As the eighteenth century progressed in France, certain signs pointed to the inevitably predetermined Revolution of 1789. Whilst it may be argued that the government did not take suitable precautions to prevent the French Revolution, the system that was in place was blatantly unjust and it was only a matter of time before the people revolted against the clear prejudices presented in France. As time went by with France under the ancien régime, the contrast of wealth and power between the Monarchy, First and Second Estates as a whole and the Third Estate as the compared individual became increasingly and painfully apparent. To add to this, the economy failed to supply the ever heightening needs of the government, and the monarchy was becoming increasingly more inefficient as time passed and the system was put to the test. It is this dire financial situation that is reflected upon for being the reason for the French Revolution in many respects, and thus leads to the conclusion that the financial systems implemented under the ancien régime were ineffective and did not allow for change as society progressed. To some extent at least, the Revolution occurred because the country's economic and intellectual development was not matched by social and political change.
Under the ancien régime France was governed by privileged groups, namely the King under the absolute monarch system in France at the time, with the nobility and the clergy just below him, with the Third Estate placed lowest in the social hierarchy. It was the Third Estate that was exclusively taxed heavily to pay for foreign wars (namely the American Revolution), court extravagance, and a rising national debt. The tax system was one that upset and baffled many members of the Third Estate, given that they were, for the most part, the sole taxpayers. The complexity of the tax system was not only borne through the exclusive taxing of the Third Estate, but also through the fact that northern and central France bore a heavier tax burden than those in the other parts of the country. Asides the problems involving tax, internal customs issues were also troubling for the people of France, namely the merchants, who mere members of the bourgeoisie. There were many internal customs barriers within France, where excises, tolls and tariffs could be collected, adding more burden to the Third Estate, who effectively provided financially for the whole of France. These financial inconsistencies added to the growing difficulties in France in the later years of the eighteenth century, and became apparent to A. R. J Turgot, who advocated and attempted economic reform. His plans - primarily involving the implementation of a constitution to put a halt to the badly-ordered Estate System, whereby each person was occupied by no more than their own interests and desires, and the arbitrary society at the time allowed for no enforcement of obligations towards others - were thwarted by the unwillingness of privileged groups to sacrifice any privileges and by the King's failure to support strong measures.
Perhaps one of the most fundamental aspects of the governments ability to prevent the Revolution was the presence of the philosophers; a group of men who voiced their beliefs about the systems in France and the inefficiencies or inequalities of them. The philosophers gave the French people a language through which they could voice their opinions about the ancien régime and their opposition to it. Voltaire, one of the philosophers, attacked the church and absolutism; Rousseau, believed in the idea of popular sovereignty; Montesquieu made English constitutionalism popular; and Diderot advocated social utility and attacked tradition.
The most direct cause of the French Revolution was perhaps the chaotic state of government finance. Director general of finances Jacques Necker tried in vain to restore public confidence in the financial system of the country. French participation in the American Revolution had increased the country’s huge debt, and Necker's successor, Calonne, called an Assembly of Notables, hoping to avert bankruptcy by inducing the privileged classes to share in the financial burden, which they refused in an effort to protect economic privileges.
It is perhaps this lack of ability to accept the burden that needed to be shared by all that lead to the revolution. It is impossible to say, however, that this was necessarily the cause of it, as the system by which France ran was the issue in question, not the problems that arose from it. In order to avert revolution, the ancien regime still needed reform, due to it’s unjust separation of the Estates, as well as the lack of room for movement under the autocratic rule of the absolute monarchy. Therefore, it was not possible for the government to prevent the collapse of the ancien régime, as the system was so badly in need of reform that any amendment would need to be so large to allow for the rights that the citizens were demanding that the changes would be seen as a ‘collapse’ of the system as it stood.
