FRANCE. (BEFORE THE REVOLUTION.) 



283 



They were abolished during the revolution of the 

 last century, first with a small compensation, after- 

 wards without any ; yet, after this abolition, there 

 remained a mass of property, belonging immediately 

 to the clergy and nobility, of the value of more than 

 3,000,000,000 francs ; to which must be added the 

 large estates of that part of the nobility which did 

 not emigrate. For, from May 17, 1790, until 1801, 

 2,609,000,000 had been raised by the sale of national 

 domains (estates of the clergy and emigrant nobles) ; 

 and what remained unsold at that time in the old 

 departments was valued at 340,000,000. These 

 unsold estates, after the restoration of the Bourbons, 

 were given back to their former owners. If we 

 deduct this enormous mass of real estate, which 

 belonged to the clergy and nobility, from the total 

 property of the nation, we skall find, that, at the 

 highest estimate, but one third remained for small 

 proprietors or for land not owned by either of the 

 privileged classes. This third was alone subject to 

 tiie taille, which was a tax both on real and personal 

 estate, and yielded a revenue of 95,000,000 annually 

 to the state. Another tax on income, la capitation 

 (poll tax), was paid by the nobility also, but was 

 comparatively very small, as it amounted only to 

 41,000,000 a year. A third kind was a tax on 

 income merely, chiefly on that from real estate, and 

 consisted originally of one twentieth of the whole in- 

 come ; hence its name, vingtieme. But it was soon 

 doubled (les deux vingtiemes), and afterwards in- 

 creased by one tenth (4 sous pour livre en sus du 

 premier vingtieme) ; and, in 1782, a third vingtieme 

 was established, which was intended to be levied 

 only until the return of peace. The nobility 

 was not legally exempted from these income taxes, 

 but they succeeded, by their connexions, in freeing 

 themselves almost entirely from them. The deux 

 vingtiemes with the addition of four sous, amounted 

 to 56,000,000; so that the net income of the 

 nation, at this rate, would have amounted to only 

 500 millions, which was much less than the real 

 amount. Pfeffel, above cited, asserts that a number 

 of the great land owners had a net income of from 

 four to five million livres, which paid only 44,000 

 livres of taxes, only one tenth of the lawful sum 

 (Schlozer's Staatsanzeigen, xii. 136,); so that this 

 tax also fell almost entirely upon the citizens and 

 peasants. The total amount of the land taxes, be- 

 fore the revolution, was 210,000,000 livres, of which 

 the third estate, though they owned only one third, 

 or perhaps only one fourth of the soil, paid at least 

 three fourths. To this must be added, I. the corvees, 

 or the obligations to make and repair the roads, 

 which fell entirely upon the peasantry, and the value 

 of which Necker estimated at twenty millions. Those 

 magnificent roads, which traversed France in all 

 directions, principally for the benefit of the higher 

 classes, because the cross-roads, the most important 

 for the farmer, were neglected, were made by the 

 sweat of the oppressed peasants. 2. Another op- 

 pressive burden was the quartering of soldiers, which 

 also fell entirely upon the working class, as the no- 

 bility was exempted from it. It was necessary to 

 furnish the soldier with lodging, fire, light, salt, and 

 washing, and, where cavalry was quartered, also 

 with fodder for their horses. 3. The third estate 

 alone were obliged to do military duty. 60,000 men 

 were annually drafted by lot for the land service, 

 which lasted six years. It is easy to conceive what 

 sufferings, in such a state of things, this conscription 

 produced. But it was the magnitude, and still more 

 the absurdity of the indirect taxes, that drove the 

 people to despair. The internal customs between 

 the different provinces (traites) have already been 

 mentioned; they were fanned. The imposts on 



liquors, with some others, were managed by tho 

 government, and amounted to fifty-two millions. The 

 tobacco monopoly of government, the customs in the 

 interior and on the frontiers, the duties on colonial 

 goods, and, particularly, the monopoly of salt, were 

 managed by a company of forty-four farmers-general, 

 who, towards the end of that abominable administra- 

 tion, paid 180 millions to government. A third of 

 this sum came from the sale of salt an article which 

 is used by the poorest almost in equal quantity with 

 the richest. These sixty millions of livres, which 

 flowed from the salt trade into the royal treasury, 

 were by no means the whole sum paid by the nation; 

 besides this, there were the profits of the farmers-gen- 

 eral, the salaries of their officers, their spies, and the 

 armed force which was maintained to suppress smug- 

 gling, estimated together at about twenty millions. 

 The price of a hundred weight of salt, which, if left 

 free of duty, might have been bought for 1 livre, 

 and, in some provinces, for less, if the manufacture 

 had not been limited, was raised, in some parts of 

 the country, by the gabelle, or salt tax, to the mon- 

 strous price of sixty-two livres. It is hardly necessary 

 to observe how much the agricultural classes must 

 have suffered by the artificial scarcity of so indispens- 

 able an article ; but the worst effect of the tax was 

 that which it had on the national morality, and the 

 relation between the nation and the government. 

 This tax had distorted the ancient provincial consti- 

 tution of France. France was divided, in respect to 

 the salt trade, into six classes of districts, which were 

 very confusedly intermingled : 1. Provinces /ran- 

 ches, those districts in which the salt trade had re- 

 mained free, and salt was, therefore, to be had at its 

 real value. These were chiefly those provinces in 

 which sea-salt was manufactured Brittany, part of 

 Poitou, Navarre, in which a hundred weight cost 

 l 2 livres, the French Netherlands, where it cost 

 7 8 livres ; 2. the provinces rtdimees, which had 

 purchased exemption from the salt tax under Henry 

 II., for the sum of 1,700,000 livres. They obtained 

 their salt from the manufactories of sea-salt of Sain- 

 tonge and Poitou, which, after paying the customs, 

 cost them from 6 to 10 livres per cwt. Guienne, 

 Poitou, Auvergne, and much of the south of France 

 in general, belonged to this class. 3. Lower Nor- 

 mandy manufactured sea-salt, of which, in earlier 

 times, she gave a quarter to the king ; hence the 

 name of pays de quart bouillon. This quarter was 

 afterwards commuted into a tax in money, by which 

 the price of salt was raised to 13 15 livres. 4. The 

 pays de salines, which were supplied from salt mines, 

 Alsace, Franche-Comte, Lorraine, and the three 

 bishoprics (Metz, Toul, and Verdun), obtained salt 

 for 12, 15, 27, and 36 livres. 5. The pays de petites 

 gabelles (we pass over some of the smaller distinc 

 tions) consisted of Provence, Languedoc, Dauphinp, 

 Lyonnais; in short, a great part of the south of 

 France. They obtainea their salt from the Medi- 

 terranean sea, for from 22 to 40 livres per cwt. 6. 

 The pays de grandes gabelles, or the central provin- 

 ces of northern France, Isle-de-France, Normandy, 

 Picardy, Champagne, Orleannais, Tourraine, about 

 one third of France, paid the highest taxes, or two 

 thirds of the whole salt-tax (about 40,000,000) was 

 drawn from them. The price of salt was, in these 

 countries, from 54 to 62 livres. The most important 

 consequence of this establishment was, that the people 

 were constantly at war with the government, and 

 that the smuggling of salt (faux saunage) became 

 the general occupation of vagrants and criminals. 

 By smuggling a cwt. of salt over the frontiers of 

 Brittany to Maine or Anjou, twelve dollars could be 

 earned in an hour. Even the carrying a few pounds 

 in the pocket was equal to a day's wages. The suit- 



