Ancien Régime Flashcards
Population of France in 1780s
27 million (three times Britain)
Increase in French trade
1715-1771, trade x 8
Trading ports
Marseilles with Levant
Nantes and Le Havre with the French West Indies
Bordeaux with Spain
(trade with the colonies x 4)
Journey from Paris to Toulouse
Decreased from 15 - 8 days from 1760s - 80s
Increase in industrial production
1715-1771, industrial production x 2
Mining, metallurgy, textile (some mechanisation and factories)
Caisse d’Escompte
Founded 1776
Offered a cash bill which helped traders as they did not have to wait for payment (streamlined trading system)
Turgot’s successes (4)
Detailed budget
Decreased royal expenditure and number/size of royal pensions
Reports from government departments on expenditure and ways to reduce it
Made tax-farming somewhat more efficient
Turgot’s low interest loan
1776 with Dutch bankers (4%)
Turgot tried to introduced free grain trade
1774
Influenced by Quesnay’s ideas - questioning mercantilism
Flour Wars
Early Spring 1775 (poor harvest 1774 forced up bread prices leading to riots and so Turgot was forced to abandon free grain trade)
Average amount of bread eaten per day
900g
Turgot’s Six Edicts
1776 - end privilege with a general land tax and abolish the corvée
Turgot forced to resign
May 1776 - his reforms were too radical as they suggested the total devolution of the social hierarchy (particularly angered MA)
Necker’s general successes (3)
Continued to cut royal expenditure and pensions
Appointed officials rather than nobles to run royal estates
Removed the vingtième on industry
Necker’s changes to the taxation system
Reduced the number of caisses (collecting bodies)
Tax farmers = 60 to 40
48 ‘receiver-generals’ of direct taxes were replaced with 12 paid officials (reducing corruption)
Compte Rendu au Roi (Necker)
1781 - first ever published budget of royal finances (many felt it was a lapse of protocol)
Problems with the Compte Rendu
Suggested 10 million livres spare (whereas in reality the French royal family was in severe debt)
Necker forced to resign
1781 (hated by many, esp. MA)
Paris Parlement had to be called to Versailles so that Louis XVI could persuade them to agree to a loan
December 1785
Royal deficit in 1786
112 million
Calonne’s reform package
Proposed 1786 with Louis’ approval
Abolition of vingtième, corvée, grain trade control and internal customs barriers
General land tax (no privilege)
Assembly of Notables
Met 22 February 1787
144 hand-picked members - attempt to bypass the Paris Parlement
Reaction of the Assembly of Notables
Rejected the reforms
Asserted the need for the EG to reform the taxation system and fix the economy
Louis dismissed Calonne
April 1787
Brienne’s failure
Reforms he proposed (general land tax, abolition of venal offices and creating a new treasury) were refused by the Parlements - he even tried to register them using a lit de justice in 1787
How much would be needed to start paying off France’s debts in 1787?
420 million livres would be needed to start paying off France’s debts
Hail storm leads to a poor harvest
1788
Royal deficit in 1788
126 million livres (20% of total expenses)
Brienne suspended payments from the royal treasury
July 1788
France was bankrupt
16 August 1788
Louis was forced to accept the EG and summoned it for…
1 May 1789 (rather than 1792 as he had originally planned)
Louis’ words upon his ascension to the throne (1774)
‘Protect us, Lord, for we are too young to reign’
Louis’ support for the American War of Independence cost France
1066 million livres
By 1777, 5 million livres of aid had been sent (before the French had officially entered into the war)
Number of First Estate (Church) members
150,000 men
Percentage of land owned by the First Estate
10%
Number of Second Estate (nobility) members
200,000 - 400,000
Percentage of land owned by the Second Estate
1% of the population yet owned 25% of the land
Two types of nobility
Noblesse d’épée (nobles of the sword) - hereditary
Noblesse de robe (nobles of the robe) - venal offices
Number of venal offices in 1789
70,000
Direct taxes (3)
taille (on property and income)
capitation (poll tax)
vingtième (5% tax on income)
Indirect taxes (7)
gabelle (salt) tabac (tobacco) octrois (local cuctsoms duties) aides (consumption tax on consumer goods like wine, soap and wood) domaine (taxes on Crown lands) traite (customs duty) timbre (stamp tax)
Unpaid compulsory public labour (another form of taxation effectively)
Corvée royale
Hobereaux
Nobles with little land/money who clung onto their titles for power
Rousseau’s ‘Emile’ on the Church
Argued that the Church had lost the true message of Christ and if you follow what is in your heart then you are being truly religious
Voltaire’s cry against the Church
‘écrasez l’infame’ (crush the infamous) - wanted to destroy the clergy who he felt stood in the way of reason
Questioning the Church led to a questioning of the Divine Right of Kings which led to a questioning of absolute monarchy
Diderot on popular sovereignty
Argued that sovereignty lies with the people who authorise the government to rule on their behalf
Rousseau’s ‘Social Contract’
Representatives of France should meet to discuss laws as a ‘sovereign body’
Proposed ideas of the ‘general will’ - right to rule is derived from the people
Voltaire’s ‘Letters on England’
Published 1733
Banned in France - but was still the most widely read book in France during the Enlightenment
Voltaire’s grievances with France
Criticised the arbitrary laws
Opposed tax exemptions
Montesquieu (a noble!)
Wanted political bodies to administer the laws
Proposed the separation of powers - in his ‘The Spirit of the Laws’ (1748)
Voltaire’s proposed changes
Proposed a system of bicameral legislature and representative government
Pays d’états privileges
Allowed to negotiate on tax - had powerful assemblies who presented a challenge to intendants
Different laws across France
Southern third had clearly written law (adapted from Roman law)
Rest of France = common law (based on precedent)
Everyone lived in small communities
Only 15% of France lived in communities of over 2000 people
Number of different units of measure
25,000 (made fraud in trade very easy)
Louis XVI’s grandfather abolished the parlements
1771
What was Louis referred to as once he restored the parlements in 1774?
‘Restorer of Liberties’
Royal session of November 1787 - Louis quotation
‘It is legal because I wish it’ (Louis)
Awarded the Third Estate double representation at the EG
27 December 1788
First day of EG meetings
5 May 1789 - voting procedure had still not been clarified which undermined the EG from the start
Louis withdrew from EG following son’s death
4 June 1789
Meant that the Third Estate began to campaign more forcefully for the First and Second Estates to join the Commons
Tennis Court Oath
20 June 1789
Séance Royale
23 June 1789 - Louis condemned the NA
Bailly quotation at the séance royale
‘the assembled nation cannot be given orders’
Louis recognised the NA
27 June 1789
He also permitted voting by head
% of Parisian workers’ wages being spent on bread
Spring 1789, 88%
Last EG
1614
Number of pamphlets produced 1788-89
1500 pamphlets
Abbé Sieyès’ pamphlet
Qu’est-ce que le Tiers État?
C’est TOUT!
Literacy rates
50% men, 25% women
Political coffee shops
Café de Foy, the Régence, the Caveau and the Procope
Political salons
Madame Necker
Madame de Tessé
Madame de Genlis
Day of Tiles
June 1788 (sparked by May Edicts attempt to abolish the parlements) - in Grenoble
Réveillon Riots
April 1789 - sparked by fear of reduced wages
Customs posts destroyed
July 1789 - 40 out of 54 were destroyed
Fears of a royal assault, mobs raiding sword smiths and gun shops
12-13 July 1789
Storming of the Bastille
14 July 1789
Highest bread prices on this day since 1715
Increase in ‘royal’ troops in Paris - raised tensions
4 July 1789 - 30,000 troops in and around Paris
Most were hired mercenaries (Louis could no longer trust French troops)
Dismissal of Necker
11 July 1789
The Paris Commune established
15 July 1789
Declared themselves responsible for tax collection and public works
Set up the National Guard
Dominated by urban bourgeoisie and liberal-moderates
Lafayette becomes commander of the NG
15 July 1789
Storming of the Bastille forced Louis to accept the NA, Paris Commune and NG on…
17 July 1789
People who died in the Storming of the Bastille
Governor of the Bastille (Marquis de Launay)
70 others
Louis’ May Edicts
May 1788 - attempted to reduce the power of the parlements
Created new plenary courts which would be in charge of the registering of new laws
Reduce the number of judges
Legal work would be given to lower courts
Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom
3 May 1788 - asserted the judicial independence of the parlements and denied the King’s authority to use the lit de justice
Exile of the Duc d’Orléans
Had spoken against the King in November 1787 (in that royal session)
Church’s don gratuit was half of what Brienne had asked for
June 1788
Revolt of the Nobles
Mid-1788 (refers to all of their responses to the May Edicts) - series of risings led by nobles, attacked intendants
Société des Trentes
Formed November 1788
Noble liberal reformers - contributed to the politicisation of the people through pamphlets and example cahiers de doléances
Influential members of the Société des Trentes
Abbe Sieyes
Bishop of Autun (from January 1789)
Lafayette
Seven Years War (global conflict)
1756-63, cost 1.3 billion livres, lost all of their Northern American colonies
American War of Independence
1778-1783, cost 1066 million livres
France was 3.3 billion livres in debt (as a result of the American War of Independence and other factors)
1783
Municipal Revolt
Started 16-19 July 1789 (depending on when the news of the Storming of the Bastille reached different cities)
NGs were set up in most towns to counter violence and counter-revolutionaries
Authority of the King collapsed and orders were only obeyed if they had been approved by the NA
Municipal Revolt in Bordeaux
Third Estate electors seized control
Municipal Revolt in Lille, Lyons and Rouen
Old systems were overthrown by force
Rural Revolt
Chateaux attacked or burnt
Grain stores looted
‘titres de ventres et devoirs’ destroyed (records of sales and peasants’ obligations)
La Grande Peur
20 July - 6 August (further violence but little actual bloodshed, anger and fear at grain hoarding caused the peasants to turn on the nobles)
Words from the Tennis Court Oath
Vowed ‘not to separate…until the constitution of the kingdom is established’
Louis exiled the Paris Parlement (first time)
August 1787
Louis was forced to reinstate the Paris Parlement (first time)
September 1787
How many Yumbles does it take to change a lightbulb?
No Yumbles because they have a Yawing as a sister
Phrase used to reject reforms at the Assembly of Notables and assert the need for the EG
‘no taxation, without representation’
Louis exiled the Paris Parlement (second time)
May 1788
Louis was forced to reinstate the Paris Parlement (second time)
August 1788 - due to the beginning of a breakdown of law and order and of the inability of officials to collect taxes
Meeting of the Three Estates in Vizille
21 July 1788 - demanded an EG and refused to pay taxes not approved by the EG
% of government expenditure in 1780s in the war department
In the 1780s, 25% of government expenditure was on the war department
How did Calonne actually worsen France’s economic status?
Encouraged expenditure in order to increase confidence which merely made a bad situation worse
How did Necker actually worsen French debt?
Decided to fund the American War of Independence using loans, rather than raising taxes
This led to problems of mounting debt, made worse by the high interest he offered
Cahiers de doléances being drawn up
March-April 1789
The clergy joined the NA
19 June 1789
Three councils who met in the presence of the King
Conseil d’État - major issues of state and foreign affairs
Conseil des Dépêches - dealt with dispatches from the provinces and Church affairs
Conseil Royal des Finances - state finances and household costs (and economic policies from 1787)
How was governing actually conducted? (i.e. not really through the conseils)
In private meetings between the King and his chief ministers who included the Secretaries of State for War, Foreign Affairs, Navy, Royal Household and the Controller-General (economy)
What were the intendants?
The King’s representative in the provinces
What was the role of the intendants?
Justice, policing and finance Ensured taxes were paid Ensured King’s edicts were adhered to Presided over local courts Raised troops Coordinated the prévôts (police force)
Why was the intendants’ jobs difficult?
Only given a small staff
Could not make their own decisions - had to wait for approval from central government which slowed everything down
Provincial governors under Louis
Posed a threat to the power of the intendants
Nobles
Maintaining law and order
Sometimes had the right to call a provincial parlement or preside over a municipal body
Number of provincial governors in 1779
39 provincial governors
Pays d’états
Six areas in France - had powerful assemblies who posed a challenge to the intendants and could negotiate their taxes
How did the seigneurs (land-owning nobles) pose a threat to the intendants?
They had their own courts and thought they were superior to the intendants
Hierarchy of courts in France
Lowest courts = prévôtés
Middle courts = 430 bailliage
Highest court = 13 parlements
What was the purpose of the parlements?
Sovereign courts
Heard civil and criminal cases that local courts could not solve
Controlled guilds, corporations and markets
Controlled local government finances and law and order
Registered the King’s edicts for them to become laws
Problems with divisions of France (by area)
Administrative divisions rarely overlapped with ecclesiastical ones
When did Necker become Director-General of Finances for the second time?
August 1788-July 1789
Brienne resigned (not fired!!)
August 1788
Voltaire on free speech
‘I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to the death to say it’
François Quesnay
Enlightened thinker - asserted the need to end tariffs, monopolies, guilds and privilege (economic philosophe)
Places where Enlightenment thinking was spread
- Salons
- Coffee Houses
- Academies - club/library/reading room for intellectuals (lectures and debates)
- Freemasonry lodges (over 40 in France)
How was Robespierre involved in an enlightened academy?
Directory of the academy in Arras from 1786
How were taxes originally collected under Louis XVI?
Direct taxes - collected by royal officers who bought their positions
Indirect taxes - either collected by a general tax farm (took their income from what they collected) or a syndicate (who received a fixed salary)
Louis dismissed the Assembly of Notables
May 1787 - shows how he clearly accepted that this would not be a successful method of reform
