First, the nobility and the bourgeoisie are similar to each other, but they are isolated from each other.
In 1755, a nobleman wrote: "The privileged nobles are going bankrupt and dying every day, while the third class is getting richer day by day." From the centuries before the French Revolution, French aristocrats have been facing the situation that the bourgeoisie gradually became rich, which made the bourgeoisie as rich as the aristocrats and even surpassed them in many cases. The narrowing of the economic status gap has brought the lifestyle and education of the nobility and the bourgeoisie closer and closer. "Bourgeois knowledge comes from the same place. For them, education is both theoretical and literary: Paris is the only tutor in France, and it gives everyone the same form and behavior. " At the end of 18, French aristocrats and bourgeoisie were similar in thought and behavior except for the difference in rights.
However, the particularity of the French aristocratic hierarchy led to the similarity between the bourgeoisie and the nobility, but it did not resolve the isolated class relationship between the two classes. The particularity of the French aristocratic hierarchy lies in the fact that while losing political power, the French nobles gained many personal privileges as compensation for losing political power. Among these unequal privileges, the most influential is the inequality of French tax policy, such as tax exemption privilege, and nobles have always had tax exemption until their death. Due to the inequality between the bourgeoisie and the nobility in tax payment, the class boundary between the bourgeoisie and the nobility will be redrawn and gradually deepened with the annual taxation, making this class boundary more clear and obvious rather than integrated.
The class boundary between the French aristocracy and the bourgeoisie has always been clear. Crossing this class barrier means breaking away from the original class while enjoying aristocratic privileges, but such privileges are disgusted and despised by the original social class. Nobles can't tolerate people with bourgeois background in their own groups, and the bourgeoisie also excludes people with aristocratic appearance.
Second, the bourgeoisie and the people are separated from each other.
Just as the nobility isolated the bourgeoisie, so did the class relationship between the bourgeoisie and the people. The important factor that separates the bourgeoisie from the people is also class privilege: the bourgeoisie obtains privilege by buying government positions sold by the government, thus avoiding the burden of the public.
The bourgeoisie obtains the privilege of reducing or even exempting military service tax by purchasing government posts, but almost everyone in the countryside except the nobles can't escape this heavy tax burden on their own territory, which leads to the rich in the countryside preferring to pour their property into nearby cities to buy official posts and become government officials. The bourgeoisie's pursuit of status is unprecedented. As long as they get a small sum of money, they immediately buy government jobs, and even the smallest bourgeoisie can get a part-time job. The bourgeoisie hates the tax-free privileges enjoyed by nobles and pursues the privileges brought by thousands of official positions: some are exempt from the burden of labor and some are exempt from the burden of military service. The state even controlled the number of official positions sold to the bourgeoisie because too many official positions were sold to the bourgeoisie, resulting in a decrease in national income due to excessive reduction or exemption of military service tax. When the bourgeoisie buys an official position, it becomes a privileged class, and there are even more tax exemptions among the bourgeoisie than among the nobles. The harm of this is to make the bourgeoisie from the countryside lose their feelings for the countryside after they settle in the city, and gradually become unfamiliar with the related affairs in rural life. The separation of residence, the difference of lifestyle, especially the class difference caused by the purchasing privilege of the bourgeoisie, separates the bourgeoisie from the people.
After gaining official positions and corresponding privileges, the bourgeoisie became as arrogant and selfish as the nobility. The most prominent point in their actions is that they are unwilling to confuse the people and use various means to get rid of the relationship with the people. Tocqueville believes that while rejecting the people, the bourgeoisie is gradually seizing the political power that belongs to them.
Third, the privilege of the nobility and the bourgeoisie shifts the burden to the people.
In the eyes of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, those who live with them in the city are becoming more and more unfamiliar. The privilege of the nobility and the bourgeoisie is tax-free, which has caused most of the local taxes to be transferred to the lower classes of cities. Teague said in his book: "Urban capitalists have found a new way to formulate market entry tax so that they do not bear this burden." Ordinary people without privileges are angry because unfair taxes have increased their share.
/kloc-In the 4th century, France adhered to the adage: "Without the unification of taxpayers, the government shall not levy taxes unreasonably", and the government has a firm determination to do so. Violation of this standard undoubtedly guarantees implementation, and compliance with this standard means respect for the law. /kloc-On the eve of the Great Revolution in the 0/8th century, the king could unilaterally set the levy standard without unifying the people, while the nobles and bourgeoisie would connive at the king to levy taxes on the poorest third class as long as they enjoyed the tax exemption privilege and did not harm their own interests. Therefore, when the king unilaterally levied taxes for the first time, he deliberately avoided the taxes that would harm the interests of the nobility and the bourgeoisie, and chose a tax that both the nobility and the bourgeoisie could be exempted from-military service tax. Another case is that Madzar-Ilan once taxed the rich Parisians for lack of money, but met with fierce opposition. In desperation, he could not transfer the tax to ordinary people. Mazar-e-Ran's original intention was to tax the richest citizens. As a result, the interests of the nobility and the bourgeoisie did not waver at all, and heavy taxes eventually fell on the poorest losers, but at the same time, the revenue of the state treasury did not lose. The tax system promoted by the state can not get taxes from the nobility and the bourgeoisie, but will be imposed on the poorest third-class people. Such an extremely unfair tax system will inevitably lead to disastrous consequences: the rich are exempt from taxes and the poor pay taxes. In this way, the tax inequality caused by the nobles and the bourgeoisie shifting the burden to the people will further accelerate the separation of different classes every year, and the isolation between people will become enemies, which is far more profound than any previous generation.
Four. conclusion
On the eve of the French Revolution, the increasingly tight financial situation of the government made the phenomenon of selling officials and titles more and more serious. This kind of official position, which is based on economic needs rather than administrative needs, is increased in disguise. By selling job privileges, all classes in France are separated from each other, and the tax burden is transferred from the upper level to the bottom. Jealousy and hatred among all classes have increased, they don't know each other, they are fragmented, and they lack the interest base of cooperation. The inequality between classes and the trend of separation and isolation have caused extremely tense social relations among classes, and they have fallen apart in the cooperation in the field of public affairs. Without the harmony and mutual assistance between classes, the self-management of the country will lose its possibility.