The Third Estate consisting of members of various factions of the bourgeoisie and peasants, in 1789 brought a list of grievances (cahiers de doléances) to the National Assembly. Inequalities of tax allocation, judicial rights of individuals, agricultural rights, the suppression of venal rights, the list goes on and on, but they were issues that need addressing if the people' were to achieve equality for all. It is only when one examines the various classes within the Third Estate and then the various factions within the bourgeoisie that one comes to realise that many of the so called peasants were in fact members of the petite bourgeoisie like lower clergy and retail merchants, bosses of small workshops, well-off artisans, and clerks.
However, in the main it was the bourgeoisie that benefited from the resolutions made by the Estates General and the equality and liberty obtained it could be argued was selective by social standing. As Lefebvre pointed out "It is no less true that in decreeing liberty and equality of rights this class served its own interest-. .
The financial crisis that existed lofted inflation to great heights which although benefited some of the more industrial manufacturers, was a huge burden to the peasantry. 1789 saw over 80 percent of an average peasant's household income going to purchasing bread alone. In that same year, unemployment in many parts of France was over 50% . As Soboul sees it, "the peasant revolt of 1789 tipped the balance of forces against the government and the aristocracy, and marked a turning point in the course of the Revolution- . A fundamental Marxist theory is that the peasants within feudal society will eventually revolt and bring about a revolution and were openly encouraged by Marx to do so. Marx's famous quote from the Communist Manifesto (1848) demonstrates this when he tells the workers of the world to unite, as "you have nothing to lose but your chains- , gives us an instant insight into the Marxist perspective, and demonstrates how it was class antagonisms that led to the founding of a new order.
