ANCIEN REGIME OF FRANCE

The term Ancien Regime was commonly used by journalists and politicians in France after 1789, to refer to the situation in pre-revolutionary France. The British started using it after 1794. The ancient system was institutionally torpid, economically immobile, culturally exploitative and socially stratified. This system was completely incapable of self-modernization. Therefore, its improvement was possible only through a big violence.

Political situation

The main feature of the political situation of the ancient system was the irregularities prevailing in it, that is why the words 'prodigal anarchy', and 'debris of powers' have been used for it.

1. Rights of the King

Before the revolution in France, there was an autocratic monarchy, whose supreme authority was the king. The king, because of his belief in 'divine rights', did not consider himself responsible to any person or institution and wanted to rule autocratic, as in the statement of Louis XVI, 'Since I will, it is legal'. It is clear. It is the king who makes laws, levies, taxes, spends according to his own will, declares war and makes treaties with other nations of his own free will. The king could imprison any person without indictment. The State General and the Parlement were two institutions to control the powers of the king, but the States General was not a regular institution and its session was called only on the wish of the king. The second institution in France was the Parlement which was not a representative body but like a Supreme Court.

2. King's extravagency

The rulers of France lived very luxuriously and lived a very luxurious life. The capital of France was Paris, but the king lived in Versailles, which was located 12 miles from Paris. His luxurious palace was built in Versailles, which was built by Louis XIV spending millions of dollars. In that palace there were hundreds of rooms, churches, theaters, dining halls, hospitality rooms, innumerable guest-houses and hundreds of rooms for the servants to stay. Many gardens, sculptures, fountains and artificial lakes were built in this palace itself. The king and the people of the royal family used to live in ecstasy. This kind of wastage by the people of the royal family had a serious effect on the treasury. For this reason people in France called the court as 'the grave of the nation'.

 3. Inefficient Administrative System

The administrative system of France was very faulty and inefficient. There was a complete lack of planning and order in the administration. The distribution of works among the departments was also not rational. There were many such tasks, the responsibility of which was divided into many departments, due to which no department did that work. There were five committees to advise the king, who also took up the making of laws, issuing orders and other domestic and foreign affairs. From the point of view of administration, France was divided into 36 parts, which were called generalities. The head of each generalite was called an Intendant. Intendant was generally of the middle class. It was appointed by the king himself. Its job was to follow the orders of the capital and to send the report of its work to the capital. These Intendant were, in fact, the means of carrying out the misgovernance, the real power of which was in the hands of the aforesaid five committees. Therefore, they also used to administer in an autocratic manner.

4. Law

There were different laws for different places in France. In France, there was no restriction on trade in the thirteen provinces, but the other provinces were as separate from each other as there are different countries. Taxes had to be paid on goods being sent from one province to another. The judicial system in France was also very complex and faulty. There were about 400 types of judicial legislation in France. The king could have imprisoned any person without any prior notice. Not only the king but any of his benefactors could arrest anyone with the help of 'lettre de chachet'. Voltaire and Mirabo were also imprisoned for some time by this malpractice.

 ECONOMIC CONDITION

   1. Deteriorating Economic Condition

In France, the principles of tax system based on the will of the taxpayers were not propounded. Finance-administration was also autocratic and autocratic like the administration of justice system and other departments of the government. The unplanned economic policy of the French government had left France financially hollow. About 50% of the national income was used to pay interest on the national debt. The government was forced to take loans again as the expenditure was always more than the total income of the state. Hezen has written that state finance policy generally operates on the principle that expenditure should be commensurate with income, but the principle of the French government was the opposite. It fixed the income commensurate with the expenditure.

2. Selling the Post

The government thought of a way to get rid of the increasing debt, that it should take more loans and collect money by selling the posts. Apart from this, another method was also adopted by the French government. Under this, a group of wealthy people gave money to the king and in return they got the right to collect taxes. This system was called 'farming out the taxes'. This was a very faulty system, as they used to charge more than the actual tax due which oppressed the people and reduced the income of the state. During the time of Louis XVI, that debt increased so much that people stopped lending, due to which the government was caught in a serious financial crisis.

3. Lack of budget

Another serious drawback of French fiscal policy was the lack of budget. In the absence of budget, the income and expenditure account of the state could not be maintained properly. The king used to spend the state money arbitrarily considering it as personal money. The money that should have been spent on providing the necessary facilities for the nation was spent on the personal needs and luxuries of the king. In such a situation, it was natural to have an adverse effect on the economic condition of the country.

4. Faulty Tax System

Taxes are the main source of income of any country. The taxation systems in France were very faulty. There were two types of taxes – direct and indirect. Direct taxes had to be paid on personal property, income and land, but most of the taxes were such from which feudal and church officials, etc. How surprising that the class which was able to pay taxes did not have to pay taxes and the bones of the body were also asked from those who were hungry. This is the reason why it was said in France at that time, “The nobles fught, the clergy worship and the common people pay taxes. Thus the tax system was completely based on partiality”.

SOCIAL STATUS

The classification of French society was as follows. First, there was the privileged class and the second was the unprivileged class, who did not have any kind of facilities and their life was very painful. 

1. First Estate/Clergy

The clergy were the the first estate and they held the highest position in the society. He was very powerful and wealthy. About 1/5th of the total land of France was under them. They used to get huge income from this land. Apart from this, they also collected religious taxes (tithes) from the farmers. The annual income of the church was about ten million dollars, which should have been spent for the construction and repair of religious buildings, religious services, hospitals and schools, but the actual situation was not like this. Like other institutions of France, there was a lot of corruption in the Church, which hurt the moral sense of the country. The major part of the church's income went to the personal accounts of the senior officials. The moral character of some of these virtuous people was very reprehensible and ideology was of low standard. The position of church officials also differed greatly. The position of the high priests was very good and they were omnipotent in every matter of church and religion, but the position of the smaller officials of the church was very bad. There was not much difference between him and the condition of the common people. They were fully acquainted with the unjust system, due to which these people helped the common people at the time of revolution.

2. Second Estate/Elite

The second privileged class was the nobility, who were under the 'Second Estate'. The feudal lords, courtiers and big government officials came under this class. Before the revolution, their number in France was about four lakhs. Although Richelieu and Louis XIV had significantly reduced the power of the feudatories, this class was still powerful. A quarter of the total land of France was under them, with the income of which these people lived a luxurious life. There were also two classes among the feudatories: Nobles of sword and the Nobles of the robes. Those feudal lords who were related to old military families came under the category of 'Nobles of sword'. There were also two types of military feudal lords - court nobles and provincial nobles. Court feudal lords were few in number, but they lived a life of great opulence and luxury. Being in the court, he got the opportunity to come near the king, due to which he became very powerful. He had a monopoly on most of the high offices of the state. The number of provincial feudatories was very large, but they were not so influential. Being in their respective provinces, they did not have special relations with the kings. Therefore, their influence could not increase. He did not get any special respect in the society. Nor was his financial condition very good. The hatred of the feudal class in the heart of the people of France was actually only for the selfish and greedy court nobles.'

The second class of feudatories was the Nobles of robes. In the ansien regime of France, posts could be bought. By purchasing such a post, he would get a certificate of being feudal from the government. Thus this class of feudatories was born. These people were not the descendants of medieval feudatories. Most of them were judges or members of higher tribunals, hence they were called 'Judge nobles'. This class was liberal in comparison to other feudal lords and from time to time they opposed the laws of the king and the government, but they had a special attachment to their privileges, they were not ready to leave them.

3. Common Public / Third Estate

Apart from the clergy and the feudal classes, the rest of the people of France used to come in this class which was called the third Estate. This class did not have any rights. There was huge inequality even in this class. The richest man or the brilliant litterateur or laborer and farmer, whoever was not in the clergy and the nobility, belonged to this third class. This class was also mainly divided into three parts-middle class, craftsmen and farmers.

(i) Middle class (Bourgeoise) In France, the middle class was called 'bourgeois'. People of this class lived in cities and were rich, educated, teachers, litterateurs, engineers and other intellectuals who did not have to do physical work. The people of this class, being intelligent, hardworking, educated and financially prosperous, were vehemently opposed to the ancient system. The behavior of the clergy and the nobility was not good towards them, due to which they felt inferior. Many wealthy merchants of the middle class had given loans to the government, but seeing the condition of the government, they started worrying about their money. It is noteworthy that the most intelligent, rich, civilized and progressive people of France were middle class, but they did not get any political rights. The middle class wanted to get political rights. He was agitated by the ideas of Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu and many other economists.

(ii) Artisons - The second class living in the cities was the craftsmen. At that time in France their number was about 2.5 million. Before the Great Revolution in France, the industries could not be fully developed, so their number was less. The craftsmen were divided into several categories and each category had its own rules. The relations between the categories were very poor and there were frequent quarrels among them. These craftsmen were not provided any kind of facility by the government. 

(iii) Peasants- In France, the third class had the highest number of farmers. Overall, France also had the largest number of farmers. Farmers were 9/10th of the total population of France, but still they had the most deplorable condition. The entire burden of taxes was also on the shoulders of these poor people. Farmers had to pay more than half of their total income as taxes. The feudal lords had to pay land tax to them and tithes to the church. The result of all this was that the farmers were always suffering from financial crisis. Farmers had to pay taxes at every step. Taxes were collected from them for the use of even bridges and roads, they were also prohibited from using their own feudal mill or crusher for flour mill and wine making, crusher. Even if he had to go 4-5 miles for that. They had to pay tax on the use of mill or crusher. Due to the above reasons, the feeling of dissatisfaction of the farmers was getting stronger. Leo Garcian wrote, “The peasants had become so sad that they themselves turned into a revolutionary element. He needed only a signal to make the revolution and his major role made the revolution of 1789 AD successful.

Thus, In the words of Arthur Young, it was a museum of economic mistakes. The privileged class here had become extremely adept in the enjoyment of worldly pleasures and was marching fearlessly towards its destruction.