1774-1788 Flashcards
Versailles
Seat of the French court established by Louis XVI (1643-1715)
Distance from Paris to Versailles
20km
Total expenditure in the court as a proportion of state expenditure
6%
Parlements
French law courts that acted as checks on the power of the king.
Lit de justice
Means by which the king could overrule the resistance of the parlements.
Proportion of French land owned by the Church (brought in 100 million livres/year)
10%
Tithe
A tax on the Third Estate paid to the Church: 10% of earnings or produce. Total Church income from tithes amounted to 50 million livres/year.
Taille
Land tax payable by the Third Estate only, despite vast estates owned by nobles and clergymen.
Gabelle
Indirect tax on salt paid only by the Third Estate; salt was a vital necessity to preserve food.
Total amount of Church income paid to the state in the form of a ‘free gift’ (Don Gratuit) to exemption from the land tax, income tax and the capitation.
5%
Feudalism
The dominant social system in rural France. Aristocrats controlled the land, and peasants paid dues and performed labour service in return for the right to live and work on the land.
Proportion of the French population who belonged to noble families.
0.5%
Collectively, these families owned between a quarter and a third of all land in France.
Bourgeoisie
Wealthy members of the Third Estate: merchants, industrialists, financiers, doctors and lawyers.
Population of France in 1774
27 million
Increased from 22.4 million in 1705, leading to increase demand for farms/housing, and thus increasing rents dramatically.
The size of the bourgeoisie trebled in France over the course of the eighteenth-century to
230,000
1749-1783
Period of sustained overseas warfare, during which the tax burden rose enormously on French peasants and urban workers. Taxes took between 5-10% of a peasant’s income.
Average rise in prices in France between 1726 and 1789
Same period, wages increased by
65%
In the same period, wages increased by just 22%.
Voltaire
A Republican; gained notoriety for attacks on the Church and the Old Regime
Montesquieu
Author of The Spirit of the Laws; argued for a British-style constitutional monarchy.
Rousseau
Author of The Social Contract; argued for legal and political equality of all citizens.
The Encyclopedia
Multi-volume reference work edited by Diderot, with entries written by many of the leading philosophes. The last of its 35 volumes appeared in 1780 – widely read amongst the urban bourgeoisie.
Lettre de cachet
An arbitrary arrest warrant issued by the King.
Tax farmers
Collectors of indirect taxes, with a reputation for cruelty and corruption.
Proportion of state revenue through indirect taxes, such as the Gabelle
55%
Proportion of state revenue collected through taxation on land, as a result of the exemptions granted to the privileged estates.
1.6%
Seven Years War
Expensive conflict with Britain (1756-63), which ended in defeat for France.
Name of the French royal house to which Louis XVI belonged.
Bourbon
Louis XVI’s cousin; celebrated for his support of enlightened ideas
Duc D’Orleans
Palais Royale
The French palace owned by the Duc D’Orleans, where the discussion and publication of ideas which attacked the king and the government could not be prevented by censorship laws.
Freemasons
Secret society popular with reforming nobles and the bourgeoisie. The Grand Master was the Duc D’Orleans.
number of newspapers in France by 1785 and 1700
1785: 80
1700: 3
Year in which France joined the American War of Independence.
1778
Cost of French military intervention in America 1778-1783.
1.3 billion livres
Proportion of state expenditure that was spent on crown debts in 1780.
43%
Proportion of state expenditure that was spent on crown debts in 1788.
50%
Deficit
The shortfall between state income and expenditure, which caused the debt and the scale of interest repayments to rise dramatically in the 1780s.
Venality
Sale of noble titles to members of the Third Estate, which provided short-term income at the expense of long-term tax revenues.
Madame Deficit
Nickname given to Marie Antoinette as a result of her luxurious lifestyle and perceived indifference to the suffering of the poor.
Turgot
1774-1776
Necker
1776-1781
Calonne
1783-1787
Brienne
1787-1788
King’s finance ministers
All dismissed when their proposed reform programmes roused the opposition of the privileged orders and the political nation.
Physiocrats
A group of economists who argued for greater efficiency in French political and economic policy.
Flour Wars
The violent response to Turgot’s introduction of free trade in grain in 1775.
Guilds
Organisations that controlled who could practice certain trades. Turgot tried to scrap them as a hindrance to free trade.
Corvée
Unpaid labour service to maintain roads. Turgot also attempted to abolish this, and introduce a more equitable taxation system. Aristocratic opposition in the parlements led to his downfall in 1776.
Comte Rendu au Roi
Necker’s report on royal finances. He claimed to have eradicated the deficit and created a surplus.
Assembly of Notables
The group that refused to ratify a proposed land tax, despite being hand-picked by Calonne.
‘It is legal because I wish it’
Louis XVI’s response to the Duc D’Orleans, when challenged over in the Parlement of Paris in 1787.
The Parlement of Paris
Constituted legal body that rejected Brienne’s proposed tax reforms in 1788. In response, the king exiled the Parlement to Troyes in August.
Day of Tiles
Resistance to the crown in Grenoble, orchestrated by aristocratic opponents of the king’s proposed reforms.
Crown declared bankrupt; forced Louis to recall of Necker and summon of the Estates-General.
16 August 1788
