Mastering the Guilds’ Debts in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Royal Scrutiny, Debt Reduction and State Coercion

Bibliographic Data

ID6147955
AuthorsMathieu Marraud (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume30
Issue2
Pages171-188
Publication date2015-12-30
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoire & Mesure (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0982-1783 • E-ISSN: 1957-7745
PublisherOpenEdition (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.4000/histoiremesure.5255
OpenAlexW2290300039
LanguageEN
References cited10

The French guilds, like all the corporate bodies, were asked to contribute to the King's finances. This paper looks at the work of a royal commission – the Commission pour la révision des comptes des communautés d'arts et métiers – which was set up in 1716 to examine the financial situation of the guilds. The commission used its power to closely monitor and impose a number of constraints on the ways in which the guilds managed their revenue, expenditure and debt. Control by the state of the guilds' finances was used to facilitate the political integration of guilds into royal administration. In this respect, the development of the king's debts made it possible for the monarchy to take control of its corporate bodies which, initially, had only consented to act as intermediaries to support the king's credit

Commission · Control (management · Debt · Economic history · Economics · Intermediary · Management · Monarchy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Revenue · State (computer science · Work (physics · Engineering · European Political History Analysis · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Finance

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