By attacking the Parisian custom posts where the octroi duties were collected in July 1789, the people of Paris damaged the wall of the Farmers General, revealing their intention of suppressing these taxes at the gates of the city. More than a inconsequential riot, these popular actions demonstrated that the populace would henceforth play a significant political role, largely ignored until then. The assault on the customs posts was led jointly by the people and the smugglers. By concentrating on the fall of the Bastille, historians have doubtless obscured the importance of the burning of custom posts, which, after all, allowed the Bastille to be taken. However, these two popular movements, simultaneous and parallel, reinforced each other, aiming at a common purposethat of existing on the political scene.