ting the
revenue of an individual the sums he pays to his intendants, overseers
and cashiers are not deducted.--Talleyrand (October 10, 1789) estimates
the revenue of real property at 70 millions and its value at 2,100
millions. On examination however both capital and revenue are found
considerably larger than at first supposed. (Reports of Treilbard and
Chasset). Moreover, in his valuation, Talleyrand left out habitations
and their enclosures as well as a reservation of one-fourth of the
forests. Besides this there must be included in the revenue before 1789
the seigniorial rights enjoyed by the Church. Finally, according to
Arthur Young, the rents which the French proprietor received were not
two and a half per cent. as nowadays but three and three quarters per
cent--The necessity of doubling the figures to obtain a present money
valuation is supported by innumerable facts, and among others the price
of a day's labor, which at that time was nineteen sous. (Arthur Young).
(Today, in 1999, in France the minimum legal daily wage is around 300
francs. 20 sous constituted a franc. So the sums referred to by Taine
under the Revolution must be multiplied with at least 300 in order to
compare them with 1990 values. To obtain dollars multiply with 50. SR.)]

[Footnote 1207: National archives, among the papers of the
ecclesiastical committee, box (portfolios) 10, 11, 13, 25.--Beugnot's
Memoirs, I. 49, 79.--Delbos, "L'Eglise de France," I. 399.--Duc de
Levis, "Souvenirs et Portraits," p.156.]

[Footnote 1208: Leonce de Lavergne, "Economie Rurale en France,"
p.24.--Perin, "La Jeunesse de Robespierre," (Statements of grievances in
Artois), p.317. ( In French "cahiers des doleances"--statements of local
complaints and expectations--prepared all over France for use by their
delegates for the Etats Generaux. SR.)]

[Footnote 1209: Boiteau, "Etat de la France en 1789," p.47. Voltaire,
"Politique et Legislation," the petition of the serfs of St. Claude.]

[Footnote 1210: Necker, "De l'Administration des Finances," II. 272.]

[Footnote 1211: De Bouille, "Memoires," p.41. It must not be forgotten
that these figures must be doubled to show corresponding sums of the
present day. 10,000 livres (francs) rental in 1766 equal in value 20,000
in 1825. (Madame de Genlis, "Memoirs," chap. IX). Arthur Young, visiting
a chateau in Seine-et-Marne, writes: "I have been speaking to Madame
de Guerchy; and I have learned from this conversation that