I think Holland and northern Germany had rather more than simple agrarian economies prior to French occupation. The degree to which the Dutch economy was still functioning by 1804 is something I don't know.

An aside not up to your usual game, dear colleague. And indeed all I said was a nobility chosen on merit. Not a meritocracy, not sovereign rulers chosen by merit.

Aha, so the meritocracy is reserved for France, the foreigners of the empire get the odds and ends of the imperial family?

So it is a good year for spot-checking, if one does not want to do each year one at a time.

Convenient, certainly, but year at a time and region/country at a time is probably unavoidable in the end.

Yes, especially since the ones that might have benefitted were not literate and not about to go around prasing the Empire after its fall.

Hmm, interesting tactic - the people who left no records are the ones who would prove your point had they left records? I suspect that those agrarian masses in the pre-nationalistic era were politically apathetic, not terribly concerned about who ruled them, as long as their taxes didn't get too high, they could get a decent market price for their output, and their core customs/values (like religion) were left pretty much alone. Oh, and as long as they didn't have to sacrifice too many of their children to the defense of the empire, that's one that sticks in the craw. I'm basing this, of course, on the stated (and recorded) opinions of my mid-19th century forebears, subjects of other empires, who successfully dodged conscription by illegally crossing the border and hopping boats to America. Can't underrate the conscription for motivating opposition. Of course you realize that it is possible that the people who left no records may have detested the French and their emperor. That's the problem with people who leave no records. People like you and me and Digby can ascribe whatever beliefs they want to them.