Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalillama
I'm not an expert on 18th century admiralty law, but I'm pretty sure a prize court would immediately reverse that and make him give the money back.
Elba had a population of 12,000, about 1000 of whom were French. Lousiana had a population of ~100,000, of whom AFAICT ~50,000 might well consider themselves French. OTOH, Louisiana has the advantage over Elba of being several thousand miles further from France, which would make the trick he pulled in OTL of just hopping aboard the naval vessel he was (inexpicably IMO) allowed to maintain and sailing ~300 miles home much harder. The idea that he'd end up in Louisiana basically penniless, as the OP suggested, is a harder sell.
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He would hardly end up penniless. That would be against the period's idea of good manners. He would however not have a sovereignty.
In Louisiana everything he did would be watched by suspicious people waiting for him to make a comeback conspiracy. On Elba he could simply use his natural authority to make a landing in France. Which be it known had a considerable population which considered themselves Frenchmen.