The treasury
was on the verge of collapse. From the conclusion of the war in 1783 to
the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, every possible financial
expedient was tried--in vain.
[Sidenote: The Problem of Taxation]
To tax the so-called privileged classes--the clergy and the nobles--
might have helped; and successive finance ministers so counseled the
king. But it was absolutely against the spirit of the "old regime."
What was the good of being a clergyman or a noble, if one had no
privileges and was obliged to pay taxes like the rest? To tax all alike
would be in itself a revolution, and the tottering divine-right
monarchy sought reform, not revolution.
[Sidenote: The Assembly of Notables, 1787]
Yet in 1786 the interest-bearing debt had mounted to $600,000,000, the
government was running in debt at least $25,000,000 a year, and the
treasury-officials were experiencing the utmost difficulty in
negotiating new loans. Something had to be done. As a last resort, the
king convened (1787) an Assembly of Notables--145 of the chief nobles,
bishops, and magistrates--in the vain hope that they would consent to
the taxation of the privileged and unprivileged alike.
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