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As a last resort, Calonne proposed that the king abolish [[Customs (tax)|internal customs]] [[Duty (economics)|duties]] and implement a [[property tax]] on [[Estates of the realm|nobles and clergy]]. [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Anne Robert Jacques Turgot]] and [[Jacques Necker]] had tried and failed to get these reforms adopted. Calonne attributed their failure to the opposition of the ''parlements'', so he called another ''[[Assembly of Notables|Assemblée des notables]]'' in February 1787. After he made a presentation to the assembly on the French deficit and its causes and dangers as he saw them, Calonne proposed the establishment of a ''subvention territoriale'', which would be levied on all property without distinction.<ref name="EB1911"/>
==Conflict with the
This suppression of privileges was badly received. Calonne's spendthrift and authoritarian reputation was well known to the parlements, earning him their enmity. Knowing this, he intentionally submitted his reform programme directly to the king and the hand-picked assembly of notables, not to the sovereign courts or parlements, first. Composed of the old regime's social and political elite, however, the assembly of notables balked at the deficit presented to them when they met at Versailles in February 1787, and despite Calonne's plan for reform and his backing from the king, they suspected that the controller-general was in some way responsible for the enormous financial strains.<ref> Doyle, William. (1989) The Oxford History of the French Revolution. OUP: Oxford. p. 71.</ref> Protests against Callone erupted, supported by the middle and lower-middle classes, who burnt effigies of Calonne in support of the
| title=The Great French Revolution, 1789-1793
| chapter=Chapter 5
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