The year before the revolution had bad harvests and manufacturing slowed down. This led to unemployment , raised food prices, and starvation. During this economic collapse, the king still spent lots of money on the court and his palaces.
One of the main problems addressed by Napoleon´s Civil Code that existed with the French legal system from before the Revolution was the access to oficial appointments only based in a person´s birth. This was reformed and from then on this access starts being acquired on ability and qualifications.
