Describe the social condition and tax system in french in 18 c
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If we would arrive at a true understanding of the nature of contemporary society, we
must first get a picture of the economic and social life of France in former times, espe-
cially in the eighteenth century. Indeed, there is no more instructive method than the
comparative, for it clearly reveals the similarities and, in particular, the contrasts.
Although only one hundred and fifty years—a brief period in the history of human-
ity—separate us from the era which we propose to study, it seems at first glance that the
France of today bears very little resemblance to the France of Louis XVI. This is readily
explained. In the intervening years the ancien régime was overthrown and the Revolution
transformed all political and social institutions. Then, too, a profound economic revolu-
tion, in the nineteenth century, affecting France as well as all other countries, has altered
the conditions of our material existence and our whole mode of life.
One fact which strikes us at the very outset is that the Revolution overturned all the
old legal institutions. In eighteenth century France the social classes, as we conceive
them today, can be detected only by an attentive observer of the realities of economic
life. The superficial student sees merely the legal distinctions. Three estates can be dis-
cerned—the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate. Between them rise the barriers of
secular privileges.
The privileges of the clergy and nobility constitute one of the characteristic features
of eighteenth century society. Clergy and nobility exercised a preeminent right over all
land property. The manorial dues of various kinds that they imposed upon the peasants
who tilled the soil formed one of their chief sources of revenue. Clergy and nobility thus
evaded most of the taxes and financial burdens that fell upon the popular classes and
must first get a picture of the economic and social life of France in former times, espe-
cially in the eighteenth century. Indeed, there is no more instructive method than the
comparative, for it clearly reveals the similarities and, in particular, the contrasts.
Although only one hundred and fifty years—a brief period in the history of human-
ity—separate us from the era which we propose to study, it seems at first glance that the
France of today bears very little resemblance to the France of Louis XVI. This is readily
explained. In the intervening years the ancien régime was overthrown and the Revolution
transformed all political and social institutions. Then, too, a profound economic revolu-
tion, in the nineteenth century, affecting France as well as all other countries, has altered
the conditions of our material existence and our whole mode of life.
One fact which strikes us at the very outset is that the Revolution overturned all the
old legal institutions. In eighteenth century France the social classes, as we conceive
them today, can be detected only by an attentive observer of the realities of economic
life. The superficial student sees merely the legal distinctions. Three estates can be dis-
cerned—the clergy, the nobility, and the third estate. Between them rise the barriers of
secular privileges.
The privileges of the clergy and nobility constitute one of the characteristic features
of eighteenth century society. Clergy and nobility exercised a preeminent right over all
land property. The manorial dues of various kinds that they imposed upon the peasants
who tilled the soil formed one of their chief sources of revenue. Clergy and nobility thus
evaded most of the taxes and financial burdens that fell upon the popular classes and
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