Local Elites at the End of the Old Regime

Historians have long debated the nature of the Old Regime and of the Revolution against it, but until recently most historical work focused primarily on national and regional institutions or groups. Of late, however, local politics, especially those of the Revolutionary period,1 have received more scholarly attention. This essay will examine the politics of two relatively large manufacturing towns in that crucial period-the closing decades of the Old Regime. Troyes and Reims were the two largest towns in the province of Champagne and among the twenty or thirty largest towns in France; Troyes had 28,000 people and Reims had 32,000 people in 1789.2 Like most of the larger towns and cities, Troyes and Reims each had a subdelegue (the deputy of the intendant), a bailliage court for civil and criminal cases, an election court for tax cases, a maitrise des eaux et forets with jurisdiction over forests and waterways in the king's domain, and a contingent of the marechaussee (mounted highway police). All of these officials and institutions had jurisdictions extending beyond the city limits into the surrounding region. Troyes and Reims also served as the regional centers of commercial control and exploitation. They drew food, workers, and raw materials, principally wool, from

Economic history · European Political History Analysis · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History