The Third Estate: A Major Cause Of The French Revolution

Imagine, everyone depending on you for money, but you don't get enough money to take care of yourself. Now, if there was a way to get out of this, and have the people not depend on you for things you could not provide, would you take it? The Third Estate did. This is how the French Revolution started. The First and Second Estates had all the money and did not pay any taxes. The third estate paid all the taxes. The monarchy of France wasted all their money on things that they wanted and did not help the country. To make the financial issues in France worse, the country was already in debt from borrowing money to help in the American Revolution. These are only some of the causes that caused the French Revolution.

A major problem of the French economy

The Third Estate made up 97% of the population and paid almost all the taxes. The Third Estate was the poorest Estate in the country, and they had to pay about half their income for taxes. Even though they provided most of the money for the taxes, they got poor representation and lacked rights. Arthur Young wrote one document during his travels in Paris (1787-89). He found that the peasant lifestyle was harsh because of the lack of bread, the amount of taxes. He also found that the lifestyle of a peasant was hard, because they had to pay the taxes, but did not have the money. He wrote what follows. “In the south of France, there is a taille. There is an injustice in levying the amount each person must pay. Lands held by the nobility are taxed very little, and the lands held by commoners are taxed heavily. The poor people seem very poor indeed.