WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -1788. The tax system in pre-revolutionary France largely exempted the nobles and the clergy from taxes. The tax burden therefore devolved to the peasants, wage-earners, and the professional and business classes, also known as the Third Estate.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Third Estate was made up of everyone else, from peasant farmers to the bourgeoisie – the wealthy business class. While the Second Estate was only 1% of the total population of France, the Third Estate was 96%, and had none of the rights and priviliges of the other two estates.

Detailed explanation-3: -All members of the third estate had to pay taxes to the state. These included a direct tax, called taille, and a number of indirect taxes which were levied on articles of everyday consumption like salt or tobacco.

Detailed explanation-4: -The total number of nobles in the three Estates was about 400. Noble representatives of the Third Estate were among the most passionate revolutionaries in attendance, including Jean Joseph Mounier and the comte de Mirabeau.

Detailed explanation-5: -Peasants formed the largest group within the Third Estate, more than 80 per-cent of France’s 26 million people. Peasants paid about half their income in dues to nobles, tithes to the Church, and taxes to the king’s agents.