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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

19.3. Features of the socio-economic development of France

Remnants of feudalism

Around the middle of the XVIII century. France claimed to be the leader in Europe. This it was due to certain advantages over England. The population of France more than twice the population of England. More was the territory of France. French industry and trade, especially external ones, developed successfully. The light industry - silk, woolen, linen, paper, glass and porcelain, soap making, tannery, etc. - was particularly successful. The manufacture of luxury goods of French manufactories became widely known all over the world - clothes and fabrics, ornaments and perfumes, furniture and porcelain, etc. The manufactories were mainly centralized and small, with the number of employees from 10 to 50, less often 100.

However, from the second half of the eighteenth century, "France began to lag behind. The main reason was the heavy burden of feudal remnants and the conservative policy of the absolutist government. The feudal orders hampered the development of manufactories and trade. In the industry, medieval shops predominated. Bread export and even its transportation throughout the country were banned or severely restricted, as well as non-market sales. Separate monopoly privileges extended to a number of provinces, merchant companies and manufactories.

The development of trade was hampered by internal customs and the lack of a unified system of measures and weights. These prohibitions led to the stagnation of the guild system, to the degradation of production and further narrowing of the domestic market.

The main contradictions have developed in the agrarian sector - the main sector of the French economy. The nobility and the church, owning the bulk of arable land, forests and meadows, firmly maintained their privileges and power in the country.

The policy of mercantilism in the country was carried out by means of an actual tax robbery of the third-class tribute, especially the peasants. It was this category of the population that was forced to pay the treasury about two-thirds of its revenues. In the 80-ies. XVIII century. More than half of tax revenues fell on excises (taxes on consumer goods).

The bulk of the population in France were peasants - 22 million of the 26 million people. This class paid a dues - money ( censure ) and natural (shampar) bread, which sometimes amounted to 20 - 25% of the grain harvest. Among other taxes - pollutant, gabel (tax on salt) and church tithes. Numerous were all kinds of payment fees: ferry and pavement, podymny and the right fishing, etc. Violations were punished with considerable fines. Farmers suffered greatly from crop failures. In the XVIII century. There were more than thirty of them. The personal dependence of the peasants obliged them also for forced labor in the mastership from 5 to 15 days a year.

In the mid-70's. XVIII century. The reforms of the French financial controller A. Turgot abolished the restrictions of the grain trade, duties on imported foodstuffs were reduced. State peasant duties were abolished. Seniors-winemakers were deprived of their banality rights. Almost all types of commercial and industrial activities were exempt from all restrictions, etc.

However, the difficulties in the economy were exacerbated. Poor harvest, commercial and industrial crises, state bankruptcy and the government's inability to establish the economic life of the country, etc. - all this testified to the depth of the disintegration of the feudal-absolutist regime and required a radical solution.

The French Revolution

Called, like other bourgeois revolutions, by a sharp aggravation of socio-economic contradictions, the Great French bourgeois revolution (1789-1794) shocked the foundations of feudalism throughout Europe.

The capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, then resulted in a bourgeois revolution. At first, at the first stage (June 1789 - August 1792), the authority of the constitutional monarchist bourgeoisie was preserved and a number of important transformations were carried out.

Thus, a powerful peasant movement prompted the Constituent Assembly to adopt in August 1789 a declaration "On the Complete Destruction of the Feudal Regime." But the subsequent development of agrarian legislation affected only certain aspects of the restriction of the rights of noblemen. Among them - the liquidation of seignorial courts, the abolition of the exclusive rights of nobles to hunt, pigeon, rabbit cages and personal humiliating duties, ie, relating to "personal or property serfdom". The main part of the peasants' obligations remained and was subject to redemption, the size of which was equal to twenty annual annuities.

In the same period, secularization of church property was carried out with the sale of the liberated large land plots of the bourgeoisie. The tax privileges of the nobility and the clergy were also abolished. The right was guaranteed to all citizens to occupy any position.

A series of bourgeois reforms spread to industry and commerce. In February 1791, the Constituent Assembly abolished the regulation of industrial production. The shop system was abolished. Declared freedom of trade. All kinds of privileges and monopolies, internal customs, a ban on the sale of grain, etc. were abolished. The new customs tariff, introduced in March 1791, was of a protectionist nature.

However, the situation of the working people has changed little. Falling wages, unrestrained price increases and speculation caused popular discontent. The Constituent Assembly, fearful of the revolutionary action of the masses, adopted the law of Le Chapelier in the summer of 1791, forbidding labor unions and strikes under penalty of a fine and imprisonment. Later, the "charity workshops" for the unemployed were closed. Moreover, when the big bourgeoisie was in power, with the introduction of a unified taxation system, higher taxes were imposed on small industrialists. The agrarian question was not completely solved. The feudal duties were not completely abolished, and so on.

In August 1792, a monarchist regime was overthrown by a popular uprising. At the head are the Girondins - representatives of bourgeois Republicans. For a brief, less than a year, period of their rule, they set the first maximum food prices. A law was passed on the sale of confiscated land of emigrants in small plots or their surrender to perpetual tenancy for annual rent. All prosecution of cases related to former feudal rights ceased. The feudal rights of owners were canceled without redemption, if they could not legally prove them.

However, the most radical solution to agrarian and other problems fell on the third stage of the revolution - June 1793 - July 1794. As a result of the Paris uprising, the dictatorship of the Jacobins, the revolutionary democrats, was established. Outstanding political figures and enthusiasts, ardent orators M. Robespierre, L. Saint-Just, J.P. Marat, J. Zh. Danton, and others. The determination of the Jacobin dictatorship made it possible to inflict crushing blows on the internal and external enemies and finally destroy the feudal regime.

In particular, the Decree of the Convention in June 1793 established a preferential procedure for the sale of confiscated lands of emigrants. Poor peasants to participate in the acquisition of small plots of land were able to initially contribute only 5% of its value. Installment for the remaining amount was extended for 10 years. The peasant households became their private property. In addition, the mandatory introduction of the division of communal lands, previously selected by nobles, if this required at least one third of the villagers. At the same time, the division of land was made equally and took into account the number of people regardless of gender and age. Finally, at the same time, full and unpaid annihilation of the feudal rights of noblemen, as well as duties and expropriations, was proclaimed. And the documents themselves about the former noble rights and privileges were subject to national fire.

But the Jacobins did not go to meet a number of demands of the peasants. So, the auction was not canceled when selling land of nobility, restrictions on its purchase or rent, etc. On the contrary, in order to solve the food problem, "buying goods" was declared a criminal offense. In each district food warehouses were created. And registration of grain stocks was conducted under the strict supervision of special commissioners. Grain, exceeding the personal needs of the farmer and his family, was subject to confiscation, price fixing was introduced for grain and forage. Since the autumn of 1793, the decree on the universal maximum has established prices not only for items of basic necessity (clothing, fuel, etc.), but also for raw materials, iron, pig iron,

The financial sphere has also undergone rigorous regulation. Limitations affected bourgeois property. The prohibition of trading in a coinage was decreed. The only means of payment were bank notes.

Meanwhile, the overall political and socio-economic situation in the country has become more complicated. A severe summer drought of 1793 was added to the war and the blockade. Far from everyone liked the measures taken by the Jacobins to fight the grain market, the establishment of an allowable maximum for wages that lagged behind the rise in prices; The peasants' food inspections in connection with the deterioration of the situation in the country, and so forth.

The Jacobins, through their forced and rather rigid, and sometimes contradictory policies, deprived themselves of universal support. This is what the big bourgeoisie hurried to use. The situation was further aggravated with the adoption of an unpopular decision on a forced loan of 1 billion livres. Now the tax on luxury and property of the rich, whose income exceeded 9 thousand livres, became actually confiscation. Especially tough this "revolutionary tax" was going to the localities. They created "revolutionary charity cash offices" for the poorest part of the population, etc.

July 27 (9 Thermidor for the new calendar) 1794 counterrevolution, representing the interests of the big financial bourgeoisie, industrial entrepreneurs, traders and the kulaks, overthrew the Jacobin dictatorship and led to the power of General Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the end of 1794 the general maximum was abolished, which entailed unlimited speculation and the formation of giant personal fortunes. In parallel with the official, the "black exchange" flourished. Catastrophically jumped prices. So, the prices for bread for a year have grown in 30 times, and in comparison with 1790 - in 150 times. The bank notes were depreciating. A lot of false money was wandering around the country, etc. Tax increases, inflation, unrestrained speculation, etc., hit the urban poor. To the fuel crisis hunger was added. In the spring in Paris, bread was a quarter of a pound a day, and by the summer - half a pound (1 pound is 400 grams).

Thus, the bourgeoisie, which had become stronger during the period of revolutionary reforms, liquidated the guild system, abolished the regulation of industrial production, proclaimed freedom of trade and established a protectionist customs tariff, etc., used them. At the same time, the Thermidorian coup, it destroyed an essential part of democratic social gains.