<P> Britain, too, was heavily indebted as a result of these conflicts; but Britain had far more advanced fiscal institutions in place to deal with it . France was a wealthier country than Britain, and its national debt was no greater than the British one . In each country, servicing the debt accounted for about one - half the government's annual expenditure; where they differed was in the effective rates of interest . In France, the debt was financed at almost twice the interest rate as the debt across the Channel . This demanded a much higher level of taxation and less flexibility in raising money to deal with unforeseen emergencies . (See also Eden Agreement .) </P> <P> Edmund Burke, no friend of the revolution, wrote in 1790: "the public, whether represented by a monarch or by a senate, can pledge nothing but the public estate; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large ." Because the nobles successfully defended their privileges, the king of France lacked the means to impose a "just and proportioned" tax . The desire to do so led directly to the decision in 1788 to call the Estates - General into session . </P> <P> The financial strain of servicing old debt and the excesses of the current royal court caused dissatisfaction with the monarchy, contributed to national unrest, and culminated in the French Revolution of 1789 . </P> <P> Louis XVI, his ministers, and the widespread French nobility had become immensely unpopular . This was a consequence of the fact that peasants and, to a lesser extent, the poor and those aspiring to be bourgeoisie, were burdened with ruinously high taxes levied to support a wealthy monarchy, along with aristocrats and their sumptuous, often gluttonous lifestyles . </P>

Analyze the causes and consequences of the french revolution