The Third Estate: On The Eve Of The French Revolution

Anger and frustration from the peasants of France’s Third Estate had been building throughout the eighteenth century. The constant harassment and taxation from the First and Second Estates had been taking its toll. The Third Estate, made up of around ninety eight percent of the French population had finally reached its breaking point. On the Eve of the French Revolution, Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes publicized his pamphlet, What Is The Third Estate? In this pamphlet, he actively voiced the importance of the Third Estate, its grievances, and what the people wanted, effectively portraying the French society on the brink of revolution and attacking the aristocracy of France as a whole. In “What Is the Third Estate?” Sieyes refers to the Third estate
The culmination of wars fought and lost by the mercenaries hired by Louis XIV landed an immense blow on the French economy. Louis XV took part in the Seven Years War, which put France into even more debt. When Louis XVI came into power, he knew that he had to bring the economy out of the gutter. Unfortunately, since the First and Second Estates had privileges that kept the king from taxing them, the taxes fell upon the Third Estate. The people of the Third Estate are already subjects to poverty and hunger. The king’s taxes not only worsen their economic situations, but their social ones as well. To add insult to injury, the Clergy and the nobility also imposed their own taxes upon the peasants… “It is not evident that the noble order has privileges and expenditures which it dares to call its rights, but which are apart from the rights of the great body of citizens? It departs there from the common order, from the common law. So its civil rights make of it an isolated people in the midst of the great nation. This is truly imperium in imperio” (Sieyes). The tithe, the gabelle, and the bingtieme (All taxes forced upon the peasants by the king, clergy, and nobility) served to be the main reasons why the peasants were so poor and
One issue with bread being having a sizable role in the French diet is that the bakers who made the bread have a say in how much it costs. Prices vary, typically by four to five sous. While this does not seem like much of a difference, the majority of those who ate bread were relatively poor. When a buyer feels that she is being cheated or hustled by the seller because the price may not be what they think is reasonable, they cause an uproar… “On Saturday the fourteenth, a baker of the faubourg Saint-Antoine seemingly tried to sell bread for thirty-four sous which that morning had cost thirty. The woman to whom this happened caused an uproar and called her neighbors. The people gathered, furious with bakers in general. Soon their numbers reached eighteen hundred, and they looted all the bakers' houses in the faubourg from top to bottom, throwing dough and flour into the gutter. Some also profited from the occasion by stealing silver and silverware” (A Bread Riot). A few factors leading up to this event are the devaluing of French currency by thirty-three percent and the imposing taxes of the king, nobility, and