ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by making a case for the relative success of the Burgundian estates in negotiating taxes under Louis XIV. It examines the beneficiaries of that success – the ruling coalition of elites, and how the estates promoted their particular interests. The chapter traces the rise of the estates as an intermediary under Louis XIV and posit their enhanced role as an expression of the ruling coalition’s evolving interests. Provincial estates were particularly well suited to undertake an expanded financial role under Louis XIV because they provided an arena for coalition building among what was both a broad and identifiable section of the elite. Integral to the estates’ balanced approach to taxation was their opposition to the extension of privileges within the province. After 1689, both the crown and the estates increasingly turned their attention to extraordinary affairs and debt management.
