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.
