338 Chapter XIV
Calonne, alarmed, drew up a comprehensive set of measures. His ideas were es-
sentially those of Turgot, but he meant to introduce them in less piecemeal and
guarded fashion. He was the first and last minister before 1789 to propose a gen-
eral plan of structural reorganization. He was the first also to appeal to public
opinion.
He was convinced, as most historians have been, that France was a wealthy
enough country to support the expenditures of its government. Half the expen-
ditures went for debt service, a quarter for the armed forces, about nineteen per
cent for civilian objectives; and the upkeep of Versailles and the whole royal es-
tablishment absorbed only six per cent. Distribution of public expenditure in
England was much the same. The trouble with the French budget was on the side
of income. And if revenue was chronically insufficient, it was in part because
wealthy people paid so little in taxes. Nobles were exempt from the taille on
principle, and many bourgeois by special arrangement. Nobles and bourgeois alike
evaded the vingtième by false declarations of income. A mass of provincial liber-
ties, special immunities, privileges, deals, bargains, commutations, and abonne-
ments spared taxpayers of many kinds from the full impact of the fisc. Calonne
thought that by abolition of such exemptions and evasions the financial crises
could be surmounted.
Briefly, his plan was threefold: he would obtain the cooperation and under-
standing of the country through new provincial assemblies, to be elected by tax-
payers without regard to the three orders. He would replace the vingtième with a
new tax on landed income payable by all landowners equally, whether clergy, noble,
or commoner, and he would equalize the tax burden as between provinces by abol-
ishing the exemptions that some of them enjoyed. And he would stimulate pro-
duction by getting rid of the royal corvée, internal tariffs, excises on certain manu-
factures, and restrictions on the grain trade.
In France, more than in Eastern Europe, and more than in England, land own-
ership was widely spread among all classes. Some nobles, some bourgeois, and even
some peasants were substantial proprietors. A plan for all landowners to be taxed
alike, without privilege of social position, and to be represented simply as land-
owners in elected public bodies, without reference to legal status or corporate
grouping, struck at the foundation of the society of estates. And since Calonne
intended to have anyone owning land worth 600 livres a year (about £25) take part
in his elected assemblies, he undercut the social structure at a point pretty far down
in the pyramid.
Calonne won the King’s support for his program, but knew that the parlements
would never accept it. He considered calling the Estates General, which had not
met since 1615, but decided that such a course would be too uncertain and too
slow, and would in any case favor the organized nobility and clergy. He decided
therefore to lay his plan before a selected group of important persons, an Assembly
of Notables, an ancient device last used in 1626. He hoped that endorsement of his
plan by a body of such commanding prestige would oblige the parlements to ac-
cept it also. The Notables met in February 1787. Designated by the King, they
were mainly prelates and great noblemen, with a few members appointed to repre-