Chapter-1 Part-3
Introduction
- In Part 2 of Chapter 1, we learned about Louis XVI, French Society in the Late Eighteenth Century, France’s Empty Treasury Under Louis XVI’s Reign, the Division of French Society, Feudalism, how the tax was collected, and the Land division. In Part 3 of Chapter 1, we will learn about France’s social and economic conditions before the French Revolution “The Struggle to Survive: Survival Challenges before the French Revolution”.
Before we go any further, let’s understand some new vocabularies
- Struggle to Survive– things that make life more difficult for people.
- Drought: It is a long period with little or no rain
- Hail: Hard balls of ice that fall like rain.
- Staple food: The main food that people in a place eat regularly to stay healthy and strong.
- Anonymous: Refers to a person who created something but did not mention his or her name on the thing made.
- Etching: A unique skill in which pictures are created on a metal. Also, a special instrument is used to create lines and designs on it
- Destitute: Refers to people who are poor and lack food and shelter.
Let’s go back to the topic: Challenges and Unfairness faced by French people before the French Revolution
Increase in Population leads to higher demand for Bread
- From about 23 million in 1715 France’s population grew to 28 million by 1789, which resulted in increasing in demand for food grains needed to make bread.
Impact of Food Shortage and Rising cost of food on Farmers
- As the population increased, farmers found it difficult to produce enough food grains to meet everyone’s needs.
- The cost of bread increased as demand increased and supply decreased.
Difficulties faced by Factory Workers: Fixed Wages and Soaring Bread Prices
- Third-estate people worked in factories as labourers, with their wages fixed by their bosses.
- The price of food grains increased, but the labourers’ wages were not raised.
- As a result, labourers could not buy bread at lower wages.
- Bread was the staple food of France.
- This situation caused the rich to become richer and the Destitute poorer.
Impact of Natural Disasters: Droughts and Hailstorms
- This situation worsened when there was drought and hail, leading to
- less food being grown.
- As people do not have enough food to eat, they struggle to survive.
- These events frequently occurred before the French Revolution, during the period when kings ruled France.
An anonymous etching: The Spider and the Fly
- To show this situation of third estate people, An unknown person has carved a picture on a piece of metal. Click here to see the picture.
- In the picture, a Destitute brings everything like grain (wheat), fruits, money, and even salad to the fat lord (a rich person).
- The rich lord sits and takes everything without even paying attention to the Destitute or saying hello.
- The rich lord completely ignored the Destitute as if he did not exist.
- This behaviour shows rich lord does not have kindness and respect toward the Destitute doing all the work for him.
- Lord does not even appreciate the Destitute’s efforts.
- The person who made this picture compares a rich and powerful person with a spider and a peasant or farmer or worker with a fly.
- This comparison suggests that the rich person is like a spider because he catches and controls the peasant (the fly), using his power and wealth.
- The greed of rich people leads to wanting more and more, no matter how much someone already has.
What is the Story of The Spider and Fly trying to tell us?
- Therefore this story tries to describe a situation where there is a big difference between the rich and the Destitute.
- The rich take all the food grains produced by the Destitute.
- While the Destitute does all the work but gets little or nothing in return.
- This story shows the feeling of inequality experienced by people who are not wealthy or powerful.
- This makes people feel frustrated and upset about how unfairly money, power, and resources are divided in society.
To Summarize
- Before the French Revolution, France experienced an increase in population.
- Farmers could not grow enough food grains to meet everyone’s needs, so bread prices also increased.
- Third-estate people worked in factories but earned low wages.
- Employers did not raise the wages of Labourers.
- Due to this Labourers could not buy bread, which was a staple food of France.
- Meanwhile, the rich continued to be richer and the Destitute continued to be poorer highlighting “Struggle to Survive in French Revolution”.
- Things worsened during droughts and hail, reducing food production and making survival harder.
- These challenges were common in France before the revolution under kings’ rule and made.
