By the end of the Seven Years' War, the French Navy had sustained heavy casualties and lost thirty-two ships of the line: fifteen in isolated incidents, five during the Siege of Louisbourg, five during the Battle of Lagos and seven at the Battle of Quiberon Bay. As the State was already in debts, it was impossible to fund the reconstruction of the Navy by conventional means. Choiseul, secretary of State to the Navy, thus devised a scheme to have shipbuilding patronned by the French society directly.