What if Louis XVI doesn't restore parlements?

Let's assume Louis XVI has a personality transplant and doesn't restore the parlements upon coming to the throne. Could he then just reform taxes at will (from a legal perspective)? Could this avoid French Revolution?
 
I'm not sure that even without parliaments restored Louis XVI could reform taxes as will. It would definitely ease his job though.

As for avoiding the French Revolution... It's possible but it will be dependant on how exactly the monarchy reforms. We also have to account that France might still end up supporting the United States against Britain during the American Revolutionnary War, which OTL worsened France's economical situation.
 
None. It was the former so-called Parilaments, which had actually nothing in common with the british Parilament since then were nothing but Justice courts, that had created a kind of veto by refusing to register royal edicts. In fact they did not have such a power : registration was and should have remained an automatic formality.

So if the Maupeou reform had not been cancelled, the only obstacle to tax reform would have been political (the opposition of the opinion of the privileged orders), not institutional.

But the while point of this was that Louis XVI was terribly incompetent as a king and ad a political ruler. There already had been taxes imposed on the privileged orders before the Maupeou reform when it was really needed. The king demanded it and the privileged orders felt obliger to comply with, although then negotiated the amount and often paid less than the amount that had been agree on.

Al Louis XVI had to do was to demand, to exert royal authority. But he did not know nor want to to that. The man wanted the privileged orders to agree to being more taxed. Do you imagine that the super rich would agree today if a US president asked their approval for raising the income tax and the inheritance tax to the level it was under FD Roosevelt ?
 
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