HBL+-+Group+7

  Activity 1
 * HBL Source-Based Questions**
 * 1)  Read the source that has been assigned to you
 * 2)  Analyse and evaluate the source (inference, cross reference, reliability, usefulness, tone, purpose) in relation to the question asked.

 Activity 2 
 * 1)  Post your answers on your class wikispaces
 * 2)  Comment and refine your group members’ answers on the wikispaces

**Question:**

How far do the sources support the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions? Explain your answer.

Yun Ting - Source A   Akoo - Source B    Rebekah and Jodie - Source C    Lisa - Source D

Source A:

 Source A supports the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions as it shows the refusal of the //Parlement// to continue supporting the King financially. The source is a response to King Louis XVI’s decision to tax the First and Second Estates, and it states that the //Parlement// found the decision to be “excessive and unreasonable”. In addition, the source affirms that they have considered this issue for “twelve years”, which shows that they have given it much thought and found it that they should not agree with King Louis XVI’s decision. That King Louis XVI had to resort to taxing even the First and Second Estates, who had always had a professional relationship with the monarchy, shows that he was at the end of his tether and had no other choice as the economic situation was getting beyond control.

 Cross-referencing to Source C, which states that the Third Estate were frustrated with the excessive taxing that was carried out by the King, which resulted in multiple taxes which was taking its toll on the people. Their frustration towards the need to tax them so heavily reflects the dire economic straits that the French people were in, as the King was so broke that he had to resort to taxing his people so heavily that they were barely able to cope. This source is likely to be a reliable one as the //Parlement//, or Parliament in English, was a court of appeal, and they had the duty to record all royal edicts and laws. In such, they would be trusted by the King, and therefore a reliable source. In addition, it was written in an objective and formal tone, and it does not appear to be a biased statement. Therefore, Source A is supporting the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions.

Source B:

Source B also supports the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. Source C says that the estates want to have the right to register taxes and general laws and are protesting against the king's firmness. Their protests are so worrying that any delay in resolving this conflict may result in the King losing his authority. In other words, the king was overthrown because of the discontent with the taxation system and laws set by the king. From my contextual knowledge, I know that during 1788, France was facing a financial crisis. In 1786, it was facing a budget deficit of 112 000 000 lives and in order to offset this debt, the King decided to tax the nobles. This led to a political crisis, as the nobles would only support the King if they were given privileges, ie they were exempt from taxation. Therefore, in 1788, they were protesting against the reform of the taxation system and this could have led to the French revolution.

From Source A, you can also see that the nobles were very unhappy with this change. The Parlemant president even threatened that if nothing was done, they would continue their protest with firmness and respect. The King had ignored them in 1787 and now, the queen feels that they have to deal with this situation immediately.

This source is quite reliable, as it is a first hand source. However, it was written by the queen, who was known to be oblivious to the real situation in France. She is known to spend money lavishly and not understand the extent of the peasant's poorness. Therefore, her letter to her brother may not give an accurate picture of the happenings in France. Though this is so, the facts in this source do coincide with those of my contextual knowledge.

Source C:   (Jodie) Source C supports the view that the French revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. It is a list of complaints from the Third Estate describing changes they wish to see in the government of France, mainly involving the issue of taxes. The source states that the 3rd Estate hopes that instead of the multiple taxes that they would have to pay to the King, there would only be one which would be also paid by the rest of the people in the 1st and 2nd Estates instead of just the 3rd, like it had been at the time. The 3rd Estate also ‘beg(ged) that the King should regard his people with pity and liberate them from this miserable scourge of the gabelle, which, by its name alone, makes the universe tremble’ and also the ‘banalite of ovens and mills, (which) would liberate your (the King’s) people from a great scourge’, implying that the people in the 3rd Estate were heavily burdened by these taxes which frightened them at the mention of its name. This is possibly due to the fact that the gabelle was a tax on salt, a daily necessity in every household and a tax on salt could easily deduct a significant amount of money from one’s income at the time as the people in question were those of the 3rd Estate and the majority of them were peasants who were poor. The fact that the people of the 3rd Estate had feelings of resentment toward the taxation system implies that they were in a state of financial desperation due to dire economic conditions in France, to have to resort to petition for the King to lighten their tax burdens despite these taxes having been in place for centuries. Therefore, deteriorating economic conditions as implied by source C, could have been a factor contributing to the resentment amongst the people that instigated them to overthrow the King, and begin the French Revolution.

To cross-reference with source A, it talks about the Parlement’s response to the King’s decision to tax the nobility and clergy, after centuries when the 1st and 2nd Estate were not required to pay taxes or were able to get out of paying them. The King was breaking what was tradition at the time when the 1st and 2nd Estate had privileges that exempted them from paying many of the taxes that the 3rd Estate had to pay. This implies that the King was in dire financial straits and had no other choice but to resort to taxing the 1st and 2nd Estates as a source of income for the Royal Treasury, even when there was a risk of the nobility rebelling when the power of the French army was under their control. The response of the Parlement, that they would “protest with firmness and respect, against such practices which would be both disastrous and illegal”, showed that they were strongly against the idea of the 1st and 2nd Estates being taxed and source B also states that “the parlements ... persist(ed) nonetheless with troublemaking resolutions and protests”, showing that they were rejected the King’s decision so strongly that they were willing to go to great extents, even going against the absolute monarch’s wishes to prevent the privileges of the Church and the nobility from being taken away. This could also have contributed to the resentment towards the King, and therefore one can see that deteriorating economic conditions could have led to the French revolution.

(Rebekah) Source C is a list of grievances from a parish in France in 1788 expressing the woes of the Third Estate. It supports the view the that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions to a large extent. From Source C, we can infer that the Third Estate was no longer able to bear the tax burden, especially on their necessities like salt and usage of the mill. It is a “great scourge” to the people because the tax burden is overwhelming. The Third Estate were “forced to pay” many taxes and were at the limit of the economic burden of taxation. This source is useful in showing the economic difficulties the Third Estate faced. The Third Estate not only expressed their grievances on the unfairness of the tax system, but more than that, they expressed their inability to cope with the pressing financial burdens. We can infer that ever-increasing tax burdens and ever-worsening economic problems in France triggered a compilation of their grievances in which the people, with a pleading tone, begged for the King’s mercy and compassion to “regard his people with pity and liberate them from” the heavy taxation, hoping that the King would listen and meet their needs, which Louis XVI should have taken and heeded as a warning that the Third Estate’s patience and tolerance was wearing. It is likely that all it needed was one more push, one more weight placed upon the economic burden of the Third Estate to tip the scale and trigger a revolt among the discontent, suffering Third Estate.

To assess the reliability of Source C, we can cross reference to Source D. Source D is a trend graph that shows the price of 100kg of wheat in Paris between 1770 to 1790. Between 1787 and 1788, the price of 100kg of wheat in Paris had increased drastically from below 20F to more than 20F. We can infer that it had increased the economic burden on the Third Estate because wheat is part of the people’s staple diet and they simply could not afford the wheat at such high prices given their poor financial condition. At this point in time, the Third Estate were pleading the King to relieve them of the financial burden which they could no longer bear. Subsequently, not only did King Louis not heed their pleas, the prices rose to an shocking, devastating nearly 30F in 1789. From this, we can infer, that the drastic increase to almost 30F for 100kg of wheat could have been the breaking point, because it was so costly that the Third Estate could not afford it and would starve from lack of food. As a result, it is highly probably and likely that the fast deteriorating economic conditions, especially in the Third Estate had given them no choice and drove them to revolt, thus resulting in the French Revolution.

Source D: