Most people's knowledge of Napoleon starts and ends with his military talents and accomplishments. But what was his greater vision for France? What were his domestic/administrative priorities? Did he have a peacetime agenda to implement after his conquests?

Expanded from an earlier answer and several other answers given earlier

Part I A: France

Although Napoleon styled himself as a titanic figure who transcended history, his accomplishments in France are very difficult to parse out form the wider thrust of Revolutionary reforms and other developments unleashed by the French Revolution in 1789. although Napoleon sought to defang the Revolutionary system of checks and balances, preferring constitutions that "were short and obscure," he was never really able to scrap the French constitutional system. The latent power of this system came to the fore in 1814 when French Senate was able to ignominiously depose the Emperor on the grounds that he had violated the constitution. Removing the trappings of martial gloire reveals a figure who is much diminished and often trapped by structural and social developments instead of being their master.

To gauge the importance of historical events over the long-term, historians often look beyond the roles of elites and individuals at the apex of society and instead examine economic structures, demography, and other indices that show real shifts in the daily life and society. In the case of the Revolutionary era and Empire, there were major shifts caused by both the abolition of seigniorial privileges and the breakup of large estates owned by the nobility and the church. While this did not lead to social leveling in the countryside as the auction of these estates tended to go to relatively prosperous individuals, it did change the economic character of the French countryside. The Empire's continental blockade coupled with the British blockade of French maritime trade led to various efforts to create alternative foodstuffs and luxuries that were no longer available in France. Industrial production of crops such as sugar beets and export crops for the internal market of the Empire such as wine increased dramatically under Napoleon's watch. The geographic center of the French economy also shifted because of the Continental System as it favored an inner core around northeaster France and the Rhone valley, which reoriented trade away from the Atlantic and towards the Central Europe. The coastal cities in the meantime suffered from the loss of trade and often were relatively impoverished. This economic reorientation, sometimes called the Maggiolo Line, became one of the basic geographic divisions in France throughout the nineteenth century, with the Southwest being more Catholic and traditionalist and the Northeast being more liberal and republican.

The political initiatives of the state also had an enormous impact on France. Much of Napoleon's legal and social reforms were predicated on an attempt to create a stable hierarchy and order in France. The Napoleonic Code’s stress on equal inheritance led to a greater a much slower rate of population growth than other areas of Europe. The Concordat with Rome created a situation in which local priests were employees of the state and were still vital for education in the provinces throughout the early nineteenth century.The chaos of the revolution meant that one of Napoleon's main goals was to restore order. This meant a firm commitment to metalism and a sound currency. For the countryside, this ensured that only some families truly benefited from the breakup of noble estates (mostly by being in the right place and being of the right social position) and the mass of French peasants now had to pay rents according to a market economy that was very inflexible compared to the ancien regime. In many ways, what we now picture the French countryside (quaint stone farms, small towns, excellent wines and bread) is a byproduct of the Revolution and Empire’s long shadow.

For the new elite, the Napoleonic period did have an impact despite the Bourbon Restoration's preferences for reliable individuals who were opposed to both the Revolution and Napoleon. One of the consequences of the Napoleonic system of coupling financial rewards with titles was that the corpus of the Napoleonic aristocracy was well-placed to marry into the old nobility of Restoration France. The result was a blending of the old and the new elite social groups within France. Additionally, one of the foundations of the Napoleonic system was meritocracy (at least in theory) so there was a strong component of educated professionals within lower and middle strata of the Napoleonic aristocracy (the Barons and the Knight). These individuals were well-placed to expand their wealth and prestige during the Empire and became part of the foundation for the leading families of France during the nineteenth century. Although the Empire was infamous for its stifling court culture, Paris became an important social meeting place for these individuals and habituated them to the salon culture of the Restoration. Those elite individuals that could not marry into wealth or transition into the new state apparatus became some of the founding members of the various secret societies and Bonapartist political parties.

One of the hallmarks of the Napoleonic tax administration was that it introduced a degree of efficiency and systematization that meant the Empire could count upon a steady stream of revenue. The recent memory of Revolutionary hyperinflation inhibited more experimental and flexible approaches to finance. For example, one of the achievements of Napoleon his proponents frequently trumpet, the Banque de France, played a relatively marginal role in governmental finance. Napoleon's aversion to short-term loans meant that ensured that the Banque's contributions to French state financing was never more than 10 percent of total expenditures. The state's commitment to metallism, another legacy born out of a painful Revolutionary experience, meant that the Banque adapted the "Palmer Rule" in which a third of its notes in circulation would be backed by metallic currency. The main sources of war revenue for France would be the systems of direct and indirect taxation from domestic sources and contributions from defeated or allied states.

There is a strong line of continuity between the tax policies of the later Revolutionary governments and the Napoleonic Consulate and Empire. These governments relied upon a series of land taxes, contributions, and later, indirect taxes to finance the French government. The main impact of Napoleon on the French tax structure was that his characteristic focus upon systematization and efficiency. One of the unsung administrators of the Napoleonic period was Martin-Michel-Charles Gaudin, Napoleon's Minister of Finance from 1799-1814, and 1815.

Gaudin directed an overhaul of the la contribution * fonciere* (land tax), an assessment based upon agricultural income. This form of direct taxation made up to three-quarters of all taxes derived from direct taxation for most of the Napoleonic period. The Ministry of Finance enacted systemic cadastral surveys in 1802, and expanded them into a massive project to catalog the whole of France in 1807. The grand cadastral surveys assessed France parcel by parcel, judging soil quality, buildings, and other factors to predict the ideal agricultural value of the land. The surveys rendered this particular tax burden more equitable, but also expanded both state power and control. In France, the Bourbon and Orleanist governments continued Gaudin's cadastral survey would not be finished until the 1820s, but was one of the bedrocks of French tax policies up to the First World War.

Another form of direct taxation in the Napoleonic period was la contribution personelle-mobiliere (taxes on personal or industrial incomes), which was a legacy of the Revolution and mostly hit towns. This tax had a fixed sum, plus a variable amount based upon external signs of wealth like chimneys or the number of servants. In keeping with its principles of systematic reform and efficiency, Napoleon overhauled this highly arbitrary system between 1803-04. Its main replacement was the droits d'octroi which was a levy upon all goods entering into a town. There were also various taxes licensing trades and services and upon items like doors and windows.