| Eastern and central European countries could not afford to pay for French exports because they could no longer trade with England. Rise in the cost of textiles, especially cotton, also hurt artisans who could not sell their wares at a price that would pay for their labor and raw materials. Russia devalued its currency in Sept. 1810, and German and Dutch banks failed. Parisian bankers had invested heavily in the latter, and they were forced to call in their loans. In June, flooding killed large portions of the mulberry leaf crop and thus severely hurt the silk industry. | 5 |
| Unemployment soared; the government estimated that two out of every five workers in Paris were unemployed. France began to recover in the spring of 1811, but storms around Paris and a drought in the south led to a poor harvest. In 1812, Napoleon increased taxes throughout France to help pay for mounting military costs and, particularly, for the cost of the ensuing war with Russia. | 6 |
| Britain also experienced an economic downturn as a result of its inability to market its goods on the Continent. This economic downturn was ameliorated by international trade until the United States, the best alternative, closed its market to Britain in 1807. Poor harvests in 1808 and 1809 worsened Britain's situation. However, Britain strengthened its economy by supporting Napoleon's enemies with subsidies, and France was never able to maintain an absolute blockade. When Russia asserted its independence, the British economic problems were largely over. British textiles boomed as they supplied the forces against Napoleon. | 7 |
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