A Political and Social History of Modern Europe Part 48

The indirect taxes were not so heavy, but they were bitterly detested.

There were taxes on alcohol, metal-ware, cards, paper, and starch, but most disliked of all was that on salt (the _gabelle_). Every person above seven years of age was supposed annually to buy from the government salt-works seven pounds of salt at about ten times its real value. [Footnote: It should be understood, of course, that the _gabelle_ was higher and more burdensome in some provinces than in others.] Only government agents could legally sell salt, and smugglers were fined heavily or sent to the galleys. These indirect taxes were usually "farmed out," that is, in return for a lump sum the government would grant to a company of speculators the right to collect what they could. These speculators were called "farmers-general,"--France could be called their farm [Footnote: Etymologically, the French word for farm (_ferme_) was not necessarily connected with agriculture, but signified a fixed sum (_firma_) paid for a certain privilege, such as that of collecting a tax.] and money its produce. And they farmed well. After paying the government, the "farmers" still had millions of francs to distribute as bribes or as presents to great personages or to retain for themselves. Thus, millions were lost to the treasury.

[Sidenote: The Burden of Taxation]

Taxes could not always be raised to cover emergencies, nor collected so wastefully. The peasants of France were crushed by feudal dues, t.i.thes, and royal taxes. The bourgeoisie were angered by the income tax, by the indirect taxes, by the tolls and internal customs, and by the monopolistic privileges which the king sold to his favorites. How long the unprivileged cla.s.ses would bear the burden of taxation, while the n.o.bles and clergy were almost free, no one could tell; but signs of discontent were too patent to be ignored.

Louis XIV (1643-1715) at the end of his long reign perceived the danger. As the aged monarch lay on his deathbed, flushed with fever, he called his five-year-old great-grandson and heir, the future Louis XV, to the bedside and said: "My child, you will soon be sovereign of a great kingdom. Do not forget your obligations to G.o.d; remember that it is to Him that you owe all that you are. Endeavor to live at peace with your neighbors; do not imitate me in my fondness for war, nor in the exorbitant expenditure which I have incurred. Take counsel in all your actions. Endeavor to _relieve the people at the earliest possible moment_, and thus to accomplish what, unfortunately, I am unable to do myself."

[Sidenote: Louis XV, 1715-1774]

It was good advice. But Louis XV was only a boy, a plaything in the hands of his ministers. In an earlier chapter [Footnote: See above, pp.

255 f.] we have seen how under the duke of Orleans, who was prince regent from 1715 to 1723, France entered into war with Spain, and how finance was upset by speculation; and how under Cardinal Fleury, who was minister from 1726 to 1743, the War of the Polish Election (1733- 1738) was fought and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) begun.

When in 1743 the ninety-year-old Cardinal Fleury died, Louis XV announced that he would be his own minister. But he was not a Frederick the Great. At the council table poor Louis "opened his mouth, said little, and thought not at all." State business seemed terribly dull, and the king left most of it to others.

But of one thing, Louis XV could not have enough--and that was pleasure. He much preferred pretty girls to pompous ministers of state, and spent most of his time with the ladies and the rest of the time either hunting or gambling. In spite of the fact that he was married, Louis very easily fell in love with a charming face; at one time he was infatuated by the d.u.c.h.ess of Chateauroux, then by Madame de Pompadour, and later by Madame du Barry. Upon his mistresses he was willing to lavish princely presents,--he gave them estates and t.i.tles, had them live at Versailles, and criminally allowed them to interfere in politics; for their sake he was willing to let his country go to ruin.

The character of the king was reflected in his court. It became fashionable to neglect one's wife, to gamble all night, to laugh at virtue, to be wasteful and extravagant. Versailles was gay; the ladies painted their cheeks more brightly than ever, and the lords spent their fortunes more recklessly.

But Versailles was not France. France was ruined with wars and taxes.

Louis XIV had said, "Live at peace with your neighbors"; but since his death four wars had been waged, culminating in the disastrous Seven Years' War (1756-1763), by which French commerce had been destroyed and the French colonies had been lost. [Footnote: The formal annexation of Lorraine in 1766 and of Corsica in 1768 afforded some crumbs of comfort for Louis XV.] Debts were multiplied and taxes increased. What with war, extravagance, and poor management, Louis XV left France a bankrupt state.

[Sidenote: Growing complaints against the French Monarchy under Louis XV]

Complaints were loud and remonstrances bitter, and Louis XV could not silence them, try as he might. Authors who criticized the government were thrown into prison: radical writings were confiscated or burned; but criticism persisted. Enemies of the government were imprisoned without trial in the Bastille by _lettres de cachet_, which were orders for arrest signed in blank by the king, who sometimes gave or sold them to his favorites, so that they, too, might have their enemies jailed. Yet the opposition to the court ever increased. Resistance to taxation centered in the Parlement of Paris. It refused to register the king's decrees, and remained defiant even after Louis XV had angrily announced that he would not tolerate interference with his prerogatives. The quarrel grew so bitter that all the thirteen Parlements of France were suppressed (1771), and in their stead new royal courts were established.

Opposition was only temporarily crushed; and Louis XV knew that graver trouble was brewing. He grew afraid to ride openly among the discontented crowds of Paris; the peasants saluted him sullenly; the treasury was empty; the monarchy was tottering. Yet Louis XV felt neither responsibility nor care. "It will surely last as long as I," he cynically affirmed; "my successor may take care of himself."

[Sidenote: Louis XVI, 1774-1792]

His successor was his grandson, Louis XVI (1774-1792), a weak-kneed prince of twenty years, very virtuous and well-meaning, but lacking in intelligence and will-power. He was too awkward and shy to preside with dignity over the ceremonious court; he was too stupid and lazy to dominate the ministry. He liked to shoot deer from out the palace window, or to play at lock-making in his royal carpentry shop.

Government he left to his ministers.

[Sidenote: Turgot]

At first, hopes ran high, for Turgot, friend of Voltaire and contributor to the _Encyclopedia_, was minister of finance (1774- 1776), and reform was in the air. Industry and commerce were to be unshackled; _laisser-faire_ was to be the order of the day; finances were to be reformed, and taxes lowered. The clergy and n.o.bles were no longer to escape taxation; taxes on food were to be abolished; the peasants were to be freed from forced labor on the roads. But Turgot only stirred up opposition. The n.o.bles and clergy were not anxious to be taxed; courtiers resented any reduction of their pensions; tax-farmers feared the reforming minister; owners of industrial monopolies were frightened; the peasants misunderstood his intentions; and riots broke out. Everybody seemed to be relieved when, in 1776, Turgot was dismissed.

[Sidenote: Necker]

Turgot had been a theorist; his successor was a businessman. Jacques Necker was well known in Paris as a hard-headed Swiss banker, and Madame Necker's receptions were attended by the chief personages of the bourgeois society of Paris. During his five years in office (1776-1781) Necker applied business methods to the royal finances. He borrowed 400,000,000 francs from his banker friends, reformed the collection of taxes, reduced expenditures, and carefully audited the accounts. In 1781 he issued a report or "Account Rendered of the Financial Condition." The bankers were delighted; the secrets of the royal treasury were at last common property; [Footnote: _The Compte Rendu_, as it was called in France, was really not accurate; Necker, in order to secure credit for his financial administration, made matters appear better than they actually were.] and Necker was praised to the skies.

[Sidenote: Marie Antoinette]

While Necker's Parisian friends rejoiced, his enemies at court prepared his downfall. Now the most powerful enemy of Necker's reforms and economies was the queen, Marie Antoinette. She was an Austrian princess, the daughter of Maria Theresa, and in the eyes of the French people she always remained a hated foreigner--"the Austrian," they called her--the living symbol of the ruinous alliance between Habsburgs and Bourbons which had been arranged by a Madame de Pompadour and which had contributed to the disasters and disgrace of the Seven Years' War [Footnote: See above, pp. 358 ff]. While grave ministers of finance were puzzling their heads over the deficit, gay Marie Antoinette was buying new dresses and jewelry, making presents to her friends, giving private theatricals, attending horse-races and masked b.a.l.l.s. The light- hearted girl-queen had little serious interest in politics, but when her friends complained of Necker's miserliness, she at once demanded his dismissal.

Her demand was granted, for the kind-hearted, well-intentioned Louis XVI could not bear to deprive his pretty, irresponsible Marie Antoinette and her charming friends,--gallant n.o.bles of France,--of their pleasures. Their pleasures were very costly; and fresh loans could be secured by the obsequious new finance-minister, Calonne, only at high rates of interest.

From the standpoint of France, the greatest folly of Louis XVI's reign was the ruinous intervention in the War of American Independence (1778- 1783). The United States became free; Great Britain was humbled; Frenchmen proved that their valor was equal to their chivalry; but when the impulsive Marquis de Lafayette returned from a.s.sisting the Americans to win their liberty, he found a ruined France. 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 cla.s.ses--the clergy and the n.o.bles-- 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 n.o.ble, 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sembly of Notables--145 of the chief n.o.bles, bishops, and magistrates--in the vain hope that they would consent to the taxation of the privileged and unprivileged alike. The Notables were not so self-sacrificing, however, and contented themselves with abolishing compulsory labor on the roads, voting to have provincial a.s.semblies established, and demanding the dismissal of Calonne, the minister of finance. The question of taxation, they said, should be referred to the Estates-General. All this helped the treasury in no material way.

[Sidenote: Convocation of the Estates-General]

A new minister of finance, who succeeded Calonne,--Archbishop Lomenie de Brienne,--politely thanked the Notables and sent them home. He made so many fine promises that hope temporarily revived, and a new loan was raised. But the Parlement of Paris, which together with the other Parlements had been restored early in the reign of Louis XVI, soon saw through the artifices of the suave minister, and positively refused to register further loans or taxes. Encouraged by popular approval, the Parlement went on to draw up a declaration of rights, and to a.s.sert that subsidies could const.i.tutionally be granted only by the nation's representatives--the ancient Estates-General. This sounded to the government like revolution, and the Parlements were again abolished.

The abolition of the Parlements raised a great cry of indignation; excited crowds a.s.sembled in Paris and other cities; and the soldiers refused to arrest the judges. Here was real revolution, and Louis XVI, frightened and anxious, yielded to the popular demand for the Estates- General.

In spite of the fact that every one talked so glibly about the Estates- General and of the great things that body would do, few knew just what the Estates-General was. Most people had heard that once upon a time France had had a representative body of clergy, n.o.bility, and commoners, somewhat like the British Parliament. But no such a.s.sembly had been convoked for almost two centuries, and only scholars and lawyers knew what the old Estates-General had been. Nevertheless, it was believed that nothing else could save France from ruin; and in August, 1788, Louis XVI, after consulting the learned men, issued a summons for the election of the Estates-General, to meet in May of the following year.

[Sidenote: Failure of Absolutism in France]

The convocation of the Estates-General was the death-warrant of divine- right monarchy in France. It meant that absolutism had failed. The king was bankrupt. No half-way reforms or pitiful economies would do now.

The Revolution was at hand.

ADDITIONAL READING

THE BRITISH MONARCHY, 1760-1800. General accounts: A. L. Cross, _History of England and Greater Britain_ (1914), ch. xlv, a brief resume; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI (1909), ch. xiii; A. D.

Innes, _History of England and the British Empire_, Vol. III (1914), ch. vii-ix, xi; C. G. Robertson, _England under the Hanoverians_ (1911); J. F. Bright, _History of England_, Vol. III, _Const.i.tutional Monarchy_, 1689-1837; William Hunt, _Political History of England, 1760-1801_ (1905), Tory in sympathy; and W. E. H. Lecky, _A History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, London ed., 7 vols. (1907), and _A History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century_, 5 vols. (1893), the most complete general histories of the century. Special studies: E. and A.

G. Porritt, _The Unreformed House of Commons_, new ed., 2 vols. (1909), a careful description of the undemocratic character of the parliamentary system; J. R. Fisher, _The End of the Irish Parliament_ (1911); W. L. Mathieson, _The Awakening of Scotland, 1747-1797_ (1910); _Correspondence of George III with Lord North, 1768-1783_, ed. by W. B.

Donne, 2 vols. (1867), excellent for ill.u.s.trating the king's system of personal government; Horace Walpole, _Letters_, ed. by Mrs. P. Toynbee, 16 vols. (1903-1905), a valuable contemporary source as "Walpole is the acknowledged prince of letter writers"; G. S. Veitch, _The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform_ (1913), a clear and useful account of the agitation in the time of Pitt and Fox; W. P. Hall, _British Radicalism, 1791-1797_ (1912), an admirable and entertaining survey of the movement for political and social reform in England; J. H. Rose, _William Pitt and National Revival_ (1911), dealing with the years 1781-1791. There are biographies of _William Pitt_ (the Younger) by Lord Rosebery (1891) and by W. D. Green (1901); and _The Early Life of Charles James Fox_ by Sir G. 0. Trevelyan (1880) affords a delightful picture of the life of the time. Also see books listed under ENGLISH SOCIETY IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, pp. 427 f., above.

THE BENEVOLENT DESPOTS. Brief general accounts: H. E. Bourne, _The Revolutionary Period in Europe, 1763-1815_ (1914), ch. ii, iv, v; J.

H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. x, xi; H. M. Stephens, _Revolutionary Europe, 1789-1815_ (1893), ch. i; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VI (1909), ch. xii, xviii-xx, xxii, xvi; E. F. Henderson, _A Short History of Germany_, Vol. II (1902), ch. v, excellent on Frederick the Great. With special reference to the career of Charles III of Spain: Joseph Addison, _Charles III of Spain_ (1900); M. A. S.

Hume, _Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788_ (1898), ch. xiv, xv; Francois Rousseau, _Regne de Charles III d'Espagne, 1759- 1788,_ 2 vols. (1907), the best and most exhaustive work on the subject; Gustav Diercks, _Geschichte Spaniens von der fruhesten Zeiten bis auf die Gegenwart_, 2 vols. (1895-1896), a good general history of Spain by a German scholar. On Gustavus III of Sweden: R. N.

Bain, _Scandinavia, a Political History of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, from 1513 to 1900_ (1905). On the Dutch Netherlands in the eighteenth century: H. W. Van Loon, _The Fall of the Dutch Republic_ (1913). On Joseph II: A. H. Johnson, _The Age of the Enlightened Despot, 1660-1789_ (1910), ch. x, an admirable brief introduction to the subject; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VIII (1904), ch. xi, on Joseph's foreign policy; William c.o.xe (1747-1828), _History of the House of Austria_, Vol. III, an excellent account though somewhat antiquated; Franz Krones, _Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs_, Vol. IV (1878), Books XIX, XX, a standard work; Karl Ritter, _Kaiser Joseph II und seine kirchlichen Reformen_; G.

Holzknecht, _Ursprung und Herkunft der reformideen Kaiser Josefs II auf kirchlichem Gebiete_ (1914). For further details of the projects and achievements of Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa, see bibliographies accompanying Chapter XI, above; and for those of Catherine II of Russia, see bibliography of Chapter XII, above.

THE FRENCH MONARCHY, 1743-1789. Brief general accounts: Shailer Mathews, _The French Revolution_ (reprint 1912), ch. vi-viii; A. J.

Grant, _The French Monarchy, 1483-1789_, Vol. II (1900), ch. xix-xxi; G. W. Kitchin, _A History of France_, Vol. III (4th ed., 1899), Book VI, ch. iii-vii; _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. VIII (1904), ch. ii- iv; E. J. Lowell, _The Eve of the French Revolution_ (1892), an able survey; Sophia H. MacLehose, _The Last Days of the French Monarchy_ (1901), a popular narrative. More detailed studies: J. B. Perkins, _France under Louis XV_, 2 vols. (1897), an admirable treatment; Ernest Lavisse (editor), _Histoire de France_, Vol. VIII, Part II, _Regne de Louis XV, 1715-1774_ (1909), and Vol. IX, Part I, _Regne de Louis XVI, 1774-1789_ (1910), the latest and most authoritative treatment in French; Felix Rocquain, _The Revolutionary Spirit Preceding the French Revolution_, condensed Eng. trans. by J. D. Hunting (1891), a suggestive account of various disorders immediately preceding 1789; Leon Say, _Turgot_, a famous little biography translated from the French by M. B. Anderson (1888); W. W. Stephens, _Life and Writings of Turgot_ (1895), containing extracts from important decrees of Turgot; Alphonse Jobez, _La France sous Louis XV_, 6 vols. (1864-1873), and, by the same author, _La France sous Louis XVI_, 3 vols. (1877-1893), exhaustive works, still useful for particular details but in general now largely superseded by the _Histoire de France_ of Ernest Lavisse; Charles Gomel, _Les causes financieres de la revolution francaise: les derniers controleurs generaux_, 2 vols. (1892-1893), scholarly and especially valuable for the public career of Turgot, Necker, Calonne, and Lomenie de Brienne; Rene Stourm, _Les finances de l'ancien regime et de la revolution_, 2 vols. (1885); Aime Cherest, _La chute de l'ancien regime_, 1787-1789, 3 vols. (1884-1886), a very detailed study of the three critical years immediately preceding the Revolution; F. C.

von Mercy-Argenteau, _Correspondance secrete avec l'imperatrice Marie- Therese, avec les lettres de Marie-Therese et de Marie-Antoinette_, 3 vols. (1875); and _Correspondance secrete avec l'empereur Joseph II et le prince de Kaunitz_, 2 vols. (1889-1891), editions of original letters and other information which Mercy-Argenteau transmitted to Vienna from 1766 to 1790, very valuable for the contemporary pictures of court-life at Versailles (selections have been translated and published in English). Also see books listed under FRENCH SOCIETY ON THE EVE OF THE REVOLUTION, p. 427, above.

CHAPTER XV

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION INTRODUCTORY

The governments and other political inst.i.tutions which flourished in the first half of the eighteenth century owed their origins to much earlier times. They had undergone only such alterations as were absolutely necessary to adapt them to various places and changing circ.u.mstances. Likewise, the same social cla.s.ses existed as had always characterized western Europe; and these cla.s.ses--the court, the n.o.bles, the clergy, the bourgeoisie, the artisans, the peasants--continued to bear relations to each other which a h.o.a.ry antiquity had sanctioned.

Every individual was born into his cla.s.s, or, as the popular phrase went, to "a station to which G.o.d had called him," and to question the fundamental divine nature of cla.s.s distinctions seemed silly if not downright blasphemous.