[edit] Cost
Versailles was grand, luxurious, and expensive to maintain. It has been estimated that upkeep and maintenance, including the care and feeding of staff and the royal family, consumed as much as 25 percent of the total income of France[citation needed]. Although at first glance this may seem extraordinarily large, the Palace of Versailles was the centre of government as well as the royal residence. Additionally, the 25 percent figure is disputed by some historians who believe the number has been exaggerated by those who would exaggerate the role of royals' extravagance as causation for the French Revolution. Recent estimates suggest a number closer to 7 percent.[citation needed]
The book, World History: Patterns of Interactions (Mcdougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin, 2001) places the value at approximately US$2 billion (1994). This valuation is regarded by many as a gross underestimate.[citation needed] Surviving government records from the period mention 65 million golden livres. It is unclear whether this "golden" livre references the standard livre, or the Louis d'Or (a gold coin then valued at 24 livres). If accurate, using today's values for gold (US$600 per ounce, 2006) and silver (US$12 per ounce, 2006), the value of the Versailles estate soars to a staggering US$300 billion. Another way to look at this controversy over the costs of Versailles, is to consider the benefits that France drew from this royal palace. Versailles, by locking the nobles into a golden cage, effectively ended the periodical aristocratic groups and rebellions that had plagued France for centuries. It also destroyed aristocratic power in the provinces, and enabled a centralization of the state, for which a majority of modern Frenchmen are still thankful to Louis XIV, although French centralization, as further developed during the French Revolution, and later the Third Republic, is currently the subject of much debate and overhauling. Versailles also had a tremendous influence on French architecture and arts, and indeed on European architecture and arts, as the court tastes and culture elaborated in Versailles influenced most of Europe. From the start, Versailles was conceived as much as a showcase of French arts and craftsmanship organized in the royal workshops of the Gobelins manufactory, as a home for a king or a monument to absolutism. Modern Frenchmen, even the least sympathetic to the former monarchy, are still generally quite proud of the lasting influence that French arts developed in Versailles have had in the world.[citation needed]
Readthe link about the stone that was used.
