Someone once said that gold rushes and railways changed European history.
America was not entirely without options:
First, continue westward expansion and see whether they could get lucky again—find gold in California and start a Gold Rush.
Second, march south and attack Mexico, or smuggle silver out of Mexico.
That would not only pay off their debts, but leave them with a surplus.
The truly desperate ones were in Saint-Domingue. Its mineral resources had all been exhausted, and independence offered them no benefits whatsoever. Toussaint Louverture had indeed signed trade agreements with Britain and America, but compared to France, Saint-Domingue's sugar and coffee exports held little appeal.
The advantage of slavery was that it drove production costs to the absolute minimum. Could Saint-Domingue's exported sugar really cost less than sugar from British colonies?
Cutting off trade was not even the worst part. In Robinson Crusoe, the Scottish sailor stranded on a deserted island had always longed to return to the civilized world. But what did the civilized world contain?
When Attila was young, he was taken to Rome to be educated. The Romans had hoped to turn that barbarian boy into a Roman.
Yet Attila chose to use what he had learned to conquer the Romans. Law was an enormous system, along with all the other things required to establish a nation. Even if Toussaint Louverture sent students abroad after founding his country, which nation would be willing to accept them?
Napoleon had to bear the consequences of defeat as well. Whether his mountain of debt could be repaid depended largely on victory or defeat in war. He had handed over the right to mint currency, and bankers would mint vast quantities of money to make up their losses. Even if coins were not paper notes, that would still cause