inefficiency was the number of people who had fiscal (tax) privileges. Also, those who collected taxes in Old Regime France were not salaried employees, but tax-farmers who took their profit first before handing over the revenue to the treasury. Even the government's own receivers were allowed to use the funds in their care for their own purposes -- which usually meant lending the government its own money at interest. When Louis XVI's finance minister Calonne came to him in 1786 to tell him the till was empty, the government, with its debts and many commitments, had little room to manoeuver. Yet drastic action was absolutely necessary, because the government had neither money nor credit. An absolute king in theory should have the power to bring in new taxes, especially in an emergency of this sort. But in actual fact, some kind of agreement with the privileged classes was necessary if their tax burden was to be increased. Calonne proposed the calling of a pseudo-representative body named the Assembly of Notables . These Notables were to be royal nominees, men of weight and substance whose acquiescence in his financial plans could be presented as the assent of the nation. This body, made up of 144 nobles, bishops, royal officials, mayors, and provincial leaders, met in February of 1787. They refused to consider reform unless they were shown the government accounts to see that there really was a crisis. Once they had seen them the Notables suggested retrenchment before any new taxes were tried, and then denied they had the power to approve new taxes or a more uniform system of tax liability on behalf of the kingdom. Self-interest, yes, but at the same time they were acting out of an honest distrust of arbitrary government, which was shared by almost everyone. By the summer of 1787, it was evident that the Assembly of Notables would pass no significant measures, and the government began changing the tax system by edict. But such edicts ha...
