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Santa Clara UniversityUniversity Library

History 30/130A: The French Revolution

The Tribes of France

'Who were the [pre-19th century] inhabitants of France?'

'A crazed, human landscape of tribes and clans'

"In political history, the answer seems quite simple. The people of Dieppe, Boulogne, Goust and Saint-Véran all belonged to the same nation. They were answerable to provincial parlements and ultimately to the King. Most of them paid taxes — in money, labour (maintaining roads and bridges) and eventually, when systematic conscriptions was introduced at the end of the eighteenth century. in human life. They had locally appointed officials — an agent to collect taxes and a guard to police the community. But laws, especially those relating to inheritance, were widely ignored and direct contact with the central power was extremely limited. The state was perceived as a dangerous nuissance: its emissaries were soldiers who had to be fed and housed, bailiffs who seized property and lawyers who settled property disputed and took most of the proceeds. Being French was not a source of personal pride, let alone the basis of a common identity. Before the mid-nineteenth century, few people had seen a map of France and few had heard of Charlemagne and Joan of Arc. France was effectively a land of foreigners (22-23)...

Many [pre-revolution] places turn out to be fully functioning jurisdictions with their own parliaments and unwritten constitutions. Nearly every village had a formal assembly of some kind...

Some of these town and villages were flourishing democracies when France was still an absolute monarchy. François Marlin ran into such a place on his journey through Picardy in 1789. The conspicuously clean and tidy village of Salency, he learned, was governed by an old priest. The children were never sent away to become servants, and they were not allowed to marry outside the parish. There were six hundred people with only threee surnames between them. All were considered equal, and everyone worked the land, using spades instead of ploughs. As a result, their harvests were abundant, their children — even the girls — were taught to read and write by a salaried schoolmaster and his wife, and everyone was healthy, peaceful and attractive...

If so many tiny places declared independence at the time of the Revolujtion, it was because they were already partly independent. Their aim was not to develop the local economy and become part of a larger society. Change of any kind generally meant disaster of the threat of starvation. The dream of most communities was to sever tied, to insulate the town or village, which is partly why measures varied from one village to the next: standardization would have made it easier for outsiders to compete with local producers. The wanted to refine and purify the group. The boast that no one ever married outside the tribe was as common in France as it is in most tribal societies..." (31-33)

"The Tribes of France, I," The Discovery of France by Graham Robb

Map: French Districts for Grievances

Identify the district from where your character comes.

Use the maps below to identify the district that your character represents at the National Assembly, and cross-reference the information in the map with the appropriate Grievance Notebooks.

The images above are from A guide to the general cahiers of 1789 : with the texts of unedited cahiers by Beatrice Fry Hyslop, which is on reserve for your class in the SCU Library. Ask for it at the Help Desk.

Grievances / Grievance Notebooks / Cahier de Doléances

Selections of Cahiers from 1789 (English)

There are thousands of cahiers for the different regions of France, and from each region, cahiers from specific segments of society. Not all are known or trusted for their authenticity, but selections have been translated and made available online, some of which are linked below.

Digital Translations of the Cahiers

From Hanover Historical Texts:

Cahiers of 1789: The Clergy of Blois and Romorantin
Cahiers of 1789: The Nobility of Blois
Cahiers of 1789: The Third Estate of Versailles
Cahiers of 1789: The Third Estate of Carcassonne

The French Revolution and Napoleon : A Sourcebook

Cahiers de doléances, province of Berry, spring 1789

  • The First Estate of Bourges
  • The Second Estate of Berry
  • The Third Estate of Berry
  • The parish of Levet
  • The parish of Marcilly

Cahier de doléances, Parisian flower sellers, spring 1789

Printed Translations of the Cahiers

The General Cahiers of 1789 - on reserve for your class; ask for this book at the SCU Library Help Desk

Unedited Texts of General Cahiers                                                .   202

  1. Arches and Charleville, united orders.............................. 203
  2. Aval, third estate, with supplement................................. 207
  3. Beziers, clergy.......................................................... 221
  4. Bourmont, clergy........................................................ 226
  5. Bourmont, nobles........................................................    231
  6. Bruyeres, nobles .........................................................  236
  7. Carhaix, third estate..................................................... 241
  8. Chatel-sur-Moselle, nobles.............................................. 245
  9. Chatel-sur-Moselle, third estate...................................... 248
  10. Corsica, nobles............................................................... 252
  11. Dix Villes Imperiales d’Alsace; third estate...................... 266
  12. Draguignan, clergy ......................................................  283
  13. Etain, clergy ..............................................................  292
  14. Etain, third estate......................................................... 297
  15. Langres, supplement of third estate to cahier of united orders  302
  16. Lixheim, third estate ...................................................  310
  17. Longuyon, clergy......................................................... 313
  18. Longuyon, nobles........................................................ 316
  19. Longuyon, third estate.................................................. 318
  20. Longwy, nobles ..........................................................  326
  21. Longwy, third estate..................................................... 331
  22. Martinique, colony.......................................................... 362
  23. Mende, nobles ............................................................  365
  24. Mont-de-Marsan, third estate......................................... 368
  25. Nantes, lower clergy....................................................... 374
  26. Nomeny, third estate                              ...................................  378
  27. Riom, third estate........................................................... 382
  28. Rochefort-sur-mer, supplement to third estate................... 385
  29. Rouen, third estate....................................................... 389
  30. Sarreguemines, third estate............................................ 391
  31. Sarrelouis, clergy and nobles united................................ 397
  32. St. Die, third estate......................................................... 398
  33. St. Dominigue, Paris committee..................................... 418
  34. Toulon, third estate...................................................... 419
  35. Ustaritz, third estate ....................................................  429

A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution - on reserve for your class; ask for this book at the SCU Library Help Desk

"Limitations of space preclude the possibility of presenting here a representative selection of conservative, moderate, and radical cahiers. The final choice has been restricted to the general cahiers of the bailliage of Dourdan in the généralité of Orléans, almost in the center of France... One the whole, these may be regarded as 'typical' cahiers."

Pages 56-84: Cahiers of the Clergy, the Nobility, and the Third Estate of Dourdan

Translations and Reprints from European History, vol. 4 - on reserve for your class; ask for this book at the SCU Library Help Desk

  • Cahier of Clergy, Bailliage of Blois
  • Cahiers of Nobility, Bailliage of Blois
  • Cahier of Third Estate, Bailliage of Versailles

Pages 1-24 of the last section of the volume

Cassini Map of France, 1750-1815

The Carte de France was published by four generations of the Cassini family from 1750 to 1815. It consists of 182 sheets at the same scale, allowing the sheets to be joined together to form a physical map of about 39 feet high by 38 feet wide. It is rich both in historical cultural information and exquisite graphic art. The map was the first national survey completed systematically, relying on the latest science of its time.

— David Rumsey Map Collection

Composite: Carte de France, (Cassini, Cesar-Francois, 1714-1784); (Cassini family), 1750

View larger, zoomable image

18th Century France Economics

"Economically, eighteenth-century France presented a paradox. In commerce and industry it was the most prosperous European state, in national finances the most nearly bankrupt. French prosperity was the product of the relatively unprivileged middle class; French bankruptcy originated primarily in the fiscal policy (or lack of policy) followed by the privileged upper classes who controlled the government. There was no national budget, governmental income was contingent upon expenditures, the national debt had been increased by the wars of the eighteenth century, deficits were chronic, the court was extravagant, and the government was able to avoid bankruptcy mainly by extending existing taxes, reviving old ones, or inventing new ones.

It was taxation that brought the national financial situation painfully to the attention of the average Frenchman. The privileged minority who enjoyed the benefits of taxation were exempt from, or evaded, most taxes. Payment therefore devolved upon the unprivileged majority who were either unable or unwilling to carry the burden. Whether in town or country the common man was subject to a great variety of taxes, which consumed a considerable portion of his income. Direct taxes included the taille (mainly on land), the capitation (a poll tax), the vingtieme (an income tax), the octroi (a local tariff on commerce), and the corvée (an obligation to perform a certain amount of labor, such as road work). Indirect taxes comprised the gabelle (chiefly on salt), the aides (on wine), and the tabac (on tobacco). Nowhere was there uniformity in assessment or collection; everywhere there was injustice and inequality. Internal customs and duties (e.g., the douanes) complicated the system; and the practice of selling some of the rights of taxation to individuals or firms of financiers (the Farmers-General) rendered it more odious.

If French government in the eighteenth century was of the people, by the king, for the clergy and nobles, finances and taxation of a certainty were at one with the government" (7).

— "The Antecedents of the French Revolution," A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution by John Hall Stewart

Search for Primary Sources Yourself

These digital library collections, known as repositories, are good databases to search for primary sources related to your faction and geographical region.