d to be registered by the various "regional supreme courts," the parlements, before they had the force of law, and the parlements refused to do this. The resistance of the parlements, which was the resistance of some of the most privileged groups in the kingdom, enjoyed a great deal of popular support. The parlements claimed to be the kingdom's best defense against arbitrary royal authority, and they were accepted as such. When the government exiled the members of the parlements, and issued edicts to strip them of their powers, there were riots and the troops had to be called out. Parlements seen as champions of the "constitution" or "fundamental law" of the country. These courts stated that sweeping changes in the "constitution" could only be made by the Estates-General which had not met since 1614. It was taken for granted, by both conservatives and liberals, that representative government was the only cure for the current corrupt regime. The royal government might have toughed it out, except that there was no money. Also arbitrary measures taken by the royal court had destroyed investor confidence, and no one would trust a despot with good money. At the beginning of August of 1788, the controller-general told the chief minister, Brienne, that the treasury was empty. On the 8th of August, Brienne agreed to call the Estates-General on May 1st of the next year. Even this did not restore credit. A forced loan and a change of ministry was necessary to keep the government going. Necker, a Swiss banker who had been an important minister years earlier, and who enjoyed the confidence of other bankers, was brought in to run the government. He made it clear that he would run a caretaker government until the Estates met. The Old Regime was both financially and morally bankrupt. The nation, or at least part of it, now had the opportunity, indeed the obligation, to put something else in its place If the Old Regime was now gone, what would replace ...
