Causes of the French Revolution Although France in 1785 faced economic difficulties , mostly concerning the equitability of taxation , it was one of the richest and most powerful nations of Europe . The French people also enjoyed more political freedom and a lower incidence of arbitrary punishment than any of their fellow Europeans . However , Louis XVI , his ministers , and the widespread French nobility had become immensely unpopular . This was a consequence of the fact that peasants and , to a lesser extent , the poor and those aspiring to be " bourgeoisie " , were burdened with ruinously high taxes levied to support a wealthy monarchy , along with aristocrats and their sumptuous , often gluttonous lifestyles . The fall of the " ancien régime " in France may be blamed , in part , on its own rigidity . Aristocrats were confronted by the rising ambitions of the merchants , tradesmen and prosperous farmers , who were allied with aggrieved peasants , wage - earners and intellectuals influenced by the ideas of Enlightenment philosophers . As the revolution proceeded , power devolved from the monarchy and the privileged - by - birth to more - representative political bodies , like legislative assemblies , but conflicts among the formerly allied republican groups became the source of considerable discord and bloodshed . A growing number of the French citizenry had absorbed the ideas of " equality " and " freedom of the individual " as presented by Voltaire , Denis Diderot , Turgot , and other philosophers and social theorists of the Enlightenment . The American Revolution demonstrated that it was plausible for Enlightenment ideas - about how a government should be organized - to actually be put into practice . Some American diplomats , like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson , had lived in Paris where they consorted freely with members of the French intellectual class . Furthermore , contact between American revolutionaries and the French troops who served as anti - British mercenaries in North America helped spread revolutionary ideals to the French people . After a time , many of the French began to attack the undemocratic nature of their own government , push for freedom of speech , challenge the Roman Catholic Church , and decry the prerogatives of the nobles . Enlightenment Ideas . Note that there is controversy about how deeply , by 1787 , Enlightenment ideas had been able to penetrate the various classes of French society . There is also disagreement as to the degree to which of these ideas were Economics and finances . France in 1787 , although it faced some difficulties , was one of the most economically capable nations of Europe . The French population exceeded 28 million ; of Europe ' s 178 to 188 millions , only Imperial Russia had a greater population ( 37 to 41 million ) . France was also among the most urbanized countries of Europe , the population of Paris was second only to that of London ( approximately 500 , 000 " v . " 800 , 000 ) , and six of Europe ' s thirty - five largest cities were French . Other measures confirm France ' s inherent strength . France had 5 . 3 million of Europe ' s approximately thirty million male peasants . Its " area under cultivation " , " productivity per unit area " , " level of industrialization " , and " gross national product " ( about 14 % of the continental European product , excluding Russia , and 6 – 10 percent above the level elsewhere in Europe ) all placed France near the very top of the scale . In short , while it may have lagged slightly behind the Low Countries , and possibly Switzerland , in per capita wealth , the sheer size of the French economy made it the premier economic power of continental Europe . Debt . It was debt that led to the long - running financial crisis of the French government . It is said that before the revolution , the French debt had risen from 8 billion to 12 billion livres . Extravagant expenditures on luxuries by Louis XVI , whose rule began in 1774 , were compounded by debts that were run up during the reign of his even - more - profligate predecessor , Louis XV ( who reigned from 1715 to 1774 ) . Heavy expenditures to conduct the losing Seven Years ' War against Britain ( 1756 – 1763 ) , and France ' s backing of the Americans in their War of Independence , ran the tab up even further ( Needs citation ) . Louis XV and his ministers were deeply unhappy about Britain ' s victory in the Seven Years ' War and , in the years following the Treaty of Paris , they began drawing up a long - term plan that would involve constructing a larger navy and building an anti - British coalition of allies . In theory , this would eventually lead to a war of revenge and see France regain its colonies from Britain . In practice , it resulted in a mountain of debts . Louis XV had spent liberally to establish Versailles as a showplace city worthy to be the French capital , in function if not in fact . There , he built a Ministry of War , a Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( where the Treaty of Paris ( 1783 ) ending the American Revolutionary War was signed ) , and a Ministry of the Navy . In Louis XV ' s high council , the " parti dévot " ( " devout " party ) , led by the Comte d ' Argenson , secretary of state for war , and the " parti philosophique " ( " philosophical " party ) , which supported the Enlightenment philosophy and was led by Machault d ' Arnouville , controller - general of finances , vied for power . On the advice of his mistress , the Marquise de Pompadour , the king supported the policy of fiscal justice designed by d ' Arnouville . In order to finance the budget deficit , which amounted to 100 million livres in 1745 , Machault d ' Arnouville created a tax of 5 percent on all revenues ( the " vingtième " ) , a measure that affected the privileged classes as well as the rest of the population . Still , expenditures outpaced revenues . Ultimately , Louis XV failed to overcome these fiscal problems , mainly because he was incapable of harmonizing the conflicting parties at court and arriving at coherent economic policies . Worse , Louis seemed to be aware of the forces of anti - monarchism threatening his family ' s rule , yet he failed to do anything to stop them . Louis XV ' s death in 1774 saw the French monarchy at its nadir , politically , morally , and financially . Under the new king , Louis XV ' s grandson , Louis XVI , radical financial reforms by his ministers , Turgot and Malesherbes , angered the nobles and were blocked by the " parlement s " who insisted that the king did not have the legal right to levy new taxes . So , in 1776 , Turgot was dismissed and Malesherbes resigned . They were replaced by Jacques Necker , who supported the American Revolution and proceeded with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes . France sent Rochambeau , Lafayette and de Grasse , along with large land and naval forces , to help the Americans . French aid proved decisive in forcing the main British army to surrender at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 . The Americans gained their independence , and the war ministry rebuilt the French army . However , the British sank the main French fleet in 1782 , and France gained little , except for the colonies of Tobago and Senegal , from the Treaty of Paris ( 1783 ) that concluded the war . The war cost 1 , 066 million livres , a huge sum , that was financed by new loans at high interest rates , but no new taxes were imposed . Necker concealed the crisis from the public by explaining only that ordinary revenues exceeded ordinary expenses , and by not mentioning the loans at all . When Necker ' s tax policy failed miserably , Louis dismissed him , and replaced him , in 1783 , with Charles Alexandre de Calonne , who increased public spending in an attempt to " buy " the country ' s way out of debt . This policy also failed ; therefore , Louis convened the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne . When the nobles were told the extent of the debt , they were shocked ; however , the shock did not motivate them to rally behind the plan – but to reject it . This negative turn of events signaled to Louis that he had lost the ability to rule as an absolute monarch , and he fell into depression . Britain , too , was heavily indebted as a result of these conflicts ; but Britain had far more advanced fiscal institutions in place to deal with it . France was a wealthier country than Britain , and its national debt was no greater than the British one . In each country , servicing the debt accounted for about one - half the government ' s annual expenditure ; where they differed was in the effective rates of interest . In France , the debt was financed at almost twice the interest rate as the debt across the Channel . This demanded a much higher level of taxation and less flexibility in raising money to deal with unforeseen emergencies . ( See also Eden Agreement . ) Edmund Burke , no friend of the revolution , wrote in 1790 : " the public , whether represented by a monarch or by a senate , can pledge nothing but the public estate ; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large . " Because the nobles successfully defended their privileges , the King of France lacked the means to impose a " just and proportioned " tax . The desire to do so led directly to the decision in 1788 to call the Estates - General into session . The financial strain of servicing old debt and the excesses of the current royal court caused dissatisfaction with the monarchy , contributed to national unrest , and culminated in the French Revolution of 1789 . Taxation . Since it was one of the major trading nations , France needed to raise most of its tax revenue internally , rather than through customs tariffs . Taxes on commerce consisted of internal tariffs among the regions of France . This set up an arbitrary tax - barrier ( sometimes , as in Paris , in physical form ) at every regional boundary , and these barriers prevented France from developing as a unified market . Collections of taxes , such as the extremely unpopular salt tax , the " gabelle " , were contracted to private collectors ( " tax farmers " ) , who , like all farmers , preoccupied themselves with making their holdings grow . So , they collected , quite legitimately , far more than required , remitted the tax to the State , and pocketed the remainder . These unwieldy systems led to arbitrary and unequal collection of France ' s consumption tax es . ( See also Wall of the Farmers - General , Jean Chouan , Octroi , Claude Nicolas Ledoux , and the Indian salt tax . ) Peasants were also required to pay a tenth of their income or produce to the church ( the " tithe " ) , a land tax to the state ( the " taille " ) , a 5 % property tax ( the " vingtième " ) , and a tax on the number of people in the family ( " capitation " ) . Further royal and seigneurial obligations might be paid in several ways : in labor ( the " corvée " ) , in kind , or , rarely , in coin . Peasants were also obligated to their landlords for : rent in cash ( the " " ) , a payment related to their amount of annual production ( the " champart " ) , and taxes on the use of the nobles ' mills , wine - presses , and bakeries ( the " banalité s " ) . In good times , the taxes were burdensome ; in harsh times , they were devastating . After a less - than - fulsome harvest , people would starve to death during the winter . Many tax collectors and other public officials bought their positions from the king , sometimes on an annual basis , sometimes " in perpetuity " . Often an additional fee was paid to upgrade their position to one that could be passed along as an inheritance . Naturally , holders of these offices tried to reimburse themselves by milking taxpayers as hard as possible . For instance , in a civil lawsuit , judges required that both parties pay a bribe ( called , with tongue - in - cheek , the " épices " , the spices ) ; this , effectively , put justice out of the reach of all but the wealthy . The system also exempted the nobles and the clergy from taxes ( with the exception of a modest quit - rent , an " ad valorem " tax on land ) . The tax burden , therefore , devolved to the peasants , wage - earners , and the professional and business classes , also known as the third estate . Further , people from less - privileged walks of life were blocked from acquiring even petty positions of power in the regime . This caused further resentment . Failure of reforms . During the reigns of Louis XV ( 1715 – 1774 ) and Louis XVI ( 1774 – 1792 ) , several ministers , most notably Turgot and Necker , proposed revisions to the French tax system so as to include the nobles as taxpayers , but these proposals were not adopted because of resistance from the " parlement s " ( provincial courts of appeal ) . Members of these courts bought their positions from the king , as well as the right to transfer their positions hereditarily through payment of an annual fee , the " paulette " . Membership in such courts , or appointment to other public positions , often led to elevation to the nobility ( the so - called Nobles of the Robe , as distinguished from the nobility of ancestral military origin , the Nobles of the Sword . ) While these two categories of nobles were often at odds , they both sought to retain their privileges . Because the need to raise taxes placed the king at odds with the nobles and the upper bourgeoisie , he appointed as his finance ministers , " rising men " ( to use François Mignet ' s insightful term ) , usually of non - noble origin . These commoners , Turgot , Chrétien de Malesherbes , and Jacques Necker lobbied for reforms in taxation and other moves toward moderation , such as Necker ' s attempts to reduce the lavishness of the king ' s court . Each one failed . Instead , the " Parkinson ' s law " of bureaucratic overextended waste prevailed , to the detriment of the gentry and other non - seigneurial classes . In contrast , Charles Alexandre de Calonne , appointed finance minister in 1783 , restored lavish spending reminiscent of the age of Louis XIV . By the time Calonne brought together the Assembly of Notables on 22 February 1787 to address the financial situation , France had reached a state of virtual bankruptcy ; no one would lend the king money sufficient to meet the expenses of the royal court and the government . According to Mignet , the loans amounted to 1 . 64 billion " livres " , and the annual deficit was 140 millions . Calonne was succeeded by his chief critic , Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne , archbishop of Sens , but the fundamental situation was unchanged : the government had no credit . To address this , the Assembly of Notables sanctioned " the establishment of provincial assemblies , regulation of the corn trade , abolition of corvée s , and a new stamp tax " , but the assembly dispersed on 25 May 1787 without actually installing a longer - term program with prospects for success . Famine . These problems were all compounded by a great scarcity of food in the 1780s . A series of crop failures caused a shortage of grain , consequently raising the price of bread . Because bread was the main source of food for poor peasants , this led to starvation . Contributing to the peasant unrest were conspiracy theories that the lack of food was a deliberate plot by the nobility . The two years prior to the revolution ( 1788 – 89 ) saw meager harvests and harsh winters , possibly because of a strong El Niño cycle caused by the 1783 Laki eruption in Iceland . The " Little Ice Age " also affected farmers ' choices of crops to plant ; in other parts of Europe , peasant farmers had adopted the potato as its staple crop . The potato had been introduced to France during the 16th century and despite resistance had largely supplanted the turnip and rutabaga in France . Despite encouragement from individuals like Antoine Parmentier and Louis XVI , grain was still a much more popular staple crop in France . This was partially because potatoes were seen as more difficult to transport and store than grain . In 1789 , a normal worker , a farmer or a laborer , earned anywhere from fifteen to thirty " sou s " per day ; skilled workers received thirty to forty . A family of four needed about two loaves of bread a day to survive . The price of a loaf of bread rose by 67 percent in 1789 alone , from nine " sous " to fifteen . Many peasants were relying on charity to survive , and they became increasingly motivated by their hunger . The " bread riots " were the first manifestations of a roots - based revolutionary sentiment . Mass urbanization coincided with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution , and more and more people moved into French cities seeking employment . The cities became overcrowded with the hungry , destitute , and disaffected , an ideal environment for revolution . " Bakers ' queues " became the term for the long line - ups at shops when bread was short . The phrase is quite rarely used , and it is generally only seen in references to Thomas Carlyle ' s book " The French Revolution : A History " . Carlyle uses the phrase at once to condemn the revolutionaries for their failure to meet basic public needs , and as synonym for the angry French public after the French Revolution started to sour . Transparency . H . F . Helmolt argued that the issue was not so much the debt " per se " , but the way the debt was refracted through the lens of Enlightenment principles and the increasing power of third - estate creditors , that is , commoners who held the government ' s paper . Properly speaking , the people ought to have been accustomed to the fact that the French government did not fulfill its financial obligations , for since the time of Henry IV , that is , within two centuries , it had failed to meet its obligations fifty - six times . In earlier days such catastrophes had not been announced and publicly discussed . Now all France , which for two generations had been worked upon by the party of rationalism , shared the outcry against the financial situation . The struggle with the " parlements " and nobles to enact reformist measures displayed the extent of the disintegration of the " Ancien Régime " . In short order , Protestants regained their rights , and Louis XVI was pressured to produce an annual disclosure of the state of his finances . He also pledged to reconvene the Estates - General within five years . Despite the pretense that France operated under an absolute monarchy , it became clear that the royal government could not successfully implement the changes it desired without the consent of the nobility . The financial crisis had become a political crisis as well , and the French Revolution loomed just beyond the horizon .