He did not reform the system of aides and tailles established by Louis XI.
But his proposal to substitute for all aides and customs duties a single capitation tax of a tenth of the revenue of all property was naturally opposed by the farmers of taxes and found little support.
By this means the parlements took part in the administration, except in matters the cognisance of which was attributed to another supreme court as that of taxation was to the tours des aides.
Thus he procured money at all costs, with an extremely crude fiscal judgment which ended by exasperating the people; hence numerous insurrections of the poverty-stricken; Dijon rose in revolt against the aides in 1630, Provence against the tax-officers (lus) in 1631, Paris and Lyons in 1632, and Bordeaux against the increase of customs in 1635.
Two middle-ranking ministers, John Denham and Lord Hunt, quit while five unpaid ministerial aides also stood down.