At that time, the main economic activity in France was agriculture:approximately 80% of the population lived and worked in rural areas.
During in the middle of the 18th century, a large part of the population was starving. All because the heavy taxes impoverished the people.
This difficult situation was exacerbated when prolonged droughts or floods occurred. As such phenomena were frequent in the 1780s, there were several supply crises.
Another activity that was going through a crisis was commercial activity. Industry, in turn, was being hampered by mercantilist regulations imposed by the government, by the poverty of the population, and by the treaty that France signed with England in 1786. By this agreement, English textiles gained the right to enter France without having to directly with the French manufactures and causing the bankruptcy of many of them.
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