WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Pre-revolutionary France’s tax system largely excused nobles and clergy from paying taxes. Peasants, wage earners, and the professional and business classes, collectively known as the Third Estate, bore the brunt of the tax load.

Detailed explanation-2: -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-3: -The French administration had taxes like Tithes (giving one-tenth of the agricultural produce to the Church) and Taille (tax to the State). They also levied taxes on salt and tobacco.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -The taxation system under the Ancien Régime largely excluded the nobles and the clergy from taxation while the commoners, particularly the peasantry, paid disproportionately high direct taxes.