Revolution Society Price, Joseph Priestley, Andrew Kippis, Abraham Rees, Theophilus Lindsey, Thomas Belsham, Thomas Brand Hollis and Peter Finch Martineau. At the time of the fall of the Bastille in July 1789, the London Revolution Society was the most vocal of the radical societies. The meeting place in 1789 was the London Tavern. The group became increasingly supportive of the French Revolution, then still in its initial stages. Their November 1789 address to the French National Assembly would inspire the creation of the first French Jacobin Club The Society continued its activities in 1790–1792 but after 1792 the radical momentum shifted from
Causes of the French Revolution have lagged slightly behind the Low Countries, and possibly Switzerland, in per capita wealth, the sheer size of the French economy made it the premier economic power of continental Europe. Historian John Shovlin states, "It is a truism that the French Revolution was touched off by the near bankruptcy of the state." It was the burden of the national debt that led this to the long-running financial crisis of the French government. Before the revolution, the French debt had risen from 8 billion to 12 billion livres. Extravagant expenditures on luxuries by Louis XVI, whose rule began in 1774, were