William Doyle

In the following viewpoint William Doyle details the financial difficulties that crippled the French monarchy and inevitably led to revolution. According to Doyle, the deficit had risen steadily since 1777, with much of the debt the result of excessive military spending. He examines the suggestions made by Louis XVI’s comptroller-general, Charles Alexander Calonne, to solve France’s financial problems, including reducing spending, raising taxes, and declaring bankruptcy. As explained by Doyle, Calonne concluded that only a complete reform of the monarchy would end the financial crisis. Doyle is the chairman of the School of History at the University of Bristol in England.

The revolution that was to sweep away the political institutions of old France, and shake her society to its foundations, did not begin on 14 July 1789. By that time the...