As six centuries passed, these trends strengthened in the ranks of the common people. The king, who aligned himself with the growing middle class, came to dominate the nobles. By the 1700s the old noble-commoner social structure had largely dissolved, although certain practices from earlier times had survived. The nobles, for example, had formerly provided the king with free military service and been declared exempt from paying the taille, a tax on both estimated income and land. They remained exempt from this tax in the 1700s, even though they no longer provided the king with free military service. Poor members of French society, already angered by such inequities, were also galled by other habits of the nobles-their fancy balls, hunting parties, and comfortable ignorance of the conditions suffered by workers and peasants.
The French Revolution. During the late 1700s, the situation in France deteriorated. Food grew scarcer, prices soared, and the French government faced bankruptcy. Most of the burden of this economic disarray fell on the peasants and the middle class, while the aristocrats continued to enjoy their lavish lifestyles. By the late 1780s, French rebels openly opposed the heavy taxes and high prices they faced.
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