Long Term Causes - The Taxation System

Question 1

How does a good government benefit greatly from an efficient taxation system?

Answer 1

It provides it with an adequate income

Question 2

What was the taxation system in France like?

Answer 2

Chaotic, inefficient and incomplete

Question 3

What system were taxes collected by?

Answer 3

Tax farming

Question 4

Tax farming

Answer 4

A system where the government agrees a tax assessment figure for an area, which is then collected by private individuals or companies that bids for the right to collect it in return for a share of the income

Question 5

How many tax-farmers gathered indirect taxes?

Answer 5

40

Question 6

Example of a company that collected indirect taxes

Answer 6

The Farmers-General

Question 7

What was the largest employer in France after the King’s army and navy?

Answer 7

The Farmers-General

Question 8

How many men were employed by the Farmers-General?

Answer 8

30,000

Question 9

Why was the Farmers-General one of the most hated institutions in France?

Answer 9

Ruthless, greedy, corrupt, subjective

Question 10

How much did each group of tax-farmers pay the government?

Answer 10

Up to 80 million livres for a 6-year lease

Question 11

In good economic times of high production and trading levels, how much did some tax-farmers make?

Answer 11

Several million livres a year

Question 12

What could tax-farmers afford to buy?

Answer 12

Grand homes, venal offices, noble titles

Question 13

What could tax-farmers not buy?

Answer 13

Respect

Question 14

Many attributed the nation’s financial woes not to the King or his ministers but to what?

Answer 14

The greed and corruption of the farmer-generals

Question 15

How did the farmer-generals generate a profit?

Answer 15

Paying the State an agreed sun and keeping anything collected above this figure

Question 16

As a result of tax-farming, what did the French government never receive enough of?

Answer 16

Money from taxes to cover its expenditure

Question 17

Due to the government not receiving enough taxes, what did it have to do to cover its expenditure?

Answer 17

Borrow money

Question 18

What became an increasingly large part of government spending in the 18th century?

Answer 18

Interest rate payments on its debt

Question 19

Where did most royal income come from?

Answer 19

Taxes

Question 20

Why was not enough royal income generated from taxation?

Answer 20

The system of exemption - the nobles, the King’s richest subjects, were exempt from most taxes
Regional differences meant tax collection was both chaotic and incomplete
Tax collection was inefficient because it was done by tax-farmers, a system encouraging graft, corruption and tax avoidance

Question 21

Many of the taxes were collected by officials who had bought the right to hold their positions. What was this system called?

Answer 21

Venality

Question 22

Venality

Answer 22

The sale and purchase of certain jobs

Question 23

Why could those holding venal offices not be dismissed?

Answer 23

They had bought the right to hold their positions

Question 24

What did the taxpayers know that much of their tax paid never reached?

Answer 24

The treasury

Question 25

Who did Louis appoint as Controller-General of Finances?

Answer 25

Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot

Question 26

When did Louis XVI appoint Turgot?

Answer 26

1774

Question 27

Whose ideas were Turgot influenced by?

Answer 27

Physiocrats and the philosophes

Question 28

Who were the physiocrats?

Answer 28

Economists who believed that the wealth of the nation came solely from agriculture and that all state regulations, tolls and price controls should be ended

Question 29

What did Turgot abolish?

Answer 29

Trade guilds, the corvée and price controls

Question 30

Guilds

Answer 30

Organisations that tightly control entry into a trade

Question 31

Corvée

Answer 31

Unpaid labour service to maintain roads. In many places money replaced the service

Question 32

What did Turgot try to reform?

Answer 32

The taxation system

Question 33

Who did Turgot’s attempts at reform of the tax system spark protests from?

Answer 33

Privileged classes

Parlements

Question 34

Parlements

Answer 34

The 13 high courts of final appeal of the judicial system that were independent of the king

Question 35

What did the parlements consist of?

Answer 35

A dozen or more judges in each

1,100 judges nationwide

Question 36

Parlements typically wielded much power over a wide range of subject matter, particularly what?

Answer 36

Taxation

Question 37

What were not official until the parlements gave their assent by publishing them in their respective areas?

Answer 37

Laws and edicts issued by the Crown

Question 38

Who were members of parlements?

Answer 38

Nobles of the robe

Question 39

When did Turgot leave office due to Louis withdrawing his support?

Answer 39

12th May 1776

Question 40

What did the issue of taxation create among the Third Estate due to them bearing the burden of taxation?

Answer 40

Resentment