taille

taille, the most important direct tax of the pre-Revolutionary monarchy in France. Its unequal distribution, with clergy and nobles exempt, made it one of the hated institutions of the ancien régime.

The taille originated in the early Middle Ages as an arbitrary exaction from peasants. Often commuted or renounced after 1150, it was revived in regulated forms in the later Middle Ages. During the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), the king’s seigneurial taille, raised from his domain, was extended throughout France to meet expenses, and it developed into the royal taille. Since the taille was a monetary equivalent for military service, the nobility who fought and the clergy who were exempt from fighting did not pay, so that the tax fell on nonprivileged persons and lands. Under Charles VII (ruled 1422–61) the collection of the taille was formally organized and made permanent and exclusively royal. The taille had become an indispensable source of royal revenue and continued to be collected by the French kings until the Revolution at an ever increasing rate.

The taille was collected by two methods. In the districts of the taille personnelle (i.e., northern France) it was levied on an individual basis; in the districts of the taille réelle (Languedoc, Provence, Guyenne, Dauphiné) it was levied on nonprivileged land.

By the 18th century the many exemptions to payment of the taille made it weigh more heavily on those who still were liable to pay it. Inhabitants of large towns, such as Paris and Lyon, did not have to pay, and an ever increasing number of judicial and financial offices carried with them the right of ennoblement, giving the holders the enviable social status of non-taillables.

The taille was abolished with the Revolution of 1789.