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 i...
Education is the birth right...