422 Ch. 1 1 • Dynastic Rivalries and Politics
Chancellor Rene-Nicolas de Maupeou (left) and his supporter, Anne-Robert Turgot
(right).
Louis XV was no stranger to unpopularity. He was held to be lazy and
indifferent, and rumor had him obediently following the orders of his
favorite mistress. The Seven Years’ War had exhausted the treasury. Fur
thermore, France had lost Canada and several Caribbean islands to Britain.
This loss of prestige, as well as income, increased the number of the king’s
critics. The structures of absolute rule seemed inadequate to the task of
managing and paying for the cumbersome French state.
Louis XV’s death in 1774 did not resolve the crisis. Following demon
strations and a spate of publications in support of the parlements, the
twenty-year-old Louis XVI (ruled 1774—1793) dismissed Maupeou and
reinstated the parlements. Public opinion seemed to have helped turn back
what was popularly conceived to be a despotic assault on restraints on
absolute rule.
Convinced that the financial difficulties of the monarchy stemmed from
the stifling effect of privileges on the economy, a new minister, Anne
Robert Turgot, undertook ambitious reforms (see Chapter 9). His goal was
to cut away some of the web of privileges, thus making the monarchy more
efficient. Turgot convinced the young king to issue royal edicts, despite the
opposition of the Parlement of Paris. These ended noble and clerical tax
exemptions, abolished the guilds, freed the internal commerce of grain
(the price of which had been first set free in the 1760s), and exempted
peasants from having to work a certain number of days each year repairing
roads. Economic liberalization would, he hoped, increase agricultural pro
duction and manufacturing, thereby augmenting tax revenue.