French Revolution

What was France's population by 1789?

Over 27 million.

What was the major structural problem created by French inheritance laws regarding property?

Partible inheritance divided property among heirs each generation, producing increasingly fragmented rural holdings.

What happened to French agriculture after the late 1760s, and how many abundant harvest occurred between 1770 and 1789?

Harvest yields became much more uncertain; only three

What proportion of ordinary people's diet consisted of bread, and how much of a regular wage-earner’s income could be spent on bread?

About 75%; 1/3 to 1/2

What was the Flour War of 1775, how much did bread prices rise right before the war, and what people constitutded most of its participants?

A major wave of food riots following rising bread prices and attempts to liberalize the grain trade to not have price controls; over 50%; people with everything to lose, moreso than the poor.

What privileges did nobles enjoy under the Old Regime?

Elite status, special legal treatment, exemption from the corvée (unpaid forced labor) and militia, exemption from the taille (general tax)

How much land did nobles own around 1789?

Between one-quarter and one-third of French land.

What proportion of the French population were peasants, how many were normally poor, and how many were poor in bad times?

About 80%; 33% (8 million); 10-11 million

How did prices change relative to wages over the 1700s?

Prices rose three times faster than wages.

What was the taille, what was the gabelle, and how much total did taxation and tithing take out of a peasants earnings?

The main general tax; the hated salt tax which was levied at six different rates depending on the region; Around 10–15% for taxes and 8% for tithes.

What financial and other major burdens did French peasants face?

Taxes, tithes, the corvée, and feudal/seigneurial dues.

What were banalités?

Manorial monopolies that compelled producers to use a lord's facilities, such as a mill or wine-press.

Approximately how large was the bourgeoisie, and what had happened to its population since Louis XIV?

About 2 million people; it more than double, while the entire population increased by only 25%

What did successful bourgeois usually do with surplus business profits and why?

They often bought land rather than leaving their money invested in commerce because they wanted to become “noble”, and the noble earned their money from land because doing business was seen as something commoners did.

What was the ultimate social aspiration of many bourgeois?

Ennoblement—joining the nobility.

What were venal offices, how many existed under Louis XVI, and how many conferred nobility?

Public offices that could be bought; over 70,000; over 4,000

How did bourgeois wealth affect the nobility, and through what pathways?

It made them richer, since the bourgeois were successful in industry and their wealth entered the nobility through land purchases, offices, marriages, and ennoblement.

Was the nobility uniformly wealthy and politically dominant?

No. Half or more of nobles were no better off than the average bourgeois, and many were poorer. Some lived fairly impoverished conditions while using what money they had for clothing to look rich.

How was France a plutocracy?

France was effectively governed by a wealthy elite, rather than by the nobility as a whole.

What were the parlements, how could they obstruct royal policy, and what was a lit de justice?

Sovereign courts of final appeal that also had important administrative and political functions.

they could delay legislation by their right to issue remonstrances against it, which required the king’s response, which took up time.

A royal session in which the king appeared to order legislation forward, overriding parlementary resistance.

Who was Maupeou, what did he do in 1771, what happened after the then-king died, and what lessons and signals emerged from all this?

He was the chancellor of France under Louis XV.

He exiled the Paris magistrates, replaced them, abolished venality in the parlement, and created a new court structure.

Louis XVI restored the parlements, dismissed Maupeou, and abandoned his innovations.

The Crown could attack parlementary stonewalling, but its restoration exposed the weakness of royal authority, and concerns about the king being an unchecked despot came to the fore.

What was the Farmers-General and their use to the monarchy, what were their fiscal gates, and what happened to them in 1789?

A wealthy syndicate that leased tax-collection monopolies; they collected the most indirect taxes for the monarchy than any other source

Ten-foot walls designed to prevent importers from sneaking their goods into Paris without paying taxes

They were burned during the July disorders, becoming symbols of fiscal oppression.

How much of the king's annual revenue went to the Court?

About 5%, or roughly 35 million livres.

What did financiers do for the monarchy, and approximately how many of them formed France's key financial elite?

They managed revenues and expenditures, supplied short-term credit, and raised long-term loans.

Only about 200–300 individuals.

What broader characteristic defined the Old Regime described in the passage in terms of tradition, institutions, privileges, and government practices?

A mixture of formal tradition, overlapping institutions, inherited privileges, and poorly rationalized practices.

How was France institutionally fragmented leading up to the Revolution in its provincial governments, generalities, legal jurisdictions, and Church areas, and why was this troublesome? Furthermore, what was an added problem regarding the uniformity of French law?

39 provincial governorships
34 generalities
13 parlements
19 archiepiscopal provinces and 136 dioceses

These conflicting areas of authority often overlapped, producing legal and fiscal conflicts due to their mismatched boundaries; this added delays, expense, uncertainty, etc.

There was no uniform legal system. Some regions relied heavily on customary law, others relied on Roman law, etc.

How did internal customs barriers affect France?

They fragmented the domestic market through tolls, excises, and tariffs at towns, rivers, and provincial boundaries, which were subject to being wildly different from other places in France due to overlapping jurisdictions.

Who was the curé in most French villages?

Often the village's only educated person and major authority figure, making him an important source of social cohesion and leadership.

What did prosperous peasant elites commonly struggle over, and how many small owner-occupiers were there?

Power and authority within the village, often fighting nobles, outsiders, tax collectors, and large farmers; about 4 million

What was métayage?

Sharecropping. The tenant supplied labor and implements, while the landlord supplied seed and received an agreed share of the crop.

Why were peasants so obsessed with producing grain over other crops, and what problem did this create?

Because of an age-old and well-justified fear of famine; it discouraged diversification, which made harvest failure more catastrophic.

Why was agriculture especially productive in Flanders while it was underproductive everywhere else in France?

Strong urban demand for food created a market that encouraged agricultural innovation, especially crop rotation and the elimination of fallow land.

What were gros fermiers, and why were they unpopular in rural communities?

Large-scale tenant farmers who leased substantial estates and farmed them commercially

They accumulated the best land through their ambition, converted arable land to pasture, enclosed fields, and threatened traditional communal rights like gleaning and free grazing.

What was the cens, and how much could feudal burdens vary geographically?

A token money rent owed to a lord; from a few percent in some areas around Paris or Maine to around 25% in parts of Brittany or Burgundy.

What happened to the wine crop during Louis XVI's reign?

It became unusually volatile, failing completely in 1778 and then over-producing afterward.

What was France's most visible social problem?

Poverty.

What did Jean-Marie Roland say in 1777 about workers' living costs?

Workers needed twice as much money for subsistence while earning no more than workers had fifty years earlier.

Why did poor people migrate to towns, from where did they mostly originate, what traditional and new institutions provided them relief, and why was traditional relief becoming inadequate under Louis XVI?

They hoped towns would provide more opportunities for work

The countryside

Traditional: Monasteries, convents, hospitals, poorhouses, and private charity
New: Masonic charitable funds, philanthropic societies, workhouses, and charitable workshops.

Charitable resources declined as claims rose and inflation reduced purchasing power

What proportion of the French population lived in rural society?

Around 80%, since peasants formed the overwhelming majority.

How did peasant families combine different sources of income?

Through landholding, day labor, seasonal labor, cottage industry, and migration.

How important was seasonal migration in some rural communities?

Extremely important; one Auvergne report said the inhabitants' main "industry" was to leave home for nine months of the year.

What communal rights helped poorer peasants survive?

Pasturing animals on common land, gathering firewood, gleaning after harvest, and free-grazing cattle on stubble.

How much did urbanization increase during the eighteenth century?

A third more of the French population lived in towns under Louis XVI than at the beginning of the century.

What proportion of French towns had fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, how many french cities had more than 50,000 people, and which cities doubled in size and which grew by over half in the 1700s?

90%

Only nine

Bordeaux and Nantes; Lyons and Marseilles

Who made up much of the urban poor?

Unskilled casual laborers such as porters, dockers, waiters, shoeshine boys, hucksters, and petty dealers.

What was the hierarchy within skilled crafts, and what was a guild?

Apprentice → journeyman (compagnon) → master.

An officially recognized organization governing a skilled trade

What happened to the guilds in 1776?

The government attempted to abolish them, but they were largely restored within months.

What did industrial unrest under Louis XVI reflect?

Growing dissatisfaction, falling real wages, and tension between workers, masters, and authorities.

What did masters and journeymen often demand during food crises?

They expected authorities to keep food prices down, rather than primarily demanding higher wages.

What did ordinary people mean by a "just price" for bread?

A price sufficiently low that ordinary people could afford it.

Why was hoarding regarded as such a serious crime during shortages?

People believed hoarding artificially restricted supplies and threatened the community's subsistence.

How was order restored during the Flour War?

Through troops, hundreds of arrests, and two public executions.

How large was France in the 1770s, excluding overseas territories in the Americas and east of the Cape?

About 277,200 square miles.

What were three major territorial acquisitions of the French monarchy?

Franche-Comté in 1678, Lorraine in 1766, and Corsica in 1768.

What significant foreign enclaves remained within French territory?

Avignon belonged to the Pope; Alsace contained territories under German princes; and Mulhouse was an independent city-state.

What were the provinces?

The oldest major territorial divisions, originally independent feudal domains progressively absorbed by the French Crown.

Why did the parlements survive after their territories became part of France?

French kings often accepted or adapted existing institutions rather than imposing entirely new ones.

How many generalities were there, and who administered them?

34, each headed by an intendant.

How many provincial governorships were recognized in 1776?

39.

How many general and local customs existed in northern France?

At least 65 general customs and 300 local ones.

Why could property laws differ greatly from one place to another?

France had multiple customary and legal systems, affecting marriage, inheritance, and property tenure.

How many different rates of the gabelle existed?

Six, depending on the area.

How many customs barriers could goods travelling from Franche-Comté to the Mediterranean encounter?

36 separate barriers on the Saône and Rhône.

Why was France's institutional complexity not simply arbitrary?

Many of its institutions and boundaries reflected geography, climate, culture, and economic necessity.

Why was the Paris basin particularly well suited to centralized government?

It had easy communications, navigable rivers, fertile soil, dense population, good roads, markets, and linguistic/cultural homogeneity.

Why did the Paris basin become France's most commercialized agricultural region?

Its fertile soil, good communications, and proximity to large urban markets made commercial agriculture profitable.

Approximately how many people lived in Paris?

About 650,000.

Which city was known as the "Manchester of France"?

Rouen, because of its expanding cotton industry.

What was the bocage?

A landscape of small fields separated by high mounds, hedges, scattered farms, and sunken roads.

What language did many western Bretons speak?

Breton.

Why did Brittany enjoy more self-government than many provinces?

It had a strong parlement and annually meeting provincial estates.

Which Breton ports connected France to the wider Atlantic and overseas world?

Brest, Lorient, and Nantes.

What was Nantes particularly important for?

It was the center of the French slave trade and an important West Indies commercial port.

What characterized the Vendée economically and geographically?

Bocage landscapes, isolated farms, poor communications, subsistence agriculture, and limited textile production.

What was Bordeaux's major economic role?

It was the major commercial capital of southwestern France and became Europe's second busiest port.

Why was Bordeaux so prosperous?

It benefited from navigable rivers, fertile land, overseas commerce, and the expanding colonial economy.

What crop transformed the upper Garonne and Pyrenean foothills?

Maize, introduced in the late seventeenth century.

What was the Massif Central?

A remote, mountainous region with a relatively poor economy that depended heavily on seasonal migration.

Which crops were especially suited to the Mediterranean climate of southern France?

Vines, olives, and mulberries.

How many Protestants lived in Languedoc?

Roughly 250,000.

Who were the Camisards?

Protestant peasants in the Cévennes who launched a major uprising during the first decade of the eighteenth century.

What city stood at the junction of the Rhône and Saône?

Lyons.

What industry dominated Lyons?

Silk, in which more than 60,000 people earned their living.

Why was Burgundy economically important?

It had good communications, famous vineyards, and developing industry, especially around Le Creusot.

Why was Le Creusot historically significant?

In the 1780s it became the site of the most advanced industrial complex in Europe, using coke-smelting techniques borrowed from England.

What distinguished Alsace from much of France?

It was largely German-speaking, oriented toward Germany, religiously mixed, and economically tied to the Rhine.

What river was central to Alsace's economic life?

The Rhine.

How were rural and urban economies connected?

Peasants bought and sold goods in towns, cottage industries were organized through towns, and many peasants had members who migrated temporarily or permanently to cities.

What happened to towns during the eighteenth century?

Many grew rapidly, especially Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyons, and Marseilles, while some commercially bypassed cities stagnated.

What characterized the skilled craftsmen of Old Regime towns?

Their trades were tightly organized, exclusive, hierarchical, and highly regulated.

What was the basic mobility pattern of journeymen?

Journeymen often traveled from town to town seeking work and experience.

What was the usual size of Parisian workshops in 1789?

About 16–17 workers on average.

What were some examples of unusually large factories?

Oberkampf's printing works employed about 1,000, the Garnier-Danse-Thevard works about 800, royal glassworks about 500, and Reveillon's wallpaper works about 300.

Why were large factories exceptional?

Their scale, organization, and freedom from guild controls made them unusual and sometimes suspicious.

Why were bread riots such an important threat to public order?

Towns were highly dependent on food supplies, and bread was central to subsistence; rising prices could provoke collective violence.

Why did grain policy become politically unstable in the eighteenth century?

Governments repeatedly shifted between state controls and attempts at liberalization, producing uncertainty during shortages.

Why was bread so central to household budgets?

It constituted most of ordinary people's diet and consumed a huge proportion of poor households' income.

What characterized the dominant social classes?

Literacy, formal dress, servants, soft hands, substantial income, and large possessions.

How much industrial and commercial capital was bourgeois-owned?

Almost one-fifth of French private wealth.

Approximately what share of French land belonged to the bourgeoisie?

About one-quarter.