
What were the taxes during the French Revolution? In the decades leading to the French Revolution, peasants paid a land tax to the state (the taille) and a 5% property tax (the vingtième; see below). All paid a tax on the number of people in the family (capitation), depending on the status of the taxpayer (from poor to prince).
Who did not pay taxes in the French Revolution?
The First Estate (the clergy) were about 100,000 in number but owned roughly ten percent of all the land. They did not pay tax, but did contribute a "voluntary gift" to the government.
Why did the French government increased the taxes?
Why did the French Revolution increase the taxes? The reason behind French government to increase the taxes was to acquire the fund from the citizens of the country. When Louis took the charge of the state he found that the government has not sufficient fund to meet the expenses of army, court, government, machinery and etc.
Did the estates exist after the French Revolution?
The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed and evolved over time. The best known system is the French Ancien Régime, a three-estate system used until the French Revolution. The monarchy included the king and the queen, while the system was made up of clergy, nobles, peasants and bourgeoisie. In some regions, notably ...
What taxes did French peasants pay?
“Pays d’imposition” were recently conquered lands that had their own local historical institutions, although taxation was overseen by the royal administrator. In the decades leading to the French Revolution, peasants paid a land tax to the state (the taille) and a 5% property tax (the vingtième; see below).

What was taxed in the French Revolution?
The French were subject to a range of direct taxes (payable to the royal government) and indirect taxes (payable on items like salt, wine and tobacco) as well as feudal payments.
What were the 3 types of taxes in France?
In France there are three categories of taxes on income: the corporate tax, the income tax for individuals and taxes for social purposes (CSG and the CRDS, paid by the households).
How many types of taxes were used in the French Revolution?
The French administration had taxes like Tithes (giving one-tenth of the agricultural produce to the Church) and Taille (tax to the State). They also levied taxes on salt and tobacco. Among the estates, only the third estate had to bear the tax burden.
Who paid the taxes during the French Revolution?
Complete answer: Peasants paid a land tax to the state (the taille) and a 5% property tax in the decades leading up to the French Revolution. Depending on the taxpayer's status, they all paid a tax based on the number of persons in the family (capitation) (from poor to prince).
What was taxed in France before the Revolution?
In the decades leading to the French Revolution, peasants paid a land tax to the state (the taille) and a 5% property tax (the vingtième; see below). All paid a tax on the number of people in the family (capitation), depending on the status of the taxpayer (from poor to prince).
What are taxes in France?
There are three main types of personal taxes in France: French income tax (impôt sur le revenu) Social security contributions (charges sociales/cotisations sociales) Tax on goods and services (taxe sur la valeur ajoutée TVA, or VAT, in France)
What are the two types of taxes in France?
Taxes in France fall into two general categories:Direct taxes. These include taxes on income, real estate, and corporations as well as property and residence tax.Indirect taxes. These include VAT, taxes on petroleum products, and registration levies—as well as stamp and customs duties.
How did peasants pay taxes?
They also found that there was a great variety of taxes collected, mostly in kind (rye, barley, cattle, sheep, butter, pork and iron) as well as in cash. During the middle decades of the fourteenth-century, the average tax-paying peasant would had to pay the equivalent of 32 grams of silver to the royal treasury.
Why did the French government increased the taxes?
The French treasury was nearly empty when Louis XVI ascended the throne therefore in order to meet expenses like maintaining an army, court, running of government machinery etc. the he was forced to increase taxes.
What were the taxes the peasants had to pay in France?
The peasants paid the state taxes like land tax i.e. taille, salt tax i.e. Gabelle and provided free labour i.e corvee in constructing public roads. One tenth of their annual earnings went to the Clergy as tithe. The peasants and commoners had no representative in the national Assembly.
Which group paid all the taxes in France?
The third EstateThe third Estate = Businessman, merchants, small farmers, artisans, servants, and labors belonged to this group. And they had to pay all types of taxes including tithes and taille.
Who paid the taxes and to whom?
Answer. A normal Assessee is an individual who is liable to pay taxes for the income earned by him for a particular financial year. Each and every Individual who has paid taxes in preceding years against the income earned or losses incurred by him is liable to make payments to the government in the form of tax.
What were the 3 estates in French society?
This assembly was composed of three estates – the clergy, nobility and commoners – who had the power to decide on the levying of new taxes and to undertake reforms in the country. The opening of the Estates General, on 5 May 1789 in Versailles, also marked the start of the French Revolution.
How did the 3 estates contribute to the French Revolution?
The Three Estates contributed to France's revolutionary mood by their very structure. Because they lumped together with the urban poor, the merchants, and the middle-class, the Third Estate created a sense of solidarity that might not have otherwise existed.
What are French property taxes?
These taxes are based on the cadastral value of the property. The rates of tax are set by the région, the département and the commune and vary from one district to another. The taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation are both typically around 10 - 20 euros per m2 per year each.
What was the tithe tax?
Tithe was a tax levied by the church comprising one-tenth of the agricultural produce. It is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to the government.
What were the taxes that were collected by the state?
There were direct taxes, some of which were collected directly by the state: the taille (a personal tax), the capitation, and the vingtième (a form of income tax from which the nobles and officials were usually exempt). There were also indirect taxes that everyone paid: the salt tax, or gabelle, which represented nearly one-tenth of royal revenue;
Who argued that the French monarchy stood in this particular instance for administrative rationalization and progress?
Some observers, partisans of enlightened despotism —such as Voltaire, who defended it indirectly in his play of 1773 titled Les Lois de Minos ( The Laws of Minos )—argued that the French monarchy stood in this particular instance for administrative rationalization and progress.
Who defended despotism in the French monarchy?
Some observers, partisans of enlightened despotism—such as Voltaire, who defended it indirectly in his play of 1773 titled Les Lois de Minos ( The Laws of Minos )—argued that the French monarchy stood in this particular instance for administrative rationalization and progress. But the current of opinion was already moving against the crown. Many writers saw in Terray a tool of royal despotism, plain and simple, and his ministerial colleague René-Nicolas-Charles-Augustin de Maupeou (1714–92) was even more detested for his destruction of the parlements, which had become the bastion of conservative opposition to royal reform.
What was the main goal of Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville?
Tax reform. In 1749–51 Jean-Baptiste de Machault d’Arnouville, then comptroller general of finances, tried to deal with the debts resulting from the just-concluded War of the Austrian Succession by proposing a partial reform of the tax system, his particular concern being to restrict the financial immunities of the church.
How much was the tax in 1773?
In 1773, it was 6.4 million livres , which was 1.6 % of total revenue. This meant that the main revenue had to come in via the other taxes. Meaning, taxation was hard on the folks that didn't have land. This was contributing to the resentment that exploded in the Revolution of 1789.
Who sold the royal tax?
Colbert sold the right to collect the royal taxes, i.e. the aide, traite, and gabelle, for an annual sum of 56 million livres. Colbert had a say in this institution and kept control of it. Later ministers didn't.
What was Louis XVI's taille?
Louis XVI split the taille into taille personnelle (property / revenue / personal tax) and taille réelle (land and house property or household, applicable in Languedoc, Provence, Guyenne, Dauphiné). The taille was abolished with the Revolution.
How much did the Nobility pay?
The nobility, civil servants, and privileged citizens paid anything from 20 sous to 2,000 livres, depending on rank, status, occupation, and property , which put them in one of the 22 different tax classes.
What was the Le Petit Journal about?
Le Petit Journal, end of 19th century, which makes it post-revolutionary, of course. . . . the country's revenues were based on a very complex system of taxation. Carried over from olden times, each province had different tax agreements with the Crown.
When was the taille tax established?
The taille was an ancient tax, established in 1445, originally paid to a lord in exchange for his protection. Hence, clergy and nobility were exempt.
When did the Gabelle become a permanent tax?
Back in the days, the gabelle was a tax not only on salt but on various goods. In 1360 , it became a permanent tax.
Why did the French have problems in the 1780s?
The problems became acute in the 1780s because of a range of factors. A huge rise in population had occurred (there were 5-6 million more people in France in 1789 than in 1720) without a corresponding increase in native grain production. The refusal on the part of most of the French to eat anything but a cereal-based diet was another major issue. Bread likely accounted for 60-80 percent of the budget of a wage-earner’s family in the ancien regime—so even a small rise in grain prices could spark tensions.
When was the bread famine in France?
The Bread Famine in 18th-century France.
When Parisians stormed the Bastille in 1789, they weren't only looking for arms?
When Parisians stormed the Bastille in 1789 they weren't only looking for arms, they were on the hunt for more grain—to make bread. Voltaire once remarked that Parisians required only “the comic opera and white bread.”. But bread has also played a dark role in French history and, namely, the French Revolution.
Why did the French storm the Bastille?
The storming of the medieval fortress of Bastille on July 14, 1789 began as a hunt for arms— and grains to make bread. The French Revolution was obviously caused by a multitude of grievances more complicated than the price of bread, but bread shortages played a role in stoking anger toward the monarchy. Marie Antoinette 's supposed quote upon ...
What was the plot of the Bastille?
A plot drawn up at Passy in 1789 to foment rebellion against the crown, allegedly proposed several articles, the second of which was to “do everything in our power to ensure that the lack of bread is total, so that the bourgeoisie are forced to take up arms.”. Shortly thereafter the Bastille was stormed.
What did Marie Antoinette say when she heard her subjects had no bread?
Marie Antoinette 's supposed quote upon hearing that her subjects had no bread: "Let them eat cake!". is entirely apocryphal, but it epitomizes how bread could become a flashpoint in French history. Poor grain harvests led to riots as far back as 1529 in the French city of Lyon.
What happened during the Grande Rebeyne?
During the so-called Grande Rebeyne (Great Rebellion), thousands looted and destroyed the houses of rich citizens, eventually spilling the grain from the municipal granary onto the streets. Things only got worse in the 18th century.
What percentage of France's land was controlled by the clergy?
Though only .5 percent of the population, the clergy controlled about 15 percent of French lands.
What was the French aristocracy?
The French aristocracy, however, was not a single social unit but a series of differing groups. At the top were the hereditary nobles—a few descended from royalty or from feudal lords of the Middle Ages but more from families ennobled within the past two or three centuries.
What was the nobles of the robe?
Below the nobility of the sword came the “nobility of the robe,” including the justices of the parlements and other courts and a host of other officials. The nobles of the robe, or their ancestors, had originally become nobles by buying their offices.
What was the difference between the nobles of the robe and the nobles of the sword?
By the late eighteenth century there was often little practical distinction between the nobility of the robe and of the sword; marriages between members of the two groups were common. On the whole, the nobles of the robe were, in fact, richer than the nobles of the sword, and their firm hold on key governmental positions gave them more power ...
What did the lower clergy do?
The bishops and abbots held to the outlook of the noble class into which they had been born; although some of them took their duties seriously, others regarded clerical office simply as a way of securing a large private income. Dozens of prelates turned the administration of their bishoprics or monasteries over to subordinates, kept most of the revenue themselves, and lived in Paris or Versailles.
What did the peasants complain about?
They also complained about the church’s exemption from taxation. While the peasants remained moderately faithful Catholics and regarded the village priest, if not the bishop, with esteem and affection, the bourgeoisie increasingly accepted the anticlerical views of the philosopher.
What was the lowest level of French aristocracy?
They belonged to the lowest level of French aristocracy—the hobereaux, the “little falcons.”. In an effort to conserve at least part of their traditional status, almost all of the hobereaux insisted on the meticulous collection of the surviving feudal and manorial dues from the peasantry.
