In 1774,Louis XVI of the Bourbon family of king ascended the throne of French. He was 20 years old and married to the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette. Upon his accession the new king found an empty treasury. Long years of war had drained the financial resources of French.
Added to this was the cost of maintaining an extravagant court at the immense palace of Versailles. Under Louis XVI, French helped the thirteen American colonies to gain their independence from the common enemy, Britain. The war added more than a billion livres to a dept that had already risen to more than 2 billion livres. Lenders who gave the state credit, now began to obliged to spend an increasing percentage of its budget on interest payment alone.
To meet its regular expenses, such as the cost of maintaining an army, the court, running government offices or universities, the state was forced to increase taxes. Yet even this measure would not have sufficed. French society in the eighteenth century was divided into three estate, and only members of the third estate paid taxes.
The society of estate was part of the feudal system that dated back to the middle Ages. The term Old Regime is usually used to describe the society and Institutions of France before 1789.
Peasants made up about 90% of the population. However, only a small number of them owned the land they cultivated. About 60% of the land was owned by the Nobels, the Church and other richer members of the the third estate. The members of the first two estate, that is, the clergy and the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges by birth.
The most important of these was exemption from paying taxes to the estate. The Nobels further enjoyed feudal privileges. These included feudal dues, which they Extracted from the peasants. Peasants were obliged to render services the lord- to work in his house and field- to serve in the army or to participate in building roads.
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