WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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-2: -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-3: -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-4: -The third Estate = Businessman, merchants, small farmers, artisans, servants, and labors belonged to this group. And they had to pay all types of taxes including tithes and taille.

Detailed explanation-5: -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.