Les crises économiques et les origines de la Révolution française

Economic crises and the origins of the French Revolution. This paper reexamines the quantitative evidence on the French economy of the eighteenth century, toward the goal of reintegrating economic history into the history of the origins of the French Revolution. It updates Labrousse's work by considering more recent evidence and by viewing France in its international context. Old Regime France was not suffering long-term Malthusian crisis of overpopulation, not was the shortrun crisis of 1789 inevitable. Economic growth resulted mainly rom improving markets, allowing constant real wages and rapid growth in land rents. Policies, especially trade policies that favored industry and penalized agriculture, were major obstacle to further development and the main protection for urban workers. This can be linked to the rise of reform politics among the notables and to the later urban-based opposition to the revolution of the landed elite.Weir David R. Les crises économiques et les origines de la Révolution française. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 4, 1991. pp. 917-947