When the privileged classes
begin to feel the pinch of hard times, it is certain that the finances
are in sore straits.
[Sidenote: Financial Embarrassment]
In fact, all the great general causes of the French Revolution, which
may be inferred from the two preceding chapters, may be narrowed down
to the financial embarrassment of the government of Louis XVI. The king
and his ministers had already had recourse to every expedient
consistent with the maintenance of the "old regime" save one, and that
one--the convocation of the Estates-General--was now to be tried. It
might be that the representatives of the three chief classes of the
realm would be able to offer suggestions to the court, whereby the
finances could be improved and at the same time the divine-right
monarchy and the divinely ordained social distinctions would be
unimpaired.
[Sidenote: Convocation of the Estates-General]
With this idea of simple reform in mind, Louis XVI in 1788 summoned the
Estates-General to meet at Versailles the following May.
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