Essay About Tax System And Geographical Divisions Of France

French Revolution
Essay title: French Revolution
FRENCH REVOLUTION
ASSIGNMENT ONE
Modern European History Jonah Haines 1293
Mr. Potts
Г¬Privilege not poverty caused the French RevolutionГ®
To what extent do you agree?
The French Revolution was essentially a class war between the emerging Bourgeoisie
against the Privileged class, this meant they saw the Privileged class as the only hurdle
between themselves and equality within French society. Many of the ideas they pursued
stemmed from the enlightenment and they believed that in order to gain their full
economic, social and political potential and gain equality, the Bourgeoisie had to eradicate
the privileges that were halting their rise in society. To do this they had to seize power for
themselves and gaining power within the government and making badly needed changes,
such as, improving the tax system, creating a fair system of production where profits went
to the producer, improving the whole fiscal system of the government, improving the
geographical divisions of France and the problems they caused, plus many more. The
revolution was a fight for equality and recognition by the Bourgeoisie, it was not a revolt
against poverty, for many of the French people had been living in poverty for centuries and
had learnt to live with it.
France had prospered in the Eighteenth century. France had had no major famines or
plagues, its population had increased, there had been no wars on its soil, industry such as
textiles was doing well and offshore trading had increased enormously. It was the
Bourgeoisie that had enabled this abundance of wealth and they were emerging as the
economic power inside France. But their new found power was being smothered by the
privileged class. The privileged class of nobility and clergy, who owned the bulk of the
land, were using their ancient rights to plunder most of the profits that were made by the
lower classes. This meant that the;
Г¬Prosperity came only to those who held fairly large estates, who exercised feudal rights,
or who could manipulate farm rents.Г®1 The only people who fell under these categories
were the Nobles of the robe and the clergy. So in order to get the prosperity equally
divided in society and thus profit themselves, the bourgeoisie had to get rid of the
privileged classes ancient rights. To do this they had to revolt against the government, that
supported the privileged classes and which was reluctant to make the necessary reforms. It
is seen here that it was the Bourgeoisie were struggling against the Privileged class for
their rightful share of profits that was taken away by the privileges of the upper class, not
a fight by the peasants who were living in poverty.
Taxes and prices were another battlefield for the Bourgeoisie and the Aristocracy to fight
on. The tax base in France fell on the middle class who were the producers. Some of the
taxes in France were: the Taille which taxed commoners, nobility exempted, the Capitation
which was a poll tax on where you lived and what services you used, nobility exempted,
the Vingtieme was a five per cent tax on all income, again the nobility didnГ­t have to pay.
There were also taxes on salt and a tax whenever a person passed over a provincial
border, these taxes meant that a large cut of their profits from their work went to the