What is the difference between the three estates

The taille, a direct land tax on the peasantry and non-nobles, became a major source of royal income. Peasants and nobles alike were required to pay one-tenth of their income or produce to the church the tithe. All paid a tax on the number of people in the family capitation , depending on the status of the taxpayer from poor to prince. Further royal and seigneurial obligations might be paid in several ways: in labor, in kind, or rarely, in coin.

The tax system in pre-revolutionary France largely exempted the nobles and the clergy from taxes. The tax burden therefore devolved to the peasants, wage-earners, and the professional and business classes, also known as the Third Estate. Further, people from less-privileged walks of life were blocked from acquiring even petty positions of power in the regime, which caused further resentment.

The greatest challenge to systemic change was an old bargain between the French crown and the nobility: the king could rule without much opposition from the nobility if only he refrained from taxing them. Consequently, attempts to impose taxes on the privileged — both the nobility and the clergy — were a great source of tension between the monarchy and the First and the Second Estates.

Already in , when Louis XIV was still a minor and his mother Queen Anne acted as a regent and Cardinal Mazarin as her chief minister, the two attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris. Louis was willing to tax the nobles but unwilling to fall under their control, and only under extreme stress of war was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the aristocracy.

This was a step toward equality before the law and sound public finance, but so many concessions and exemptions were won by nobles and bourgeois that the reform lost much of its value. Louis XV continued the tax reform initiated by his predecessor. It was meant to touch all citizens regardless of status. With all the exemptions and reductions won by the privileged classes, however, the burden of the new tax once again fell on the poorest.

Historians consider the unjust taxation system continued under Louis XVI to be one of the causes of the French Revolution. In practice, this meant mostly the peasants because many bourgeois obtained exemptions. The system was outrageously unjust in throwing a heavy tax burden on the poor and powerless.

The desire for more efficient tax collection was one of the major causes for French administrative and royal centralization. The taille - a direct land tax on the peasantry and non-nobles - became a major source of royal income. Peasants and nobles alike were required to pay one-tenth of their income or produce to the church the tithe. The tax was generally "personal," which meant that it was attached to non-noble individuals.

All paid a tax on the number of people in the family capitation , depending on the status of the taxpayer from poor to prince. Further royal and seigneurial obligations might be paid in several ways: in labor, in kind, or, rarely, in coin. Peasants were also obligated to their landlords for: rent in cash, a payment related to their amount of annual production, and taxes on the use of the nobles' mills, wine-presses, and bakeries. The tax system in pre-revolutionary France largely exempted the nobles and the clergy from taxes.

The tax burden, therefore, devolved to the peasants, wage-earners, and the professional and business classes, also known as the Third Estate. Further, people from less-privileged walks of life were blocked from acquiring even petty positions of power in the regime, which caused further resentment.

As the French state continuously struggled with the budget deficit, some attempts to reform the skewed system took place under both Louis XIV and Louis XV. The greatest challenge to introduce any changes was an old bargain between the French crown and the nobility: the king could rule without much opposition from the nobility if only he refrained from taxing them.

Consequently, attempts to impose taxes on the privileged - both the nobility and the clergy - were a great source of tension between the monarchy and the First and the Second Estates. Already in , when Louis XIV was still a minor and his mother Queen Anne acted as a regent and Cardinal Mazarin as her chief minister, the two attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris.

The members not only refused to comply, but also ordered all of Mazarin's earlier financial edicts burned. Get your paper price experts online. A Passage to India by E. Forster Essay on KFC in India. Need a custom essay sample written specially to meet your requirements? Choose skilled expert on your subject and get original paper with free plagiarism report Order custom paper Without paying upfront.

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