BEFORE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Their interests were supposed to be his. If the ruler was both wise and good, the people prospered; but in any case they were expected to accept without murmuring the decisions of their betters.
As may be inferred, the mass of the population throughout Europe was made up of plain and simple folk. For the most part they were occupied with agriculture and lived a very humble life. Cities were relatively, as well as actually, far smaller than they are to-day.[1] Manufacturing was attempted on a small scale, particularly after the Seven Years' War, but at best it was insignificant and in general not greatly encouraged. As a result, trade and commerce lacked incentive, and, moreover, suffered under the burden of numberless regulations due to narrow prejudice and imperfect knowledge of the laws governing national wealth. Widespread poverty characterized the greater part of Europe.
Particularly notable, too, as a result of the universal acceptance of the doctrine of the "Balance of Power," was the division of large portions of Europe among nations that had nothing to do with the organic historical development of the regions they appropriated. Such was especially the case in Italy.
Into the life of the eighteenth century came the fearful upheaval of the French Revolution, which marks a turning-point in the history of every country of western Europe. The minds of men were themselves transformed — that was the Revolution. A thousand conceptions, social and political, that had seemed established for ever were at length shattered under the long-continued assaults of philosophers and political theorists, and systems of government that under manifold differences in externals were alike in exalting the personal will of the ruler were sooner or later greatly modified. In some cases, as in France, the change in institutions was immediate and sweeping; in others, as in Germany and Italy, the transformation was more gradual; but in all, the old state of things was doomed.
The thirty years or so just preceding the Revolution are
6
