Susan,
I rather suspected that "war paying for war" would also include revenues from non-French territories being used to cover such things as pensions, much as they were used to provide various other expenses. I don't want to get into the "Napoleon sucked Europe dry" debate - the finances of nations are a vastly complex subject. One thing I do know from my experience with governments (and large corporations) is that the source of money can be more important than the money itself. I have seen many cases where in the broad scheme of things, money is available, though specific budgets have run dry. For example, anyone with any experience in finance will recognize the games that are played allocating expenses to capital cost or operations & maintenance. I knew that the incomes of certain people in the Empire were tied to various territories and presumed that they must have lost those portions of their income when the territory in question was lost to Imperial control. I suspected that certain programs, such as military pensions, might also have income designated from such sources. Your note about MacDonald would seem to indicate that this was so. Thank you,
David