American raw sugar cost more than in neighboring countries, and tariffs were higher too. But as long as ordinary people did not know, they would bear this additional tax. That was indirect taxation: taxpayers passed the burden on to others by raising prices, and it was usually invisible and traceless.
Unequal taxation existed throughout Europe, but no country displayed that inequality as starkly as France, making people feel that richly dressed nobles and clergymen were exempt from taxes because of their privileges, while the poor, who could not even afford bread and salt, had to pay them.
In 1789, obtaining noble status had become easier than ever before. To increase revenue, the king sold not only offices but noble titles as well. Those who enjoyed such privileges desperately needed to feel different from the masses, while those born noble needed to feel different from the "new nobility."
Commoners found it ridiculous that the king had still been hunting when the Bastille was stormed. In truth, hunting, like banquets, was meant to placate the nobles, allowing them to gauge their identity and status by their closeness to the king.
Yet some people sensed the meaninglessness of such rituals and, after the hunt, did not perform any boot-removal ceremony before changing into silk stockings.
The strange—or, as Montesquieu called it, distinctive—thing about the English nobility was that they mingled with commoners, making the image of a nobleman rather vague. Henry Petty's grandfather, William Petty, had been a very "practical" man. Born into an artisan family, he had nearly died in a shipwreck, then was made a marquis by the king because of his skill with finances and taxation, acquiring tens of thousands of acres of land.
That was practically the highest rank a subject could attain. Some old English noble families did