The Third Estate also had to pay the tithe to the church, which again was a great burden on the poorer peasants. The tithe was a proportion of each year’s crop paid to the church by landowners. In most of France, it was 7-8% of the crop, but this varied greatly from region to region. The tithe was supposed to provide for the local priest, poor relief and the upkeep of the church building, but most of it went instead to the bishops and abbots. It made a considerable contribution to the income of the higher clergy. This was resented by both the lower clergy and the peasants, who would have preferred for their money to go to their parish priests, or curé. Many peasants were religious and were generally fond of their parish priest, who could have been kind to them in times of need. Therefore, it caused much discontent amongst the peasants that their money didn’t go to him, but instead it went into funding the luxurious lifestyles of the bishops and abbots.
Peasants also had considerable feudal dues and were required to make money payments or provide labour for their masters. The feudal dues included the corvée, champart, harvest dues and lods et vents – a payment to the seigneur when property changed hands. A further grievance, which led to discontent in the 1780s, was that peasants could be tried in the seigneurial court, where the lord acted as judge and jury. This was extremely unfair as the lord may be acting as judge, ruling over a crime committed to him.
These financial burdens significantly increased the hardships of peasants, which caused a great deal of discontent by the late 1780s. Taxes applied to all members of the Third Estate, but for the wealthier members of the bourgeoisie, these would not have been such a burden. However the heaviest burden to the peasants was often not taxes, the tithe or feudal dues, but rents. These increased greatly in the second half of the 18th century as a result of the increase in population, which rose from 22.4 million in 1705 to 27.9 million in 1790. This would have made the peasants lives much more difficult and therefore would have contributed to the discontent amongst peasants in the late 1780s.
Many of the peasants were laboureurs, they grew enough food to feed themselves and in a good year had a small surplus. Although the majority of peasants had some land, it was not enough to live on. In order to survive they worked as day labourers and wove cloth in their homes. If there was a poor harvest, it is likely than many of the peasants would starve, as there was no working system to feed the poor and hungry. The poorer peasants had no hope of improvement and lived in a chronic state of uncertainty. Bad weather or illness could push these peasants into the ranks of vagrants, who lived by begging, stealing and occasional employment. In these ways, peasants had extremely hard lives, if they were even to survive and so it is not surprising that there was huge discontent amongst them.
For both the urban workers and the bourgeoisie, many of these factors also caused major discontent by the late 1780s. For the wealthier bourgeoisie, such as the doctors and lawyers, the unfair system of taxation may not have been a huge financial strain but they would have resented the taxation exemptions that the First and Second Estates received.
The majority of urban workers were unskilled and lived in crowded and unsanitary tenements. They would have received very low wages and their quality of life would have been similar to that of the peasants, and so it is not surprising that there was great discontent by the 1780s. The skilled craftsmen were often not much better off. They were organised in guilds and had extremely long working hours. These could be 16 hours a day, 6 days a week. The standard of living of wage earners had slowly fallen in the 18th century, as prices had risen on average by 65% between 1726 and 1789, wages by only 22%. Again, this caused great discontent by the late 1780s.
Although the bourgeoisie may not have been poor, there was great discontent, which mainly stemmed from the privileges that the First and Second Estate received, that were denied to them. There were certain positions in society that were unobtainable to them, such as being a tax collector or a local government official. These had great financial rewards and even though some members of the Third Estate were wealthy and were living amongst nobility, because they were in the Third Estate they could not hold these positions of power.
All members of the Third Estate, from the bourgeoisie to the peasants would have heard something about the king and queen’s extravagances. For example, the news of ‘ le petit trianon’ would have reached the Third Estate on its completion in 1768. This was a ‘village’ built for Marie Antoinette in her Versailles Palace, as it was well known that she liked to dress up as a shepherdess! The king and queen’s extravagances had reached a high by the late 1780s, which was another cause of the discontent.
Therefore, the different members of the Third Estate had varying reasons for their discontent, but it is not surprising that either group was discontent. For the peasants, I think it was the financial burden that caused the main discontent. I believe that the unfair system of taxation under the Ancien Régime would have caused much discontent throughout the 18th century, but it was the increase in rents, which was the most important cause of discontent specifically in the late 1780s. For the urban workers, I think that the bad living and working conditions caused a lot of discontent overall but it was specifically the steep increase in prices which was the most important cause of their discontent by the late 1780s. Finally, I think that although the wealthier bourgeoisie would be annoyed with the unfair system of taxation that targeted the Third Estate, it would be their segregation from the nobility that would cause the most discontent as many regarded themselves as belonging to the same level of society, yet they could not be involved in running the country, for example.
Natalie El kheir
