CM Economic Policies 1789-91

Question 1

What happened after internal tariffs disappeared?

Answer 1

Trade in grain deregulated in August 1789 so price of wheat left to market controls

Question 2

How were the bourgeoisie affected by these policies?

Answer 2

• Devolution of power to local authorities and fiscal redistribution provided a boost to bourgeois entrepreneurs
• Emergence of land-owning bourgeois helped agriculture through more profitable farming and exploiting their estates’ resources

Question 3

How did economic reforms fail to benefit everybody and harm some?

Answer 3

• Large producers benefited from high prices they controlled, poor peasants and townsfolk lost out
• Tolls at city gates disappeared but no corresponding drop of food price in urban areas as merchants sought to maximise profits
• Economic changes perpetuated past divisions instead of getting rid of them; new class of ‘capitalist’ rather than 2nd e nobility