France 1774-8 Flashcards
(34 cards)
1
Q
Lettres de Cachet
A
arrest political opponents
2
Q
Intendant
A
Tax collectors
3
Q
generalite
A
areas of France - 33
4
Q
Taille
A
income tax
5
Q
capitation
A
tax on individual’s heads
6
Q
Vingtieme
A
5% income tax
7
Q
Gabelle
A
Salt tax
8
Q
Octrois
A
tax on moveable goods
9
Q
Pays d’Etat
A
6 generalite that can negotiate tax directly with the king
10
Q
Parlement
A
- regional parliaments, MPs are noble
- seen as the people’s champions (not really)
- could raise propaganda of the people against the king
11
Q
Noblesse de Robe
A
new nobles (rich)
12
Q
Noblesse d’Epee
A
old nobles (poor)
13
Q
Remonstrance
A
opposition to the King’s law / rule by parlement
14
Q
Lit de Justice
A
King can override parlement and push leg through
15
Q
Estates
A
social hierarchy
16
Q
Tithe
A
tax to the church
17
Q
corvee
A
manual labour tax
18
Q
seignural dues
A
what the peasants owe to the land-owners
19
Q
Feudalism
A
Pyramid economic system
20
Q
who was Turgot?
A
- French finance minister 1774-76
- six edicts to abolish privlege: 4 on feudal dues, tax paid by land-ownders
- land tax on everyone who owned land
- rationalise system of gov.
- free trade
- abolish trade guilds
- reforms not passed through because of parlement issuing remonstrance, despite Lit de Justice, never enforced because of opposition
21
Q
Who was Necker?
A
- 1st Term 1771–81
- made cuts in royal court
- cut number of tax farmers (often corrupt) from 60 - 40 and introduced 12 salaried officers to collect direct taxation
- raised money by borrowing 520 million livres, offering generous rates of interest
- compte rendu
- fired because of cuts in royal court
22
Q
who was Calonne?
A
- Finance minister 1783-87
- carried on raising loans
- planned a new land tax on land-owners, to be passed once without regular renewal by parlements
- sugggested tax plan should be put to an ‘Assembly of notables’ from 1st 2 estates
- abolition of corvee
- removal of internal customs barrier
23
Q
Brienne
A
- finance minister 1787-88
- Assembly of notables to agree to land tax
- introduced reforms following Neckers earlier plans
- codify laws in a printed form
- reform education
- religious toleration
- army more efficient and less expensive
24
Q
what happened at the Assembly of notables?
A
- 22 February 1787
- notables demand calling of the estates general
24
why were the parlement dismissed in August 1787
- issuing constant remonstrance at tax reform
- Louis passes a Lit de justice to pass Calonne's reforms
- Louis is seen as acting despotically
25
when was bankruptcy declared?
- August 1788
- payments suspended from treasury
26
Who were the main enlightenment thinkers? What were their policies?
**Who?**
- Rosseau: on the social contract
- Voltaire: idee republicaines
- montesquieu: the spirit of laws
**Ideas:**
- sovereignty should lie with the people
- checks and balances
- freedom of thought and expression
- courts should be equal
- destruction of the estates system
26
what was the effect of the enlightenment on the ancien regime?
challenged the legitimacy of the monarchy and promote ideas of individual rights and equaity that resonated with the french people
27
what was the effect of the American Revolution on France
- £5 million donated for the cause, putting France 3 million in debt
- advanced enlightenment thinking
- brought enlightnment salon culture
28
what was the compte rendu?
- rapport created by Necker claiming surplus of 10 million livres, actuallly a deficit of 46 million
28
Examples of the different customs traditions and laws in the 33 generalites
- 250,000 different units of measure
- 300 local laws in northern France alone
- tax dependant on where you lived
29
what was the effect of the pays d'etats and the internal customs boundaries between generalites
- massivley slowed down trade and created resentmnent
- different customs, traditions and laws in the different 33 areas
- no one had the same experience of gov. leading to inefficient economic system
30
what was partage?
- divided land among peasants
- meant many peasant farms were below self-sufficiency
31
priveleges of the 1st estate
- no tax
- different courts
