After the conquest of Malta on June 12, 1798, the French fleet and army departed from the island but certainly not empty-handed. During his week’s sojourn here, General Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) ensured that the army pay-chest would not remain empty but would be filled up to provide one of those two items needed to keep soldiers happy and contented: their pay.
Bonaparte’s armies had won great victories in Italy where the French army had lived off the land it occupied. Malta was not an exception. The French government, chronically short of the funds needed to pay its armies, acquired the needed money from the occupied lands. Some refer to it as booty, or prizes of war, or legalised theft; others brand such actions as plain robbery. Irrespective by which name such actions are known, the fact remains that, on most occasions, a number of countries lost their dearest treasures forever. And this is what happened at Malta.