The middle class demand for a merit based society directly attacked what?

Birth based privileges

A merit-based society gives importance to ability, education, work, and achievement rather than to the family into which a person is born. In late eighteenth-century France, the middle class increasingly challenged a system in which nobles enjoyed special rights mainly because of birth. They wanted careers, public offices, and social respect to be open to talented people, not reserved for particular privileged families.

Option A is correct because merit directly conflicts with birth-based privilege. Grain storage, bread as a staple food, and uncertain weather were economic or natural matters, but they did not define the political and social demand for equality of opportunity. The middle class therefore attacked inherited status and argued for a society based more on ability and equal rights.

This is a Class 9 History question. Chapter: The French Revolution. Topic: French Society During the Late Eighteenth Century.