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His grandson inherits the throne as King Louis XVI.
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Turgot:
- made sure a detailed budget was produced regularly
- made cuts to royal expenses
- demanded that gov. departments submit their expenses to him to find ways of reducing their spending
- removed and reduced a number of pensions
- made some reform to the tax-farming system
- opposed French participation in the American Revolution
- and was sometimes met with rejection: his proposal of a property tax was opposed by the Second Estate, whom it targeted. -
Turgot, finance minister at the time, opposed French participation in the American Revolutionary War on grounds that it would be too expensive. Unfortunately, he was unable to prevent secret deals and volunteers travelling to America.
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Turgot's 'Six Edicts' were met with great opposition from Parlement. In the preamble, Turgot expresses his desire to abolish privilege, to tax all, and to grant every man the right to work without restriction. The sixth edict even sought to abolish the corvée in favour of a tax paid by all landowners. These edicts are eventually pushed forward by a lit de justice in March, but Turgot has become too unpopular and is ordered to resign in May, rendering the edicts forgotten.
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Necker continues Turgot's cost-cutting measures. He:
- reduces royal household expenses + pensions
- appoints salaried officials to run the royal estates, rather than venal corporations
- removes the vingtième on industry
- and restructures the royal accounting system to reduce corruption (replacing 48 'receivers-general' of direct taxes with 12 salaried officials who had to submit their receipts directly to Necker). -
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Involvement in the American Revolutionary War costs the French government over 1.8 billion livres.
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Necker published France's first ever 'budget statement' of royal finances in 1781. It summarised royal expenditures + income, and aimed to promote transparency. It was opposed by the King and most of the courtiers: the budget statement was seen as a breach of royal protocol. Also, the report was innacurate. France was significantly in debt, which Necker had to disguise in order to raise more loans for the country. The report made it out to be that France had an excess of 10 million livres.
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Calonne was more traditionalist than Necker; in fact, he was one of those who had opposed Necker. Calonne supported pensions and lavish spending, and wasn't interested in tackling the issues of the Ancien Régime, but circumstances were dire: France's loans were drying up and the Parlement became more resistant to borrowing money due to the country's already crippling debt. Pushed to action, he puts together a reform package in 1786.
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Calonne's reform package involved:
- a general land tax + abolition of the remaining vingtièmes
- the establishment of provincial assemblies
- an extra indirect tax on legal documents
- the end of the corvée royale
- removal of controls on the grain trade
- and removal of internal customs barriers, to promote commerce. Louis was persuaded to back these reforms, but other ministers strongly opposed it. This resulted in a political deadlock that led to the 'Assembly of Notables' convening. -
Initially called by Calonne, who sought to push forward with his reforms. It is because Calonne is so strongly opposed and because of pressure from his wife that Louis eventually makes Calonne resign. The first Assembly of Notables is dissolved when they reject Brienne's taxation reforms as well.
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Brienne:
- deregulated the grain trade
- changed the corvée royale into a tax and extended the provincial assemblies, giving local taxpayers the right to vote for them
- and supported the spread of education, the codification of law, the abolition of tax-farming + the establishment of a central treasury. He tried to carry Calonne's land tax through, but the Assembly were almost used to challenging the finance minister by now. In the end, he had to resort to a loan to keep the country afloat. -
Two other members of Parlement are also imprisoned for criticising Louis. Parlement ultimately gives approval for another vingtième on the basis that Louis calls the Estates-General 'by 1792'.
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This proclamation declared that only the Estates-General had the authority to raise taxes, and that the judges of the Parlements were irremovable. It also contained strong criticisms of the lettres de cachet.
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Done via lettres de cachet.
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Louis and his ministers issue edicts removing some of the parlements' powers.
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This was less than one quarter of the amount sought by the government and was seen as a deliberate snub.
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The Day of Tiles happens in Grenoble: work was shut down, and an angry crowd marched to the house of the parlement's president. The duc sent in relatively small groups of soldiers who were armed, but were told to not fire their weapons. In response to the soldiers' presence, many protesters climbed to their roofs and hurled tiles down onto the soldiers.
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This decimates already-struggling crops and contributes to poor returns at harvest time.
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Several days after doing this, the parlement attempts to ban publications calling for political representation of the Third Estate.
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During it, long speeches given by Louis, Charles de Barentin, and Necker failed to put forward a 'reform package', leaving the Third Estate disappointed. The Third Estate were also left unsure about how meetings would proceed and how voting would take place.
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