U3AOS1 - France

Question 1

The amount paid by the average peasant in taxes per annum

Answer 1

8-10 livres

Question 2

The annual income of a working family

Answer 2

30 livres

Question 3

The Income of a parish priest

Answer 3

700 livres

Question 4

The amount spent on Marie Antoinette’s wedding clothes and trousseau

Answer 4

200 000 livres

Question 5

The interest that had to be paid on loans in 1788

Answer 5

318 000 000 livres

Question 6

The income of the nation in 1788

Answer 6

530 000 000 livres

Question 7

The cost of running the country in 1788

Answer 7

629 000 000 livres

Question 8

The cost to France of being involved in the American War of Independence

Answer 8

1 000 000 000 livres

Question 9

Name some of the French taxes

Answer 9

• taille (tax on land)
• gabelle (tax on salt)
• vingtieme (tax for war aid)
• tithe (tax to church)
• corvee (forced labour on roads)
• capitation

Question 10

How many estates were there? Name them

Answer 10

There were three estates. The first estate: clergy, the second state: nobility and the third estate: the bourgeoisie, urban workers and peasants.

Question 11

What was the book Necker published called? What was the problem with it?

Answer 11

Compte Rendu au Roi (Compte Rendu for short). It did not include a record of the extraordinary accounts, where the real cost of the war was recorded.

Question 12

What did Colonne propose?

Answer 12

• war tax ‘vingtieme’ be abolished
• territorial subvention be introduced (tax on ALL landowners regardless of class)
• corvee replaced with a tax