The American enterprise had afforded Frederick the luxury of indulging his passions for the military and for the patronage of the artistic and intellectual life of his residence. Yet, despite the glitter of Cassel and the British gold that helped build it, a host of economic and social problems remained. Some of the latest difficulties stemmed from the economic dislocation of the war in America and from a recurrence of poor weather and subsequent crop failures. For the most part, however, the Frederician regime spent its last years addressing the residual, unresolved problems of the previous two decades, many of which had been aggravated by those government ordinances that had attempted to deal with them. With the war coming to an end, the government now introduced a final flurry of domestic initiatives, publishing over 250 new ordinances over the last four years of the reign.

As had been the case during previous crises, new developments and past failures in domestic reform prompted the regime to revise its assumptions and adopt new strategies. Above all the ministry had come to realize that further commercial-industrial expansion was limited by the existence of inflexible economic structures. Its disillusionment was already becoming evident as far back as 1775, when the General Directory convened to discuss the future of its industrial policy. The assembled ministers went far beyond their long-standing opposition to monopolies by expressing their growing dissatisfaction with the government's commercial projects and their theoretical acceptance of the principle of free trade.