The Third Estate was too intelligent to follow blindly
or unhesitatingly the dictates of the court.
In the earliest history of the Estates-General, the Third Estate had
been of comparatively slight importance either in society or in
politics, and Philip the Fair had proclaimed that the duty of its
members was "to hear, receive, approve, and perform what should be
commanded of them by the king." But between the fourteenth and
eighteenth centuries the relative social importance of the bourgeoisie
had enormously increased. The class was more numerous, wealthier, more
enlightened, and more experienced in the conduct of business. It became
clearer with the lapse of time that it, more than nobility or clergy,
deserved the right of representing the bulk of the nation. This right
Louis XVI had seemed in part to recognize by providing that the number
of elected representatives of the Third Estate should equal the
combined numbers of those of the First and Second Estates. The
commoners naturally drew the deduction from the royal concession that
they were to exercise paramount political influence in the Estates-
General of 1789.
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