HBL+-+Group+5

**Source A (Yiyun)**
Source A supports the hypothesis that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. It shows the discontent from the Parlement with King Louis XVI’s decision to tax the First and Second Estate by saying it was “excessive and unreasonable”. In fact, based on my contextual knowledge, the reason why King had decided to tax the nobility and clergy was due to financial problems, where the government was heavily in debt to other countries and to the banks. Thus, in order to raise more money to overcome the deteriorating economic conditions, the King decided to tax the First and Second Estate. However, given the privilege to be exempted for taxes for many years, discontent arose from the two Estates. This shows that the source supports the hypothesis as the King’s decision to tax the First and Second Estate due to financial difficulties had led to discontent within of the Parlement, nobility and clergy. The discontent slowly led to the French Revolution.

Cross-referencing the source to source C, we can see that taxation played an important role in causing the French Revolution as it had caused discontent within of the Third Estate. The King had heavily taxed the Third Estate to an extent that they even have to pay for the “banalite of ovens and mills”. This caused the Third Estate to be unhappy with the system and beg for a change as the heavy taxes included “gabelle” had caused the people to become poorer than they already are due to their low income. This discontent is due to the heavy taxation which is caused by the King trying to raise money to pay debts, instead of easing their burden by “reducing to one”. This shows that Source A is reliable as the heavy taxation on the Estates showed the financial difficulties faced by the King which led to discontentment and eventually the revolution.

Also, Source A is considered reliable as it is the Parlement’s response to the King dated on 6 August 1787. The Parlement was part of the government and thus a letter from them with the date means the source is reliable. In addition, the tone is formal and the content includes the perspective of the whole Parlement and not just a member of the Parlement shows that the source is not biased and thus reliable. Thus source A is reliable and supports the hypothesis.

**Source B (Leti)**
The source does not support the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. This can be seen in how the parlements have been described as "persisting with troublemaking resolutions and protests" despite the King, Louis XVI's apparent "unswerving consistency and firmness of principle". Here the blame has been tacked onto the parlements for creating discord, and the underlying reason beneath it has been ignored. This however contrasts with what is historically accepted: that Louis XVI was an incompetent ruler who did not know how to properly govern his country. Nowhere in the source is any mention made of the deteriorating economic condition. In fact, the source appears to be directing the blame at the parlements going against the King's authority. The source therefore is not very reliable, as it contrasts with historical knowledge. It is also not very useful because it does not explicitly talk about any causes of the Revolution.

//p.s. hi guys i actually don't know how to do this source hehehe ): leti//

**Source C (Kaylynn)**
 The source does not agree with the view that the French revolution was due to the deteriorating economic conditions. The Third Estate “desires that instead of all the taxes which it is forced to pay, they should be reduced to one”. This shows that they did not want to pay all the taxes that they were required to pay. They also hope that “ the King” will “regard his people with pity and liberate them from this miserable scourge of the gabelle” which is a tax on salt. This shows that the Third Estate satisfied with all the taxes that the government enforced upon them. As most of them were poor, the amount of taxes they had to pay increased the financial burden placed upon the peasantry. From contextual knowledge, taxes took between 5 and 10 percent of the peasants’ income and all these taxes increased enormously to pay for the various wars France was involved in. This shows that the source is reliable. This resulted in the growing resentment towards the system and was largely an important cause of the Revolution. This is totally different from deteriorating economic conditions as it is mainly about how the taxes on the Third Estate resulted in resentment which eventually resulted in the revolution.

**Source D**

 * Source D supports the view that the French Revolution was due to the deteriorating economic conditions. Source D is a graph that shows the prices of wheat from 1770-1790. From the graph, we can see that there is a rapid increase in the price of the wheat from 1787 to 1788, with its highest price reaching in 1789, which was also the year of the scientific revolution. In 1790, which was when the french revolution ended, the prices of the wheat started decreasing again. From this evidence, we can tell that the increasing cost of the wheat cause the people of France to be discontented with the French Government. The increasing costs of food also cause hunger among the people, leading to economic difficulty. Thus I feel that this source is reliable as it shows how the increasing prices lead to the deteriorating economic conditions.**