Can this problem-solver solve our biggest problems?

Les Invalides in Paris is a popular spot with tourists wanting to visit Napoleon’s final resting place. Les Invalides

But rather than jostling to get a selfie by the insta-friendly sarcophagus of one of the world’s greatest disruptors

Napoleon

maybe it would be worth spending some time at the tomb of this guy.

Vauban

He’s Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban who was one of the greatest military minds of his, and perhaps all, time.

He specialised in siege warfare and had many famous victories. However, you won’t find them listed on his tomb.

Instead, there are just two words: Dixme Royale.

It’s the title of a book he wrote. A book that was banned and burned.

Throughout the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th Century, he was responsible for making France impregnable and so he spent most of his life travelling across France to test its fortifications and improve them. He saw big problems, but not with defences.

Bescancon

The problem was what was in between, or rather what was missing.

Getting around France was difficult. There was a lack of roads and canals. That made it difficult to move troops and supplies.

He also saw a lot of poverty.

If roads and canals were built across France, the country could become more prosperous. These days, infrastru cture is taken as an essential ingredient in developing the wealth of a nation. The Romans also had the same idea.

He designed an ingenious system for protecting the weakest parts of the French borders - the Ceinture de Fer.

Ceinture de Fer

It meant giving up territory to create a secure stable frontier - that was hard for any king to do that didn’t want to show weakness. However, it also showed a willingness to stay within settled borders and signal a desire for long term peace.

But building and then maintaining this new network of roads, canals and secure borders would need long-term thinking on finance. He proposed a 10% income tax, the Dixme Royal. For the scheme to be sustainable, everyone would have to pay their fair share.

That’s where it hit the problem. The aristocracy and clergy didn’t see why they should pay taxes and persuaded King Louis XIV that Vauban’s ideas were dangerous.

His book was banned and Vauban was sidelined.

Who knows what would have actually happened if Vauban’s ideas were implemented. Would it have prevented Louis XIV’s later setbacks or saved his great grandson, Louis XVI, from the guillotine?

What we do know is that when Vauban’s tomb was installed a hundred years after his death in Les Invalides, someone felt we had more to learn from him.

If you’d like to go and see the tomb for yourself, it’s located here: