At this rate; the ordinary peasant or cultivator of his own field, owner of a cottage and a small tract of ground which he might rent at 100 francs a year, should pay into the public treasury, out of his land income and from manual labor, 89 francs.[3227] The deduction, accordingly, on such small earnings would be enormous; for this gain, earned from day to day, is just enough to live on, and very poorly, for a man and his family: were it cut down one-fifth he and his family would be obliged to fast; he would be nothing but a serf or half-serf, exploited by the exchequer, his seignior and his proprietor.

Because the exchequer, as formerly the proprietary seigniors, would appropriate to itself 60 days of labor out of the 300.

Such was the condition of many millions of men, the great majority of Frenchmen, under the ancient Regime.

Indeed, the five direct taxes, the taille, its accessories, the road-tax, the capitatim and the vingtiemes, were a tax on the taxpayer, not only according to the net revenue of his property, if he had any, but again and especially "of his faculties" and presumed resources whatever these might be, comprising his manual earnings or daily wages .-- Consequently, "a poor laborer owning nothing,"[3228] who earned 19 sous a day, or 270 livres a year,[3229] was taxed 18 or 20 livres.

Out of 300 days' work there were 20 or 22 which belonged beforehand to the public treasury .-- Three-fifths[3230] of the French people were in this situation, and the inevitable consequences of such a fiscal system have been seen--the excess of extortions and of suffering, the spoliation, privations and deep-seated resentment of the humble and the poor.