CHAP. XXXVI. CHAPTER XXXVI. FROM THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE TO THE DEATH 1748-1774. ALL French writers of this and a somewhat later period agree in making two assertions, which do not seem very compatible. They attest the immensely increased luxury and wealth of cities, Paris especially, and the simultaneous depression and misery of the agricultural population. The obvious mode of accounting for this state of things would be that the landed proprietor took all the profits of the soil, leaving the peasant the bare necessaries of life, and, at the same time, the whole weight of taxation. And this was true to a great extent. The French tenant paid a higher proportion of rent than the English farmer, because he had no capital, and because there was a greater competition for land. We are thus surprised to find, from so unimpeachable a witness as Arthur Young, that the French agricultural population suffered not so much from the abuses we suppose of feudal oppression, and the monopoly of land by the noble classes, as they did from the very ills which now, in the nineteenth century, beset them. Arthur Young found a far greater number of small landed proprietors in France than in England, who, if they had money, invested it solely in the land; * Arthur Young. from whence arose an undue competition for possession of the soil. Another cause of the poverty of the French proprietor, especially in the vine countries, was the "universal division of property between children, the new proprietor having no other capital than a pair of hands.' The great cause of depression to the cultivator of the soil was, however, the obstructions in the way of transport, often amounting to absolute prohibition. Sometimes a province, whose corn could not be exported, declared itself in consequence unable to pay the taille.* The fermier général of the province exerted himself thereupon, and procured a permission to export, in order to get his taxes paid up. As a rule, however, the farmer grew but as much corn as would suffice for his own consumption, and that of the locality, so that, when a bad year came, there was no surplus, and famine prevailed throughout the land. The finance minister was of course obliged to seek for money where it accumulated. Orry, who filled that office from 1730 to 1745, found his task not difficult so long as Cardinal Fleury upheld economy and peace. When he was overborne, and the Polish war ensued, Orry had recourse to tontines and lotteries, † re-establishing an income-tax, towards which every one was bound to declare the extent of his property. The clergy were exempt, on giving twelve millions in the shape of a don gratuit. In the interval of peace which followed, Orry managed to limit the expenditure to 156 millions, the revenue being 148 millions. The personal * Barbier, Mai 1739. "The nature of his lotteries was eurious. His edict, announcing one in 1737, fixes 650 livres as the price of a ticket, of which 150 livres were to be paid in coin, and 500 livres in rentes on the gabelles and aides. Those who did not get prizes were to have their billets converted CHAP. XXXVI. L СНАР. XXXVI. expenses of the young king had been reduced by Fleury to a trifle. The Austrian war came to disturb this balance. There was such great difficulty found in the collection of the income-tax that Orry compounded for so much with the chief towns and provinces, allowing them to raise the tax themselves. It proved more profitable, but probably more unequal. All the ingenuity of Orry, however, could not supply the expenses required by Flemish sieges, as well as for subsidising Bavaria, and other German states. When to this came to be added the demands of Madame de Pompadour, Orry resisted. Royal mistresses had hitherto cost little; but the new one was not so easily satisfied. Orry withstood her exigencies, whereupon he was dismissed in 1746, and Machault appointed in his stead.* Although an able man, and recommended by the Brothers Paris, as well as D'Argenson, Machault could do little during the remainder of the war except bear witness to the impossibility of finding resources to carry it on. But he taxed every article of consumption, and even raised the taille. The farmers of the taxes had paid several years in advance. The rich were vexed with the heavy tax upon plate and jewels, which was as bad as in the days of Law. Paris was burdened by an enormous octroi, from which the Duke of Orleans with difficulty obtained the exemption of flour and bread. Noailles declared that, notwithstanding the appearance of affluence in certain classes, the kingdom was more unable to support war or taxation than in 1704. In 1747 the penury of the treasury was such that D'Argenson writes, there were but 12,000 livres in the caisse de la guerre. Machault issued inscriptions for half a million, to be paid out of an augmentation of the dixième. Four sous a livre were added to the octroi * Madame de Hausset. De Luynes. Barbier. D'Argenson. duties, and a gigantic lottery was set on foot to last twelve years, which succeeded so ill that the tickets were soon at a discount.† No wonder Louis and Madame de Pompadour were anxious for peace, the latter especially, for a share of that wealth which she saw hopelessly lavished on the sieges of Flanders. When peace was concluded, and the reduction consequent upon it had been effected in the army and in other departments, the debt and the difficulty of meeting the obligations of the State were still the questions of first importance. The controller-general, Machault, had bold views, the scope of which was to compel the privileged classes, nobles and clergy, to contribute in due proportion to the exigencies of the State. The dixième, indeed, was due from nobles as well as roturiers. But when a tax had .endured some time, so many persons and classes of influence contrived to get exemptions on one pretext or another that the burden came to fall exclusively on the peasant and the tradesman. Machault, whilst promising to withdraw the dixième in a year, established at once what was to replace it, a vingtième, as a permanent tax, to be levied in peace as in war, upon all revenue, upon the clergy as well as upon the nobles. A decree at the same time ordained that land, even that of nobles, should be sold to pay just debts. A tax on the transmission or transfer of chattel property alarmed the middle classes and their representative, the parliament. A more unexceptional measure was the abolition of import and export duties on corn, cotton, wool, hemp-in fact, on the materials of subsistence and manufacture. These were bold steps, in taking which Machault counted upon the support of the king, influenced by Madame de Pompadour. That lady, closely connected with the Brothers Paris, and the families of * Barbier, October 1747. † Ibid. A valuation of the income of the kingdom, drawn up by the in tendants, concluded that the one- СНАР. XXXVI. XXXVI. CHAP. financiers, was imbued with their ideas, and was, moreover, of that humble birth which exempted her from class prejudices in favour of nobles or churchmen. Between these and the financiers existed strong antagonism. They mulcted the capitalists when they could, and the financiers seized every opportunity to take their revenge. Whilst thus enforcing a measure of justice against the privileged classes, the controller-general sought to propitiate the ranks beneath them-at least the citizens -by the abolition of the most oppressive taxes, such as those on tallow, wax, hair-powder, wood, and objects of daily consumption. Such exemptions were not sufficient to give the popularity required to face the enemies that Machault created. The Church was in arms against him. Although it possessed one-third of the soil of the kingdom, it pretended to have exemption from all taxes, and to pay nothing to the State, save a voluntary contribution. Machault, on the other hand, resuscitated the laws against mainmorte. An edict obtained by the controller cancelled all the monastic establishments founded during the preceding twelve years, and forbade new ones without the king's sanction. Capitalists were forbidden to lend to the clergy, to enable them to purchase property. But what alarmed and aroused the clergy even more than this was another edict issued in 1750, enjoining them to give a return of their revenues.* The clergy, all powerful in Languedoc, raised the estates of that province against the controller, and the other pays aux Etats were equally obstinate in opposing the vingtième. The government did not yield without a struggle. It dissolved estates, and broke parliaments. All in vain. The fiscal quarrel became complicated by religious strife, and in the end, Machault and Pompadour were defeated in their attempt, Machault quitting the finance department for the marine. This failure was in a great measure owing to *Isambert. Barbier. |