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To what extent was finance the main problem of the

French monarchy by 1789?
There are many different problems by 1789 in the French monarchy and
there were many different factors and reasons for this. Most people would
argue that the finance problem the King had was the main problem, and
this is true to a certain extent.
One of the main reasons that France and King Louis XVI were in so much
debt at this time was because of all the wars that they had got into and
during every war they would borrow more and more money that they
could not pay back. It was not only the wars that King Louis got into but
he also inherited debt from Louis VX that he had to pay back. Also on top
of all these loans Louis was takin out, there would be interest being put on
top so that they money that they owed would be more and more to an
extent that they could simply not pay it back, and there was no way that
they could get this money by claiming tax anymore because the nobles
and the clergy paid no tax at all, and they were the ones that had the
most money. The only people that were paying tax were the peasants but
they could not be asked to pay more tax because they simply did not have
the money, they were already paying 80% of their wages in tax!
The biggest war that Louis XVI entered, that some people argue was the
biggest factor that destroyed the finance in the French monarchy, was the
war of independence of America. The King did not need to enter this war
and he approximately spent 1.3 billion livers on this war, which he could
just not pay back. However to some extent some people may argue that
this was not entirely the Kings fault because the personal finance officer
that he appointed lied and told him that the finance system was perfectly
fine and that they had enough money to enter the war, which was not the
case.
Another big problem at this time in France was the unequal tax system. At
this time in France there was something called the 3 estates which was
simply the 3 sectors of society. The 3 estates were made up by three
groups; the Clergy, the Nobles, and the commoners. The clergy were part
of the first estate, they were people from the Catholic Church for instance
Bishops. The nobles made up the second estate, this included members of
the royal family. Lastly the third estate made up the rest of the people (the
commoners), this included peasants, this also bourgeoisie, who were
business class, people like doctors and teachers.
Even though the Clergy and the nobility were the wealthiest of all the
three estates they were the ones who paid the least tax, in fact the clergy
paid no tax what so ever, and the nobles paid very little tax. The people
who paid the most tax were people from the third estate. Peasants had to

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pay 80% of their income in tax which left them with hardly anything from
them to survive.
Another thing that was a very big problem to do with finance in the French
monarchy in 1789, were the failed attempts that King Louis did to try and
fix everything going on.
Firstly he went to the Parliament of Paris to try and pass a law to change
the taxation system which was very important because in order for a law
to be passed it has to have the approval from the Parliament of Pairs.
However this completely failed because they did not approve and turned
the King down.
The King also appointed finance officers to help him get through this
horrible economic state that they were in, but this failed terribly and even
made the situation worse. The first financial officer that the king
appointed was a man called Turgot but he was very unpopular and was
replaced by a man named Necker, who lied about the situation and kept
telling everyone that the Kings finances were fine. Necker also lied to the
King which then led him to getting involved in the American war of
independence as he thought he had enough money.
However there were other problems in the French monarchy at the time.
One of the main problems was rural poverty, which was mainly because of
the poor harvest because of the bad weather. This led to the price of flour
going up, which then led to the price of bread going up, which then meant
that people could not afford bread as their wages were not very high,
which broke out into violence. This was also the case in the towns as well,
and the crowed towns led to there being disease spread across the
people.
Another important factor at this time were these new ideas that people
were getting thanks to the Enlightenment thinkers and ideas. This ideas
gave people another option, it gave them the chance to think that there
was another way and it gave them the freedom to think, what before they
wouldnt ever dream of thinking. The enlightenment aura gave people a
chance to think and speak against the king, it also gave people the idea
that what is happening is not right and that maybe there is a way to
change what was going on if everyone came together. It also gave people
hope.
An additional factor to the problems in the French monarchy is the King
and the fact that he was not a very good leader. Some people may argue
that all the bad things that were happening in France all come down to
this one factor, that the King was simply not a good King.
We can see that the King was losing his power by the way that everyone
was treating him, first the Parliament of Paris did not listen to what he
wanted and then even the nobles, his own family member did not agree

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with him and were going against him. Which shows he was losing power to
such an extent that he had to call an estate general. He had no influence
on the people, this may have been to the fact that he had lost all previous
wars he had entered, which also added to the fact that people did not see
him as an effective king.
Overall, in my opinion the biggest factor to the problems that were
happening in the French monarchy in 1789 were all the financial problems.
I think this because if the French monarchy were not in so much debt then
the king would not have to humiliate himself and do things like call the
estates general. Also if things like the taxation system was fairer then the
people would not have been so angry and it might have even helped King
Louis get out of the debt he was in. The commoners would have had more
money so that they spend it on themselves and then there wouldnt have
been violence caused over the prices of bread going up. So for this
reasons, this is why I think that the main problem in the French monarchy
in 1789 was finance.