... sent to prison without trial. The changes that took place in France were so immense that it is difficult to pin point one single explanation. Many Historians would argue that economic factors were in fact the main motivation of the French Revolution which in turn led to the sweeping reforms, however, if society was so bad, can it really be argued that economic factors were solely responsible for Revolutionary uprising? France was bankrupt, her economy had been severely damaged by funding several wars and in 1788 three quarters of expenditure was on the armed forces and servicing the countries existing debt. Necker (who was necker?) made a fatal mistake by introducing a loans scheme that saw the public debt rise each year. Between 1783-1787, Necker, created an additional debt of 425 million livres. A constant loan cycle developed which plummeted France deeper into debt. Frances expenditure was over 20% higher than ...

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