WEBVTT 1 00:00:18.320 --> 00:00:22.000 Hello, and welcome to Western CIV. Episode four hundred and 2 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.600 eighty seven, The Old Regime. So today we're going to 3 00:00:25.600 --> 00:00:28.679 start the story arc of the French Revolution, and that's 4 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:31.399 going to take a lot of episodes. The French Revolution 5 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:35.880 is an incredibly important event. In hindsight, you might argue 6 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:39.200 that the American Revolution is equally important, but nobody saw 7 00:00:39.240 --> 00:00:42.880 it like that. At the time of France was one 8 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:47.600 of the three most powerful kingdoms in all of Europe, 9 00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:52.240 alongside Spain and England. So the turmoil and complete sea 10 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:55.679 change of government that it's going to experience are going 11 00:00:55.719 --> 00:00:58.280 to have reverberations that are going to go all throughout 12 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.840 Europe and beyond. Many historians argue it is the beginning 13 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:06.040 of modernity, and I think there's good arguments to say that, 14 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:09.120 particularly as we look today at what France was before 15 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:12.239 the Old Regime is often referred to as the Assion 16 00:01:12.519 --> 00:01:16.799 or an ancient regime in French. But what I really 17 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:20.439 want to make sure that I do throughout this series 18 00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:25.480 is to talk not only about how these events impacted France, 19 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:30.239 but how the reverberations echoed out throughout Europe and well beyond. 20 00:01:31.079 --> 00:01:33.599 This is a story that we're going to start here 21 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:36.959 in the old regime, and we're going to continue all 22 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:41.120 the way through the final defeat of Napoleon and the 23 00:01:41.239 --> 00:01:44.359 Treaty of Vienna, which is going to essentially put the 24 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.519 book end on the Napoleonic Wars. So I'm going to 25 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:52.840 go further than some historians and other podcasts have gone 26 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:55.599 to talk about the French Revolution. One of the advantages 27 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:57.640 I have is always I'm not a historian, so I'm 28 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:01.000 not sort of stuck into a box. I can just 29 00:02:01.280 --> 00:02:03.560 sort of call balls and strikes as I see them. 30 00:02:03.799 --> 00:02:05.519 And I want to go all the way to Vienna, 31 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:07.359 and so we're going to go to Vienna because I 32 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:09.800 want to talk about, of course, Napoleon, and I want 33 00:02:09.800 --> 00:02:12.080 to talk about the wars and the battles and all 34 00:02:12.080 --> 00:02:15.120 the fun stuff that are tied in with that. But 35 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:18.680 we want to begin today by looking at the old 36 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:21.800 regime before we start to extrapolate out what's going to happen. 37 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:27.000 If we want to consider the Ension regime, we have 38 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:30.360 to think about the orders that were sent forth. And 39 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:33.520 orders is a specific and very medieval term, and what 40 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:35.599 you're going to notice in this episode is there's a 41 00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:38.840 lot that's medieval about France all the way through the 42 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:42.120 middle of the eighteenth century. At the heart of the 43 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:47.039 ancient regime lay a rigid social structure, divided into these 44 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:52.280 famous three estates. The first estate, the clergy, numbered maybe 45 00:02:52.439 --> 00:02:55.280 one hundred and thirty thousand in a kingdom of over 46 00:02:55.360 --> 00:03:01.240 twenty five million. They were guardians of religion, education, and morality, 47 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:05.680 but there were also major landowners. Despite their small numbers, 48 00:03:05.719 --> 00:03:08.879 they controlled around ten percent of the land in all 49 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:11.520 of France. Remember this is still a time period when 50 00:03:11.680 --> 00:03:18.039 land equals wealth. They enjoyed privileges exemptions from most direct taxation, 51 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:22.439 the right to levy the tithe on peasants, and influence 52 00:03:22.520 --> 00:03:26.800 in royal councils. The second estate, the nobility, was bigger, 53 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:30.599 but not by much. It comprised about three hundred thousand individuals, 54 00:03:30.960 --> 00:03:34.840 less than two percent of the population, Yet they held 55 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:39.560 vast estates, lucrative offices and commanding positions in the army 56 00:03:39.560 --> 00:03:44.199 and in the church. Their legal privileges were extensive exemption 57 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:48.000 from the tale, the direct land tax, the right to 58 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:51.120 collect feudal dues from peasants, and the prestige of birth. 59 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:55.680 Yet by the eighteenth century, the nobility itself was divided 60 00:03:56.039 --> 00:03:58.800 between the old sword and whose families could trace their 61 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:03.360 lineage backed century, and those of the rogue nobility, who 62 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:08.479 purchased offices in royal administration and courts. This division bred 63 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:12.439 resentment within the elite, for many rogue nobles were wealthier 64 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:16.519 than their sword counterparts. Now there was, of course, the 65 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:22.360 third estate, which was everyone else urban workers, lawyers, merchants, artisans, 66 00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:25.639 and most importantly, the peasant class, who made up about 67 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:33.040 eighty percent of the population. Burdened with rents, dues, tithes, taxes, 68 00:04:33.879 --> 00:04:36.480 they bore the brunt of supporting the kingdom while enjoying 69 00:04:36.519 --> 00:04:41.399 absolutely noneovich privileges. As Abbi Sis would famously put it 70 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:45.399 in seventeen eighty nine, what is the third estate? Everything? 71 00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:49.920 What has it been uptel now in the political order? Nothing? 72 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:53.360 Though France was a monarchy, the king's power was not 73 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:57.800 as absolute as the image of Louis the fourteenth and 74 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:01.600 his leta semis eight is mine or I am the 75 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:05.759 state might suggest. The king reigned at Versailles, of course, 76 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:10.600 supported by an elaborate bureaucracy, but his decisions were constrained 77 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:14.319 by custom, tradition, and a patchwork of laws across the 78 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:19.680 Kingdom France was not at all uniform. You have to 79 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:25.839 understand that some regions, like Brittany and Burgundy still had 80 00:05:25.879 --> 00:05:30.319 their own estates and their own parliaments or parliaments. Local 81 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:35.720 customs varied from province to province, and taxation was unevenly distributed, 82 00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:41.720 riddled with exemptions and privileges. The parliaments royal courts, dominated 83 00:05:41.720 --> 00:05:44.519 by nobles of the rogue, acted as both law courts 84 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:48.199 and political bodies. They had the power to register royal 85 00:05:48.399 --> 00:05:51.600 edicts before they became law. In theory, they were meant 86 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:55.279 to ensure legality. In practice, they were often used to 87 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:59.920 block or delay reforms, defending aristocratic privilege under the guy 88 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:04.480 is of protecting the quote unquote fundamental laws of the realm. 89 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:09.040 By the late eighteenth century, most of the territory that 90 00:06:09.079 --> 00:06:12.720 today we would call France was under what we call domain, 91 00:06:13.000 --> 00:06:17.120 royal lands that had been gradually brought under the direct 92 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:20.759 control of the crown, really since the days of Charlemagne 93 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:25.959 in eight hundred CE. This domain had expanded over the centuries, 94 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:29.000 beginning with the capacis tiny holdings around the Ea de 95 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.160 France and stretching outward through conquest, marriage, and dynastic chance. 96 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.079 By seventeen eighty nine, the king's writ ran over the 97 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:41.959 great heartland of provinces Norman, dy Champagne or the uns 98 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:47.360 Language doctor Gien and Burgundy. These provinces sent troops and taxes, 99 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:51.639 and their governors, though usually nobles of influence, served at 100 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:56.279 the King's pleasure. But even here uniformity remained a fiction. 101 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:01.839 Each province had its own customs, laws, and institutions. The 102 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:06.480 costume may is local customary laws varied widely, especially between 103 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:10.079 the north and the south. Towns and provinces alike clong 104 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:14.399 to charters guaranteeing special exemptions from priviges, many dating back 105 00:07:14.439 --> 00:07:18.480 to the Middle Ages. One of the clearest markers of 106 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:22.839 this distinction is taxation. In the Pays de la Oxion, 107 00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:26.800 the bulk of the kingdom, the king's appointed intendants assessed 108 00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:33.279 and levied taxes directly, but the Pays de estates regions 109 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:38.360 like Brittany, Burgundy, Languidoc, and promense local representatives and assemblies. 110 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:43.519 The estates of the province negotiated their tax rates continuously 111 00:07:43.879 --> 00:07:47.519 with the crown. What that meant was that in Brittany 112 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:51.720 or Languidoc, the king could not simply decree a new tax, 113 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:56.439 he had to constantly bargain with local estates who jealously 114 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:01.199 guarded their autonomy. Thus, while so France had one king, 115 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:06.199 it did not have one tax system. A traveler moving 116 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:10.120 through the kingdom might come across invisible boundaries where entirely 117 00:08:10.240 --> 00:08:15.000 different fiscal rules applied. Now, of course, a great many 118 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:20.000 territories had joined France only recently, and their integration remained 119 00:08:20.279 --> 00:08:26.040 very incomplete. Alsace, annext in the seventeenth century, retained German 120 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:29.879 law in many places, and the city of Strasburg had 121 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:35.480 special privileges. Lorraine, incorporated in seventeen sixty six after the 122 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:38.720 death of its duke, still maintained its own parliament and 123 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:44.200 legal traditions. Corsica had been purchased by France from Genoa 124 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:48.960 only in seventeen sixty eight, and though technically a French province, 125 00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:52.080 by seventeen eighty nine, it was a land with its 126 00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:57.159 own fiercely independent traditions. The southern border told a similar story. 127 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:01.360 Roussoon and part of Candan had come into France from 128 00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:04.320 Spain only by the Treaty of the Pyrenees in sixteen 129 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:08.320 fifty nine, and though the French speaking officials had been installed. 130 00:09:08.720 --> 00:09:13.440 Catalan customs and privileges lingered in the north. Artois and Flanders, 131 00:09:13.759 --> 00:09:16.960 acquired through wars with Spain in the seventeenth century, were 132 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:22.559 still quite Flemish in language and practice. Even stranger were 133 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:26.320 the enclaves and the outliers that dotted the kingdom. The 134 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:30.679 Papacy still held on to Avignon and the nearby comtant Nissin, 135 00:09:30.799 --> 00:09:36.799 both enclaves within French territory. Though long surrounded by French 136 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:41.080 royal lands, these were still ruled by papal legates and 137 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:46.360 had no political connection to Versailles whatsoever. The Principality of Orange, 138 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:49.799 though a next earlier in the century, still bore the 139 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:54.600 mark of its old independence. In the Pyrenees, tinye sovereignties 140 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:58.600 and odd arrangements like the co sovereignty of Andorra shared 141 00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:01.720 between the French crown and the Spanish Bishop of Yugel, 142 00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:06.360 spoke to medieval compromises that no one, even for some reason, 143 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:11.120 bought to sweep away. Then, of course, there were the 144 00:10:11.399 --> 00:10:15.600 Paillius concreis, the conquered lands, such as the French committe 145 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:20.000 annex from Spain in sixteen seventy eight, though under royal control. 146 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:24.960 Regions like this too, retained their own legal and administrative distinctness. 147 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:28.360 Look the effect of all this was that France in 148 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.440 seventeen eighty nine was less a centralized state than a 149 00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:36.000 mosaic of provinces, each with its own contract with the monarchy. 150 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.200 As I mentioned before, Louis the fourteenth liked to project 151 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:43.399 this image of a unified France, in which he commanded 152 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:47.840 every animal, every bug to move. But that wasn't true. 153 00:10:49.720 --> 00:10:54.200 Majuris jen Bautiste Colbert had once sought to impose uniformity, 154 00:10:54.919 --> 00:11:00.600 but even a century after Barbank absolutism, diversity continued to prevail. 155 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:05.600 In the south, Roman law lingered in legal codes. In 156 00:11:05.679 --> 00:11:10.519 the north, customary law prevailed. Weights and measures could vary 157 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:14.519 from town to town. In fact, throughout France in seventeen 158 00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:19.120 eighty nine, over two hundred different measures of capacity were 159 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:23.600 in use. A peasant selling grain in one province might 160 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:28.720 find that his unit of bushels wasn't recognized in the next. 161 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:33.159 Thus it was on the eve of the revolution. France 162 00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:37.080 was a kingdom of contradictions. The king could command armies, 163 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:41.519 negotiate treaties, and maintain his splendor at Versaign But he 164 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:45.919 ruled a territory riddled with exemptions, privileges, and fragment and sovereignties. 165 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:50.080 Royal control was broad, but it wasn't deep. A noble 166 00:11:50.120 --> 00:11:53.279 in Brittany or a magistrate in Languidoc did not see 167 00:11:53.360 --> 00:11:56.559 himself as merely a French subject. He was a Breton, 168 00:11:56.919 --> 00:11:59.720 he was a Languidocian, and he defended the rights of 169 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:05.039 his province against the centralizing hand of Versailles. The Revolution 170 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:09.840 will sweep most of this away. The National Assembly is 171 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:13.759 going to abolish provincial estates, feudal dues, and the bewildering 172 00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:16.679 patchwork of laws, replacing them with the vision of a 173 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.799 unified nation. As I said, there's a reason that the 174 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:25.039 French Revolution is seen as the beginning of modernity. But 175 00:12:25.159 --> 00:12:27.519 in seventeen eighty nine, the reality was that France was 176 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:30.600 less a single, homogeneous kingdom than a loose federation of 177 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:35.519 territories bound by allegiance to a common monarch. Now we 178 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.240 must turn our attention to the economic machinery of the state, 179 00:12:39.440 --> 00:12:44.480 because it's not any better than the legal situation. The 180 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:48.879 Seven Years War ended in humiliation for France, defeated by Britain. 181 00:12:49.399 --> 00:12:53.360 She lost nearly all her North American empire, Canada, the 182 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:58.840 Ohio Valley, the Mississippi Lands, though she retained lucrative sugar 183 00:12:58.919 --> 00:13:04.000 islands like Martinique Guadalupe. The war had been ruinously expensive, 184 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:07.679 as of course it had been for the British military 185 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:12.799 expenditures soared to one point three billion livre and France's 186 00:13:12.919 --> 00:13:17.639 debt swelled. The Crown emerged not only diplomatically weakened, but 187 00:13:17.799 --> 00:13:23.200 fiscally and feebled. The peace restored neither credit nor confidence. 188 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:28.720 The loss of Canada was less disastrous economically than contemporaries 189 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:34.679 feared Voltaire's sneering phrase. A few acres of snow captured 190 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:37.799 its limited fiscal value compared, of course, to Caribbean sugar. 191 00:13:38.840 --> 00:13:43.360 But the war had exposed major structural weaknesses. Britain's global 192 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:48.080 trading system, powered by its navy, eclipsed France's, and French 193 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:51.519 ministers began to fear that without reform, the kingdom would 194 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:55.919 never again regain its stature. The reality was is that 195 00:13:56.159 --> 00:14:02.120 France's economy was still overwhelmingly agricultural. Around eighty percent of 196 00:14:02.159 --> 00:14:05.720 the population lived on the land, and grain was life. 197 00:14:06.720 --> 00:14:08.960 Bread made up as much as three quarters of a 198 00:14:09.080 --> 00:14:14.399 laborer's diet. The productivity of French agriculture had improved since 199 00:14:14.480 --> 00:14:20.000 the early eighteenth century. New techniques, crop rotations, and selective 200 00:14:20.039 --> 00:14:25.000 breeding were spreading, but progress was uneven and significantly slowed 201 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:31.559 by tradition. Feudal dews, ties and signiorial rights still weighed 202 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.200 heavily on the peasants. They paid rents to their lords, 203 00:14:35.759 --> 00:14:39.240 a tithe to the church, and taxes to the crown, 204 00:14:40.320 --> 00:14:45.440 leaving them vulnerable to fluctuations and harvest. When crops failed, 205 00:14:45.720 --> 00:14:48.679 as they did in seventeen seventy five and then again 206 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:54.000 disastrously in the late seventeen eighties, bread prices soared and 207 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:59.360 riots erupted. The Flower War of seventeen seventy five, sparked 208 00:14:59.639 --> 00:15:03.240 by liberalization of the grain trade under Louis the sixteenth 209 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:08.360 Minister Turgo, revealed how fragile the balance between subsistence and 210 00:15:08.480 --> 00:15:13.440 revolt could be. Arthur Young, the English traveler, recorded in 211 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:17.039 the seventeen eighties the desperate condition of peasants in places 212 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:22.120 like Bordona's quote, the poor people seem poor, indeed the 213 00:15:22.279 --> 00:15:25.759 children terribly ragged. If I saw a man who looks 214 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:29.240 tolerably well dressed, his hat was old and his coat 215 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:32.679 cut out at the elbows. The women and children were 216 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:38.399 nothing or rags end quote. This was not a reflection 217 00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:41.200 on the image of a prosperous kingdom, but of a 218 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:46.320 countryside where wealth was completely concentrated in the top while 219 00:15:46.360 --> 00:15:50.960 the majority lived in chronic insecurity. And if you're trying 220 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:53.200 to get an image of gosh, what kind of powder 221 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:57.639 keg do you need for revolution? Well you're getting your answer. 222 00:15:59.399 --> 00:16:04.799 If agric cultural stagnated industry to an extent, expanded French 223 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:08.960 textile production, especially in linen, silk and cotton grew rapidly. 224 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:13.840 Cities like Lyons arrived on silk weaving. Rowan was a 225 00:16:13.919 --> 00:16:18.600 hub for cotton printing. Lilas and Imans turned out wolves. 226 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.559 Metallurgy developed in eastern France, particularly in Lorraine, while coal 227 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:27.120 mining in the north hinted at a potential industrial future. 228 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:32.080 Yet French industry continued to lag behind Britain, and the 229 00:16:32.159 --> 00:16:37.320 reasons were structural fragmented internal markets, lack of uniform weights 230 00:16:37.360 --> 00:16:41.200 and measures, and barriers like local tolls and guild restrictions. 231 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:45.039 The guild system this is a holdover, of course, from 232 00:16:45.039 --> 00:16:50.039 the Middle Ages. Regulated entry into trades often stifling innovation. 233 00:16:51.559 --> 00:16:55.600 A decree in seventeen seventy six finally abolished many of 234 00:16:55.679 --> 00:16:59.320 these guilds under the aforementioned Turgo, but they were restored 235 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:03.519 under pressure from vested interests. Still, it is worth noting 236 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:07.559 that urban centers were growing in the eighteenth century. Paris 237 00:17:07.640 --> 00:17:11.680 swelled to around six hundred thousand inhabitants by the seventeen eighties, 238 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:16.799 making it one of Europe's largest cities. Bordeaux prospered as 239 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:21.039 a port for Atlantic trade, particularly the lucrative triangular trade 240 00:17:21.079 --> 00:17:25.160 in slaves, sugar and coffee. Na and Marseille and the 241 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:31.680 have also thrived on overseas commerce. France's colonial trade boomed 242 00:17:31.720 --> 00:17:35.160 after seventeen sixty three, even as France more in the 243 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:39.519 loss of Canada. The Caribbean colonies San Dominique which is 244 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:43.599 modern Haiti, Martinique and Guadaloupe became the jewels of the 245 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:47.839 French economy. Sendomique in particular, was the richest colony in 246 00:17:47.880 --> 00:17:52.400 the world, producing sugar, coffee and indigo on the backs 247 00:17:52.440 --> 00:17:56.680 of a half a million enslaved Africans. By the seventeen eighties, 248 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:01.279 colonial commerce accounted for nearly a third of France's foreign trade. 249 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:07.960 Merchants in Bordeaux Nonsen Marseille grew immensely wealthy from this traffic. 250 00:18:09.039 --> 00:18:13.359 Bordeaux's prosperity, in fact, was a direct result of Sendemiche's 251 00:18:13.640 --> 00:18:18.279 sugar and coffee exports. But of course, as I mentioned before, 252 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:23.799 this wealth was unevenly distributed, concentrated in a few port cities, 253 00:18:24.279 --> 00:18:26.720 and tied to a brutal slave system that's going to 254 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.960 collapse with the Haitian Revolution itself a product of the 255 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:35.079 French Revolution. In the seventeen nineties, overseas, France began to 256 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:38.680 expand its trade with the Levant and Asia. The French 257 00:18:38.720 --> 00:18:42.559 East India Company, re established in seventeen eighty five, sought 258 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:46.559 to compete with Britain, though never with much success. At 259 00:18:46.599 --> 00:18:50.039 the center of all this stood, of course, the monarchy's finances, 260 00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:54.640 which grew ever more desperate the war debts of seventeen 261 00:18:54.759 --> 00:18:58.839 sixty three would never be paid down. The system of 262 00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:05.039 taxation remained irrational and unjust considered the following the tale, 263 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.759 which was the only direct land tax in France, fell 264 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:14.039 almost exclusively on peasants. The gable the salt tax was 265 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:18.200 despised by basically every single person in France and frankly 266 00:19:18.400 --> 00:19:23.480 varied wildly by province. The viteme, a kind of income 267 00:19:23.599 --> 00:19:28.119 tax introduced in the mid eighteenth century. In theory touched 268 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:32.480 all estates, but in practice the nobility could buy exemptions, 269 00:19:32.799 --> 00:19:37.839 and it was riddled with holes. The clergy negotiated lump 270 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:43.640 sums called don gretuit instead of paying taxes. Nobles claimed exemptions. 271 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:50.160 The wealthy bourgeoisie often bought offices that carried financial privileges. 272 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:55.319 The real burden fell on the commoners, and the inefficiency 273 00:19:55.799 --> 00:19:59.519 of collection meant that the crown often saw far less 274 00:19:59.559 --> 00:20:04.960 revenue then was expected on paper. Tax farming companies skimmed 275 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:11.000 off enormous profits. Attempts to reform ran aground again and again. 276 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:15.240 But it's worth considering the four men who attempted at 277 00:20:15.319 --> 00:20:22.880 least tried to write the ship and Robert Jacques Tergaux, 278 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:27.759 the philosopher Minister, entered Louis the sixteenth government in seventeen 279 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:33.119 seventy four with a reputation for intelligence and enlightenment reform. 280 00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:38.559 A disciple of physiocrats, he believed that agriculture was the 281 00:20:38.599 --> 00:20:43.400 true foundation of wealth, that free markets would generate prosperity, 282 00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:47.599 and that state, regulation and privilege were strangling the economy. 283 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:54.279 Almost at once. To go tackled three major reforms. First, 284 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:58.319 he tried to liberalize the grain trade. He ended the 285 00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:02.599 restrictions that had been existing ungrave movement within the kingdom, 286 00:21:03.359 --> 00:21:07.000 convinced that if a peasant or a lord could sell 287 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:11.119 their grain from province to province, it could stabilize prices 288 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:16.960 and stimulate production. Instead, a poor harvest in seventeen seventy four, 289 00:21:17.319 --> 00:21:22.079 which was not his fault, sent bread prices soaring. Riots 290 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:24.799 broke out in what became known as the Flower War 291 00:21:24.839 --> 00:21:30.599 of seventeen seventy five. Critics blamed Turgeau's liberalization. In truth, 292 00:21:30.839 --> 00:21:34.240 it was bad weather, but politically the damage had been done. 293 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:39.799 He had also attempted to abolish the corvee, the forced 294 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:43.720 peasant labor on roads, with a monetary tax that could 295 00:21:43.759 --> 00:21:48.160 be applied universally. In fact, so universal was this so 296 00:21:48.400 --> 00:21:52.920 novel was it in its concept that gasp even nobles 297 00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:57.920 and clergy, would have to contribute. This principle of shared 298 00:21:57.960 --> 00:22:03.079 responsibility was radical, and it enraged the privileged orders, who 299 00:22:03.119 --> 00:22:08.000 almost immediately refused to pay. And of course, he also 300 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:12.680 did his best to cut expenditures he counseled Louis the 301 00:22:12.759 --> 00:22:17.079 sixteenth to resist wars abroad and extravagance at court. His 302 00:22:17.240 --> 00:22:21.960 famous warning was stark quote no bankruptcy, no new taxes, 303 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:28.319 no loans. Reform is the only resource end quote. Sergae's 304 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:33.519 reforms directly threatened the privileges of nobles, clergy, and the financiers. 305 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:37.720 When Marie Antoinette pressed the King to grant favors to 306 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:43.359 her proteges to go refused, his enemies multiplied, and in 307 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:48.160 seventeen seventy six he was dismissed from service. And so 308 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:54.359 the monarchy spurned its best chance at radical and rational reform. 309 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:59.359 And that brings us to Jacques Nicare Nicaire, a Swiss 310 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:05.599 Protestant anchor, was appointed Director of Finances in seventeen seventy seven. 311 00:23:06.119 --> 00:23:09.079 He was not permitted the title of Controller General because 312 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:11.920 as a Protestant he actually wasn't allowed to hold a 313 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Catholic office, but his influence was still immense. Neckair's approach 314 00:23:17.160 --> 00:23:20.359 was to restore confidence in the French economy and the 315 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:26.200 royal finances through transparency. In seventeen eighty one, he published 316 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:30.599 the Compete rendu a rah, a public account of royal finances. 317 00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:34.039 It was the first time ever that ordinary Frenchmen could 318 00:23:34.079 --> 00:23:37.599 see the monarchy's balance sheet. Neckcair claimed that the Crown 319 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.720 had a surplus of ten million nevre. In reality, unfortunately, 320 00:23:42.279 --> 00:23:46.160 he had concealed the costs of war by classifying them 321 00:23:46.200 --> 00:23:50.799 as ordinary expenses, so he was transparent but still a liar. 322 00:23:51.720 --> 00:23:54.759 The illusion of solvency was brought at the price of 323 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:59.559 later shock. For all that, though Neckcare was absolutely beloved 324 00:23:59.680 --> 00:24:02.559 by the public, he had raised funds for the American 325 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:07.160 War seemingly without introducing new taxes, largely by appealing to 326 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:11.720 his banker contacts and by using the creative accounting. He 327 00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.680 also reformed the hospital system, tried to limit the venality 328 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:19.119 of office, and curtailed the abuse of tax farming, but 329 00:24:19.240 --> 00:24:23.319 he often clashed with the more privileged orders. His exclusion 330 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:26.680 from the Royal Council stung, and when he saw greater authority, 331 00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:31.559 court factions maneuvered against him. In seventeen eighty one, he resigned, 332 00:24:31.799 --> 00:24:35.200 but his popularity endured to many. In the third Estate, 333 00:24:35.599 --> 00:24:39.640 Nicare became the symbol of honest reform sacrificed by a 334 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:43.039 corrupt court. The next up to the plate was Charles 335 00:24:43.079 --> 00:24:47.079 Alexandre des klan if Nicare was the banker, and Turgo 336 00:24:47.240 --> 00:24:52.759 the philosopher. Calon was the court finincierre. He was charming, extravagant, 337 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:57.839 but undeniably shrewd. Appointed Controller General in seventeen eighty three, 338 00:24:58.279 --> 00:25:00.839 he faced a deficit that had balloon to over one 339 00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:05.680 hundred million livre. Colonn's strategy was bold, spend lavishly to 340 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:11.400 restore confidence and then launch sweeping reforms. He borrowed heavily 341 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:15.400 to maintain the appearance of solvency, but by seventeen eighty 342 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:18.160 six he admitted that the kingdom was headed for bankruptcy 343 00:25:18.480 --> 00:25:22.759 unless radical measures were taken. His proposals were, in essence, 344 00:25:23.039 --> 00:25:27.359 the reform that France desperately needed. It was a universal 345 00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:32.319 land tax paid by everyone, even the nobility, without exception. 346 00:25:33.200 --> 00:25:36.799 The abolition of internal tariffs to create finally a single 347 00:25:36.960 --> 00:25:41.279 national market. The conversion of the corvet or labor tax 348 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:46.119 into a money tax. The establishment of provincial assemblies giving 349 00:25:46.240 --> 00:25:50.720 localities some say in the administration. It was a program 350 00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:55.839 of fiscal equality and administrative modernization, but Quielan knew the 351 00:25:55.880 --> 00:26:00.279 parliaments would resist, so he turned instead to an assassembly 352 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:04.440 of notables, a gathering of one hundred and forty four aristocrats, 353 00:26:04.720 --> 00:26:08.799 clergy and magistrates, hoping that their prestige alone would be 354 00:26:08.920 --> 00:26:14.240 enough to push the reforms through, but he backfired. The notables, 355 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:19.400 dominated by the nobility, refused to sacrifice their privileges. They 356 00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:24.839 turned against Cologne, accusing him of financial mismanagement. By seventeen 357 00:26:24.880 --> 00:26:29.279 eighty seven, he was dismissed, his reforms abandoned, and the 358 00:26:29.400 --> 00:26:34.279 monarchy's credibility further eroded, which brings us to our last player, 359 00:26:34.759 --> 00:26:40.200 Etienne Charles de l'met Brian. Brian, the Archbishop of Toulouse 360 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:43.960 and an ally of the Queen, succeeded Cologne in seventeen 361 00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:48.759 eighty seven. Unlike his predecessor, he had no special financial 362 00:26:48.839 --> 00:26:53.400 expertise at all. He attempted to revive Cologne's program, but 363 00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:57.359 now the parliaments became the main obstacle. The Parliament of 364 00:26:57.519 --> 00:27:02.759 Paris refused to register the new taxes, insisting that only 365 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:05.319 the Estates General, which hadn't met by the way since 366 00:27:05.640 --> 00:27:09.240 sixteen fourteen. More on that next time, had the authority 367 00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:15.400 to consent. The government exiled magistrates, sparking uproar. In seventeen 368 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:20.160 eighty eight, desperate for cash, Brian announced a moratorium on payments, 369 00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:27.160 effectively declaring bankruptcy for the crown. By August, Briann conceded defeat. 370 00:27:27.839 --> 00:27:32.720 He resigned, recommending that Nickahre be recalled. But the monarchy's 371 00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:37.160 authority was effectively shattered by this point. Its finances lay 372 00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:41.640 in ruin, its credit completely destroyed, and its political legitimacy 373 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:46.400 dependence on taking that final step summoning the Estates General. 374 00:27:47.960 --> 00:27:52.880 These ministers to go. Nickaier Columbrienne form a tragic sequence. 375 00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:57.480 Each one was able to quickly diagnose the kingdom's fiscal problems, 376 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:02.279 each proposed reform in each was undone by entrenched privilege 377 00:28:02.480 --> 00:28:07.480 and political cowardice Urgeau sought to reform without borrowing. He 378 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:12.519 was dismissed. Nickair borrowed to avoid reform. He was dismissed. 379 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:18.240 Cologne sought to reform after borrowing. He was dismissed. Brienne 380 00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:22.400 tried to govern without reform or credibility, and he collapsed. 381 00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:27.920 As the historian Alexey Destaukville later observed, the French found 382 00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:31.240 it intolerable to bear those old burdens once they had 383 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:35.680 caught a glimpse of a better existence, the monarchy had 384 00:28:35.720 --> 00:28:40.079 proven incapable of adapting, and its paralysis it drove its 385 00:28:40.119 --> 00:28:46.559 subjorks toward revolution, and then there were several foreign crises. 386 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:55.799 France's intervention in the American Revolution was a gamble. It 387 00:28:55.960 --> 00:28:59.440 restored some sense of national pride after the humiliation of 388 00:28:59.480 --> 00:29:03.160 the Seven Year War in seventeen sixty three, but it 389 00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:07.359 deepened the fiscal abyss. The war added over one billion 390 00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:12.160 livred to the debt. By seventeen eighty eight, interest payments 391 00:29:12.279 --> 00:29:17.160 alone consumed more than half of all royal revenue. And 392 00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:22.759 yet the war also carried ideological consequences. French officers like 393 00:29:22.839 --> 00:29:28.319 the Marquis de Lafayette returned from America inspired by Republican ideals, 394 00:29:29.000 --> 00:29:31.799 and the financial crisis caused by the war set the 395 00:29:31.839 --> 00:29:35.240 stage for the convocation of the Estates General in seventeen 396 00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:40.359 eighty nine. By the late seventeen eighties, all the weaknesses 397 00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:44.920 of France's economy converged. Harvest failures in seventeen eighty seven 398 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:48.000 eighty nine led to famine parts of the country and 399 00:29:48.119 --> 00:29:53.200 soaring bread prices in Paris. Real wages stagnated as food 400 00:29:53.279 --> 00:29:58.000 costs rose, Unemployment surged in the cities especially among the 401 00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:03.119