Machault and the 5 percent tax

When Jean-Baptiste de Machault became controller-general of the finances in France in December 1745, he found the country on the verge of bankruptcy. Neither the aristocracy nor the clergy were paying the general land tax, the taille. In 1749, Machault tried to reform the system by proposing to substitute the old tax of a tenth, which many of the clergy and the nobility evaded, with a five percent tax without exceptions. The proposal was met by such loud protests from the clergy and the nobility, which cited their historical privileges, that Machault was unable to see it through.