The French Revolution An Economic Interpretation [Paperback]

This book is designed as a thought-provoking, accessible guide to the economic background to the French Revolution.An accessible guide to the French Revolution considers the policies of successive assemblies, including taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror.An accessible guide to the French Revolution considers the policies of successive assemblies, including taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror.The economic history of revolutionary France is still a neglected area in studies of the revolution of 1789. While some attention has been given to the condition of the peasants, the urban working classes and the financial crisis of the Ancien Régime, there has been a general tendency to regard economic factors as external and somewhat peripheral to the truly political nature of the Revolution. This book is designed to redress the balance, providing a clear, accessible and thought-provoking guide to the economic background to the French Revolution. Professor Aftalion analyzes the policies followed by successive Revolutionary assemblies, examining in detail taxation, the confiscation of church property, the assignats, and the siege economy of the Terror. He shows how decisions taken in 1789 by the Constituent Assembly inevitably led to a deepening financial and economic crisis, and to increasingly radical and disastrous policies. The study is important also for its exposure of many of the economic fallacies propounded both by many Frenchmen at the time, and later by many modern historians.List of figures; Chronology; Acknowledgements; 1. The fiscal crisis; 2. The French economy at the end of the 'Ancien R?gime'; 3. 1789; 4. The 'assignats'; 5. The finances of the Constituent Assembly; 6. The rising cost of living, anarchy and war; 7. The seizure of power by the Mountain; 8. Economic dictatorship; 9. 'Dirigisme' in retreat; 10. The French RevolÃ