The French Revolution

The French Revolution appears several times throughout Piketty's analysis, and its significance is broad and diverse. It is presented in the Introduction as the kind of catastrophic social consequence that can occur when food production fails to keep pace with population growth. In this way it gave urgency to the writings of Malthus, whom Piketty sets as one of the seminal writers of political economy.

Although the data is scarce, the French Revolution figures significantly as a landmark event in Piketty's financial history of France. In its aftermath, the first ever measures for taxing the entire population equally were introduced, based on our modern notions of equality and democracy. It was also a period of considerable redistribution of capital, as land-owning aristocrats fled the country and their properties were seized. Regardless, a counter-effort to restore this property also took place—a sign for Piketty that...