Question

give solutions to resolve the economic crisis in france without taxing third estate and without reducing privilages of first and second estate in france

Answer 1

Taxation was a significant problem in late 18th century France. According to conventional wisdom, the Ancien Régime’staxation regime was excessive, inefficient and unfair. It was excessive because France had become one of the highest-taxing states in Europe, largely because of its warmongering, its growing bureaucracy and high spending. It was inefficient because many taxes were collected by a network of private contractors dubbed ‘tax farmers’, a system that encouraged graft, corruption and tax avoidance. It was unfair because the bulk of the nation’s direct taxation was levied on the Third Estate. France’s common people, who could least afford to pay, believed they were shouldering most of the nation’s tax burden while the privileged Firstand Second Estates paid little or nothing, despite their comparatively greater wealth. Unsurprisingly, grievances about the Ancien Régime’s imbalanced taxation regime became a significant cause of the French Revolution. But were these grievances valid?