In chapter 3 I shall give an account of the opening debates of the Constituent Assembly, but first I want to give the reader some idea of the structures of the French economy towards the end of the eighteenth century. Once I have described the state of agriculture, industry and trade, I shall analyse the nature of the crises occurring in this period. The authorities established by the Estates-General had in fact to cope with an especially difficult economic context. The popular movements arising in 1789, whose influence upon the course of the Revolution was to prove decisive, coincided with a major crisis. In July 1789, the price of bread rose to exceptionally high levels and unemployment was rife. Finally, I shall consider the kinds of knowledge of ‘economic theory’ that were becoming current towards the end of the Ancien Régime. We shall then be in a position to appreciate the pertinence of the decisions taken by the revolutionary Assemblies, which will be seen in the light of such consequences as could have been anticipated at the time.

Economic conditions

The previous generation of historians were particularly concerned to reconstruct the economic conditions of former times, especially those in existence at the end of the eighteenth century, which are what concern us here. They have considerably advanced our knowledge of ways of life and of working conditions in the countryside and the towns at the end of the Ancien Régime.