Source+D

**Source D**

**Price of 100 kilograms of wheat in Paris, 1770 and 1790**

(ahahahah, wikispaces no like peekshurs)

** F - Francs ** Wenfei (10)

Source D supports the view that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions to a large extent. It is a graphical representation of the price of 100 kilograms of wheat, the main staple for people then, in Paris in 1770 to 1790. From 1770 to 1785, there is a decreasing trend of the price of wheat. However, from 1785 to 1789, we see a sharp increase of the price of wheat from approximately 20F to 28F. This implies an attempt from the government to earn money from the third estate by increasing the price of wheat. This tells us that the government may be coming across financial difficulties, in turn causing the deteriorating economic conditions. Cross referring to Source C, we do see that the King imposes a lot of taxes on the third estate, such as the “gabelle” and the “banalite”, further reiterating that the government is facing deteriorating economic conditions. From contextual knowledge, we see that the government, due to financial difficulties, had to impose taxes and raise prices of food on the third estate, thus making the lives of the people from the third estate very difficult. This caused a lot of disapproval within the third estate, hence these people decided to go against the First and Second Estate, who were then living very comfortable lifestyles, therefore resulting in the French Revolution. This source is quite reliable since it only shows the statistics, therefore being more unbiased and objective.

From this source, we can observe that the price of wheat increased dramatically in the year 1789, which coincides with the outbreak of the French Revolution in the same year. Before the start of the revolution, the price of wheat hovered between around 16 to 20 Francs for 100kg of wheat. In 1789 however, the price of wheat shot up to around 30F. From contextual knowledge, bread was the staple food of the French, and hence increasing wheat prices would definitely have caused difficulties for them. From Source C, we know that the Third Estate had to pay to use the lord’s mills and oven, hence possibly accounting for the rise in wheat prices. Also, since the Third Estate was by far the poorest Estate in France, they would have not been able to afford the rising prices of wheat. All of these indicate deteriorating economic conditions, as well as a feeling of instability amongst the people. Therefore, this source supports the statement that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions. -Trishala (27)

Source D supports the view that the French Revolution was due to deteriorating economic conditions to a large extent. It is a graphical representation of the price of 100 kilograms of wheat, the main staple for people then, in Paris in 1770 to 1790. From 1770 to 1785, there is a decreasing trend of the price of wheat. However, from 1785 to 1789, we see a sharp increase of the price of wheat from approximately 20F to 28F. This implies an attempt from the government to earn money from the third estate by increasing the price of wheat. This tells us that the government may be coming across financial difficulties, in turn causing the deteriorating economic conditions. Cross referring to Source C, we do see that the King imposes a lot of taxes on the third estate, such as the “gabelle” and the “banalite”, further reiterating that the government is facing deteriorating economic conditions. From contextual knowledge, we see that the government, due to financial difficulties, had to impose taxes and raise prices of food on the third estate, thus making the lives of the people from the third estate very difficult. This caused a lot of disapproval within the third estate, hence these people decided to go against the First and Second Estate, who were then living very comfortable lifestyles, therefore resulting in the French Revolution. This source is quite reliable since it only shows the statistics, therefore being more unbiased and objective. - Jiao Wenfei (10)

From the source, we can see that from the years 1785 to 1790, the price of wheat increased very suddenly. We can infer from this provided data that the government imposed very heavy taxes on wheat during this period of time. As bread was a main staple of food for the French, imposing such high taxes on the price of what would definitely have negative impacts on the Third Estate. The only reason why the government would want to impose such high taxes on French people, namely the Third Estate, would be because they did not have sufficient funds of their own and needed some extra way of earning revenue. The outbreak of the French Revolution also occurred in the year 1789. Hence, we can infer from this that the deteriorating economic conditions which lead to the heavy taxation of the Third Estate lead to the French Revolution. From Source C, we can see that the government was only taxing the people in the Third Estate despite their economic difficulties. This caused a lot of unhappiness in the Third Estate, as we can see from the “begging”. This would also be linked to the outbreak of the French Revolution as the French Revolution was brought about because of the uprise of the Third Estate. Hence, by cross-referencing, we can also infer that the deteriorating economic conditions were a cause for the French Revolution. - Michelle Ng (19)

Source D supports the hypothesis. From the graph, we can see that there was a sharp increase in the price of wheat in France in 1789, from approximately 20F to 28F. This increase is probably due to the many taxes that the French had to pay, such as the "banalite" which the Third Estate has to pay in order to use the lord's mill for grinding grains, as stated in Source C. As wheat is a staple food source for the people of France, such an increase in the prices of wheat will definitely cause great unhappiness and financial problems to the residents of France, especially among the Third Estate since they are the ones paying all the tax. According to Source B, the Parliament had to Impose taxes urgently as "any delay would reduce the resources for preserving and consolidating the King's authority". Therefore the government may be facing financial difficulties then, thus having to collect money from the Third Estate in order to keep the Parliament running. The French Revolution took place in 1789, the same year of the hike in prices of wheat. This implies that deteriorating economic conditions, which led to heavy taxation on the Third Estate and the price increase for wheat, contributed to the start of the French Revolution, hence supporting thy hypothesis. -Wang Meng (29)