水一下，讲讲旧制度糟糕的财政情况(不全):
奥地利王位继承战争花费了13.25亿，其中三分之二都是借贷来的，当1748年签订艾克斯-勒沙佩勒条约时，王室长期债务已经达到了12亿，之后每年收入的8500万拿来偿债。1756年，王室又为七年战争举债，使得1764年债务总额达到23亿利弗尔，每年收入中的1.96亿拿来偿债，超过了每年收入的60%。
除此之外，七年战争中政府也诉诸于加税:1756年掌玺大臣马肖将第一个二十分之一税延长十年并加征第二个二十分之一税收，1760年埃蒂安·西维埃特作为税收总接纳员(General Receiver)之子和一个包税人的姐夫继任财政总监后，又增加了第三个二十分之一税并给特权者征收第二个人头税(capitation)。1763年亨利·贝尔坦接任总监以后又废除1760年的两个税并代之以永久性的第一个二十分之一税和第二个二十分之一税的征收延续十年。1749年财政总监马肖开始收第一个二十分之一税是大规模普遍税的起点，也是王室和高等法院引起冲突的焦点:1757年征第二个二十分之一税时，弗朗什孔泰的贝桑松高等法院拒绝登记，王室就下令逮捕了四名不服从的法官；1760年第三个二十分之一税和第二个人头税下来时，鲁昂高等法院递交了一份言辞非常凌厉的谏诤书，攻击了金融家(financer)并关注到了国王实际收到的税和交上去的税之间不平等的关系，并称人民和贵族已经被税收弄得精疲力尽。虽然，1763年的修改后税收已经低于了十年之前。米拉波侯爵1760年12月出版了《税收理论(Théorie de l’impôt)》，声称现在的直接税征收系统和间接税保税系统都要被废除，抵制王室不经过同意就收税，并主张废除所有现存税种代之以一种单一的以土地税，并且认为农地产量必须减去成本和农场主的利润得到的净值才是社会的剩余，只能以此作为征税对象而不是实际产值。结果由于反对金融家，在该书问世一周后被逮捕在万赛纳城堡中关了一周，之后又在首都门口的Bignon(一块estate)待了三个月。然而这本书却让他继人类之友后又在全国闻名了，他的书再版了十八次，并且巴黎治安中将在他被逮捕的前一天，劝说他离开。根据Michael Kwass的说法，国王让步了，在1763以后，他往往诉诸于借贷，在贷款快还不上时才选择征税。
The most crushing legacy of the Seven Years’ War was the immense public debt the conflict left in its wake. Of the 1325 million livres the administration spent to finance the war, nearly two-thirds was borrowed. At the end of the War of Austrian Succession, the long-term debt had reached 1,200 million livres, entailing annual debt service charges of 85 million. By 1764 the debt had risen to over 2,300 million livres, involving costs of 196 million a year, or more than 60 percent of the state’s revenue.
卡洛纳从1783年开始担任财政总监时间大约三年半，借贷了超过4.2亿，其中1.95亿都是面向公众的终身年金，利息很高:
During his term as controller general, Calonne borrowed over 420 million livres, nearly 195 million of it in high-interest life annuity bonds calculated to appeal to speculators.
这种年金，构成了1777-1788年间王室向公众发行的10亿公债中的7.76亿。
Calonne continued the policy of his immediate predecessors of borrowing vast sums to cover the gap between government revenue and expenditure. Between 1777 and 1788 the administration offered over a billion livres in loans for public subscription, much of it at ruinous rates of interest. A standard form of loan the French government floated in the 1770s and 1780s was the life annuity, or rente viagère, constituted on from one to four “heads.” Between 1777 and 1788, the Crown obtained 776 million livres on loans of this sort.
由于一人的购买限制从一份上升到四份，外加利息高，日内瓦、阿姆斯特丹和伦敦丰富的资金纷纷涌入，金融家投资患了天花切且已经痊愈的富人家孩子，帮他们购买这种公债。埃蒂安·克拉维耶尔是日内完1782革命的政治难民，也加入了这个队伍，他先用百分之五的利率贷款，再买一笔终身年金，用十五年就能付清贷款，在未来的生命能让他继续享受本金的8%-10%
In the 1770s, Genevan investors figured out that by carefully selecting as their heads children of well-off parents who had already survived smallpox, they could prolong payments on French life annuities for decades. An investor like Étienne Clavière, a refugee in Paris from the Genevan Revolution of 1782, could borrow money at 5 percent from bankers in Amsterdam or London, repay the loan from income on a life annuity in fifteen years, and for the rest of the life, or lives, specified on the annuity enjoy an 8 to 10 percent income on capital that was never actually his.
实际上，王室公债太庞大导致了过高的利息，这一直受到重农学派和农学家们的批评，认为资金流向国家信贷和商业与制造业的投机，而农业较低的利润率导致资金匮乏，重农学派人士，尼古拉·鲍多神父就在批评内克尔大幅举债支援美国独立战争时，指出王室公债利率有6-12%，而农业投资的利率只有3%。
According to Baudeau, the real economy was being starved of capital by the high interest rates engendered by excessive state borrowing. If rentiers were making profits of between 6 and 12 percent on government loans, how could agriculture, which returned 3 percent on average, get the investment capital it needed? Baudeau compared the societies of modern Europe, “desolated for two centuries by the new principles of finance” to “a sick man, whom the fever has not yet completely quit after a long and perilous attack.”
早在1786年夏天，王国就面临当年4.75亿的支出，增加一个亿的赤字的问题，而且4.75亿还得依靠用未来税收做抵押提前从金融家那借贷2.8亿利弗尔。卡洛纳召开显贵会议的一大原因也是王国财政已经到了危险的程度，如果1790年开始要偿还美国独立战争的债务会导致每年支出增加五千万利弗尔:
By the summer of 1786, the royal finances were on the verge of collapse.
Calonne informed the king in August that he expected a deficit of 100 million livres for the year on revenues of 475 million. Matters would only become worse in the near future: the third vingtième tax would expire in 1787, exacerbating the shortfall of revenues over expenditures, and by the end of the year the state would have spent 280 million livres of its future tax revenues in the form of advances from financiers. The financial situation would reach a critical point in 1790 when the state would begin to repay loans floated during the American War at an additional annual expense of 50 million livres.
1787年卡洛纳在显贵对他用财库收入支持金融投机的指控中下台，接任的财政总监布里埃纳虽然是重农学派及其改革策略的支持者，但是显贵们对重农学派想要消灭“团体特权”的反感表示了对改革方案的不信任，王国的债务也逼迫布里埃纳先尝试征税，却引发了高等法院的反对，88年11月，在流放了高等法院以后，新法令(发行2.4亿的短期债券)旨在缓解当年财政压力，注册在plenary court(全体法庭)上，但是王国的破产和信用危机让新一轮债券却在短期的狂热后遭到了抵制，因此布里埃纳以89年5月召开三级会议和暂停全体法庭与反对派妥协:
Early in August, the minister was informed that the treasury could not raise the 240 million livres in short-term credit that it needed to meet its obligations for the rest of the year. Brienne suspected a plot by financiers to leave the treasury empty. In a bid to shore up confidence, he announced that the Estates General would be convened in May 1789, and he postponed until that date the establishment of the new Plenary Court: significant concessions to the patriot opposition.
至于玛丽安托瓦内特的奢侈生活究竟消耗了多少treasury funds，可以看下图对路易十四1688年做的统计:18世纪王室household在战争年代是15%，和平年代是35%，但都低于军费支出。而且路易十六的时代对宫廷中grandee/mistress的补贴已经没有之前那么庞大了。考虑到蓬巴杜夫人45-65年一共花了3600万利弗尔在室内装饰，187万三千在珠宝，68万七千在金银餐具，装饰一次贝尔维尤宫殿(Bellevue)就是超过三百万，你会发现他们的花费虽然很高，但是全拿出来仍然比不上几个亿的债务。
