Privileged Class Of Nobility And Clergy example essay topic

FRENCH REVOLUTION ASSIGNMENT ONE Modern European History Jonah Haines 1293 Mr. Potts 'i Privilege not poverty caused the French Revolution^i To what extent do you agree? The French Revolution was essentially a class war between the emerging Bourgeoisie against the Privileged class, this meant they saw the Privileged class as the only hurdle between themselves and equality within French society. Many of the ideas they pursued stemmed from the enlightenment and they believed that in order to gain their full economic, social and political potential and gain equality, the Bourgeoisie had to eradicate the privileges that were halting their rise in society. To do this they had to seize power for themselves and gaining power within the government and making badly needed changes, such as, improving the tax system, creating a fair system of production where profits went to the producer, improving the whole fiscal system of the government, improving the geographical divisions of France and the problems they caused, plus many more. The revolution was a fight for equality and recognition by the Bourgeoisie, it was not a revolt against poverty, for many of the French people had been living in poverty for centuries and had learnt to live with it. France had prospered in the Eighteenth century.

France had had no major famines or plagues, its population had increased, there had been no wars on its soil, industry such as textiles was doing well and offshore trading had increased enormously. It was the Bourgeoisie that had enabled this abundance of wealth and they were emerging as the economic power inside France. But their new found power was being smothered by the privileged class. The privileged class of nobility and clergy, who owned the bulk of the land, were using their ancient rights to plunder most of the profits that were made by the lower classes. This meant that the;' i Prosperity came only to those who held fairly large estates, who exercised feudal rights, or who could manipulate farm rents. ^i 1 The only people who fell under these categories were the Nobles of the robe and the clergy. So in order to get the prosperity equally divided in society and thus profit themselves, the bourgeoisie had to get rid of the privileged classes ancient rights.

To do this they had to revolt against the government, that supported the privileged classes and which was reluctant to make the necessary reforms. It is seen here that it was the Bourgeoisie were struggling against the Privileged class for their rightful share of profits that was taken away by the privileges of the upper class, not a fight by the peasants who were living in poverty. Taxes and prices were another battlefield for the Bourgeoisie and the Aristocracy to fight on. The tax base in France fell on the middle class who were the producers. Some of the taxes in France were: the Taille which taxed commoners, nobility exempted, the Capitation which was a poll tax on where you lived and what services you used, nobility exempted, the Vingtieme was a five per cent tax on all income, again the nobility didn " it have to pay. There were also taxes on salt and a tax whenever a person passed over a provincial border, these taxes meant that a large cut of their profits from their work went to the government.

This was made worse when the government found itself in major debt. Because the government supported the Aristocracy, who didn " it pay taxes, the middle class was taxed even more. This created resentment for the Aristocracy because they were the ones who were getting all the money through their privileges yet it was the lower, poorer, classes who were getting taxed. This spurred an even bigger will for equality. To solve this problem their had to be an equal society where taxes were paid according to wealth or land and most importantly by everybody. To achieve this the Bourgeoisie had to be able to voice their views and opinions, thus they had to be able to hold office in government.

But the privileges of the nobility stopped them from doing this. Therefor it is shown that the Bourgeoisie were fighting the Privileged class against their privileges which were making their taxes rise and stopping them from being able to make the necessary changes through the government. Again it is seen that poverty was not a factor in this issue because the Bourgeoisie was fighting against privileges that made them the highest tax payers, not because they were living in poverty due to the taxes they had to pay. The prices of goods such as bread, were increasing rapidly. This was due to numerous reasons, the governments debt problem being the major one.

Prices were rising faster than the middle classes wages due to tax increases. The solution to this was that taxes had to be paid by all and they should be measured by wealth. This would mean a lot more revenue for the government and thus a lower tax rate for the middle class and wages would increase and prices drop. It would also allow the Bourgeoisie to profit from price rises rather than suffer because they were the producers.

But because the government still supported the Aristocracy the Bourgeoisie had to get into the government to change things. In order to do this they had to abolish the privileges that were stopping them doing this in order to get rid of the privileged class that was not paying tax and taking a cut of the middle classes profits. So it is seen again that in order to make changes the Bourgeoisie had to eradicate privileges, so it is shown that the Revolution seeds from a battle against the Privileged class, not a battle against poverty. The way the government was run also helped the Privileged class help itself to the middle classes profit margin. France was divided into provinces and districts.

Many of which overlapped each other, this caused problems for the Bourgeoisie who were trading and had to cross these borders. The Aristocracy put dues on anyone who wished to cross the borders and the goods they had. This in itself caused outcries because there was not one single system of weights and measures operating in France so costs varied. When a trader was travelling they had to pay on-costs every time they crossed a border.

This plus the tax and the ancient dues taken by the aristocracy resulted in little or no profit for the producing class, instead the profit fell on the consumers. To solve this the governments structure had to be changed, from an the ancient structure in place at the time to a more modern structure. But again the Monarchy was reluctant to do so. So.