The purpose of this paper is to analyse the reasons for de Gaulle's framatic policy choices in 1958, which, if they marked a reversal of his earlier views on Europe, were to provide the key to understanding his subsequent policy towards West Germany, Britain and the EEC. r.

French fiscal reform stemmed from four separate but inter-related factors. The first was the rapid growth in government expenditure after the Second World War and a decline in the willingness of French people to lend money to the government. The second was that the tax system was seen to be...