Western Civilization II / Unit 1 WC2 0018 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Classifying an Absolutist Instrument: Intendant, Tax, Ritual, Academy, Army
The idea
The exam describes a royal measure and asks what it was for. This unit supplies five kinds of instrument, and each answers one question: who administers, who pays, who obeys, who admires, who fights. An intendant replaces a noble governor. A tax reaches the peasant the nobles cannot. A ritual ranks nobles against one another. An academy makes the king the patron of learning. An army makes him the only power with soldiers.
In practice
Five cases. A merchant's son collecting taxes in a province, answerable only to Paris: administration, the intendant. The taille nearly tripled while regional assemblies are abolished: payment, the tax. Dukes competing to hand the king his shirt at his rising: obedience, the ritual. A dictionary fixing the French language under royal patronage: admiration, the academy. One hundred fifty thousand men in standard uniforms under noble officers: force, the army.
Where people slip
The instruments overlap. The intendant also raised recruits, and the court also cost the crown sixty percent of its revenue. Classify by the question each answers, and expect the exam to test the intendant against the noble governor above all.
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