taille

(noun)

A direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held.

Related Terms

  • Ancien Régime
  • Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748
  • letters patent
  • lit de justice
  • Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 174
  • the estates of the realm
  • tithe
  • parlements
  • Ancien Régim
  • Seven Years' War

Examples of taille in the following topics:

  • Taxes and the Three Estates

    • The taille - a direct land tax on the peasantry and non-nobles - became a major source of royal income.
    • Exempted from the taille were clergy and nobles (except for non-noble lands they held in "pays d'état;" see below), officers of the crown, military personnel, magistrates, university professors and students, and certain cities ("villes franches") such as Paris.
    • Although exempted from the taille, the church was required to pay the crown a tax called the "free gift," which it collected from its office holders, at roughly 1/20 the price of the office.
    • In the decades leading to the French Revolution, peasants paid a land tax to the state (the taille) and a 5% property tax (the vingtième; see below).
  • The Rise of the Nobility

    • Eventually, the twentieth became a mere increase in the already existing taille, the most important direct tax of the monarchy from which privileged classes were exempted.
  • The Ancien Regime

    • The Second Estate constituted approximately 1.5% of France's population and were exempt from the corvée royale (forced labor on the roads) and from most other forms of taxation such as the gabelle (salt tax) and most important, the taille (the oldest form of direct taxation).
  • France's Fiscal Woes

    • Eventually, the twentieth became a mere increase in the already existing taille, the most important direct tax of the monarchy from which privileged classes were exempted.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.