The origins of the French Revolution, 1774–1789 Flashcards
1763-1771: Louis XV (Louis XVI’s predecessor) had problems with the Parlements. What happened?
• From 1763, the Paris Parlement had blocked royal reforms and policies and in 1771 Louis XV had tried to abolish parlements altogether.
1774: Louis XVI became King. What suggested that he was never going to be the best man for the job?
- He was never meant to be King: older brother (61) + father (65) died
- His character made him an ill-suited monarch - shy and introverted, indecisive, stubborn, childish, poorly educated.
1774: When Louis XVI came to the throne, the crown was already in huge debt. How much?
By 1764: 2.3 billion livres in debt
1774 (to 1776): Turgot became Controller-General of Finances. What were his successes?
- Cuts to royal expenses — Attempted to “rationalise” the system of government, by reducing the number of government officials to save money
- The demand that gov. depts submit their expenses to the Controller-General and find ways of reducing their spending.
- The removal or reduction of a number of pensions (together w/ the encouragement to Louis to be less lavish than his predecessors in granting these).
- Some reforms of the tax-farming system to increase efficiency.
1774 (to 1776): Turgot became Controller-General of Finances. What were his failures? What caused his failures?
• Attempted to set up a land tax, to be paid by everyone, regardless of estate, who owned land. This tax was to be worked out by representative assemblies of landowners.
Establishing free trade in grain, ending the government-imposed tolls and price controls: he hoped this would stimulate agriculture.
• Attempted to abolish trade guilds. These were bodies for each main industry or trade, which controlled work practices, work hours and wages.
• ‘Six Edicts’ 1776 — expressed desire to abolish privilege, to tax all and to grant every man the right to work w/out restriction.
4 of the Edicts were concerned w/ suppressing feudal dues and offices.
• 5th edict: suppressed the guilds (reduced control of the merchants and created more competition for them)
• 6th edict: abolished corvée (a tax in favour of landowners)
1776: Turgot resigned as Controller-General of Finances. Why?
He had offended a wide range of influential people incl. Marie-Antoinette whose favours to protégés he had opposed.
1777 (to 1781): Necker became Director-General of Finances. Successes?
- Made cuts in expenditure at the royal court — Reduce royal household expenses and pensions
- Removed the vingtieme on industry
- Cut number of tax farmers (often corrupt) from 60 to 40 and introduced 12 salaried officers to collect direct taxation. Necker himself would scrutinise the receipts.
- Appoint salaried officials rather than venal corporations to run the royal estates.
- Make the royal accounting system more professional.
- Restructure the financial admin., reducing the number of separate collecting bodies (caisses) and replacing venal accountants w/ paid secretaries.
1777 (to 1781): Necker became Director-General of Finances. Problems? Reasons for these?
- Instead of raising taxes, he raised money by borrowing 520 million livres, offering generous rates of interest
- In order to gain the people’s confidence, he published his Compte Rendu (1781), which set out the government finances [ expenditure + income ]:
- He claimed that there was a surplus of 10 million livres (there was actually a deficit of 46 million, but Necker missed out declaring the total cost of the American War of Independence)
1783: Calonne became Controller-General. What did he plan to do and why?
- The loans that Fr. relied on were drying up.
- The Paris Parlement became less willing to endorse the borrowing of large sums at high rates of interest which would add to Fr.’s debt.
- A general land tax (and the abolition of the remaining vingtièmes) to be accompanied by a survey and evaluation of land holdings.
- The establishment of provincial assemblies (to permit the involvement of landowners in the assessment of the new land tax).
- An extra indirect tax on legal documents (stamp duty).
- The end of corvée royale - to be replaced w/ tax on land owners.
- The removal of controls on the grain trade.
- The removal of internal customs barriers to boost commerce.
Feb-May 1787: Assembly of Notables. Give 4 reasons why they rejected Calonne’s reform proposals.
- Clergy were hostile to plans to tax the Church.
- Other notables were not convinced that the situ was bad enough for such big changes.
- Introducing a land tax, payable by all, incl. the Church, was likely to have profound social effects, hitting at the hierarchy of the Ancien Regime.
- Nobles saw themselves as under attack
From May 1787: The Assembly of Notables was dissolved, and the Paris Parlement opposed tax reform proposals. Why? What did they do?
- Brienne called the Paris Parlement to persuade it to register his plans for a universal land tax and higher stamp duties.
- In July it declared that although it supported the principle of reform, it was not competent to endorse such taxation changes (some notables also sat on this body.)
- Paris Parlement (copied by the provincial parlements) asserted its right to ‘speak for the nation’ and to protect citizens’ fundamental rights against despotism.
- Brienne tried to force the registration of the tax proposals using LDJ
- Paris Parlement refused to accept this and petitioned for an E-G.
From about May 1787: The 3rd Estate became increasingly open in their support for the Parlement. What did they do? Why is this somewhat surprising? How can their behaviour be explained?
- Parisians, in support of the Parl’s calls for an E-G, gathered at the Palais-Royal
- P-R = home of Duc D’Orleans, L’s cousin who openly spoke out against him
• educated members of society influenced by the Enlightenment and wanted a power-sharing arrangement, therefore agreed w/ calls for an E-G
August – November 1787: The King tried to resist the Parlement’s opposition. What did he do in August? And in September? And in November?
- August: exiled the Paris Parl to Troyes
- September: had to allow the parl to return
- November: held a royal session
- D d’O exiled w/ an LDC for opposing him
- Louis arrested 2 other members for opposing him
- brought in royal troops to surround the area so he could pass his loans w/ a LDJ
- to get the parl to approve another vingtieme, he had to accept the demands for an E-G (to be called in 1792)
August – November 1787: The King tried to resist the Parlement’s opposition. What was the response to these actions of the King?
- Rioting in the streets caused by: Louis exiling the Paris Parl +
- Provincial parls unanimously refused to register his edicts
- population felt he was acting despotically
May 1788: The Paris Parlement issued a document asserting their power. What was this document called? What exactly did it say? What was the result of the document?
- ‘Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom’
- they claimed it couldn’t be changed, even by royal demand
- stated the consent of an E-G was needed for such fundamental changes
