50 10 1079 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document (17 July 1725)—On Saturday the fourteenth, a baker of the faubourg Saint-Antoine seemingly tried to sell bread for thirty-four sous which that morning had cost thirty. The woman to whom this happened caused an uproar and called her neighbors. The people gathered, furious with bakers in general. Soon their numbers reached eighteen hundred, and they looted all the bakers' houses in the faubourg from top to bottom, throwing dough and flour into the gutter. Some also profited from the occasion by stealing silver and silverware. The guards, who are at the city gates during the day, arrived but were driven back by a shower of rocks. They had the presence of mind to close the three gates of the faubourg Saint-Antoine. They sent for a mounted patrol, which forced its way with swords into the midst of the crowd and fired three shots, leading to a general dispersal. All this is due to the controls on bread. Farmers are forbidden to bring wheat to market and bakers are given only a certain quantity of flour. The kind of bread baked is also regulated. Rolls and soft bread are no longer eaten in Paris. Several signs have appeared in the mornings, one of them posted in the courtyard of the Palais-Royal, containing terrible rumors against the government and against Monsieur the Duke [of Orléans]. Just very recently, we have had to pay [two new taxes] and bread has been extraordinarily expensive. This is too much at once to take sitting down. (April, 1724)—Money has been devalued by one-third this year. . . . Order is being reestablished only with great difficulty, which highlights the danger of workers becoming accustomed to increased earnings. It was attractive for them to work only three days and to have enough to live on for the rest of the week. It is obvious how far these lower-class individuals go in creating factions. In Paris there are perhaps four thousand stocking weavers. When the first devaluation took place, they wanted to have five sous more per pair of stockings, and this the merchants were obliged to give them. With the second devaluation, the merchants wished to reduce this five sous increase. The workers refused, the merchants complained, and the workers rebelled. They threatened to beat up those among them who would work for a lower wage, and they promised one écu a day to those who would have no work and could not live without it. To do this, they chose a secretary who had a list of the jobless and a treasurer who distributed the stipend. Sortable Date 1718-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived E. J. F. Barbier, Chronique de la regence et du regne de Louis XV ou journal de Barbier, vol. 1 (Paris: G. Charpentier et Cie., 1857), 350–51, 399–403. Description An account of the resource Bread was the basic staple of most people’s diets, and variations in the price of bread were keenly felt by the poor, especially by women who most frequently bought bread in the marketplace. Women would sometimes protest against what they thought to be unjust price increases for bread in what were known as "bread riots." As this excerpt shows, these were not usually violent, nor did they involve looting, but instead were a collective action designed to force bakers to sell bread at a "just" or "moral" price rather than at whatever price the market would allow. This passage is taken from a well–known chronicle of the reign of Louis XV by Etienne–Joseph Barbier. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 359 Title A name given to the resource A Bread Riot Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/359/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1718 Economic Conditions Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The first thing that an apprentice must have is a love and fear of God, for if he is without those, God will not bless his work, and the apprentice will never succeed in his endeavors. . . . The apprentice should also follow the old and honorable tradition of accompanying his masters to the parish mass on Sundays. Less than thirty years ago, all merchants still followed this practice, but today, masters have become lax. Most of them have become as libertine as their apprentices. It should not then be surprising that there are problems in business on a daily basis. The second thing that an apprentice must have is loyalty to his masters. To this he is bound by his contract of apprenticeship, which usually states that he will work to his master's advantage and avoid harming him. Not only does this mean that he will serve faithfully, but it also [means] that he will stop friends, domestic servants, or any other common people from injuring his master. His conscience, as well as his contract, requires this of him. The third thing is blind obedience to his master, provided he is not ordered to do that which offends either God or his conscience. In such a case, he ought not to obey. . . . The fourth thing that an apprentice must have is a great respect for his master. He must always remove his hat before speaking to him, as if his master were his father, since the master sees to his upbringing like a father while the apprentice is under his supervision. In the apprenticeship contract it says that they should act as befitting a good father. . . . The primary quality that a merchant should have with regard to the sale of his goods is to [be] an honest man. This will ensure his salvation and his reputation, and without a good reputation, a merchant will never make his fortune. Being an honest man means being of good faith and cheating no one. That is, not using weighted scales or false measures that are lighter or heavier than those set down in the regulations. In dealing with cloth, it means spreading the material out without stretching it in order to give less than full measure. In weighing something, it means not putting one's hand on the scale to make it seem heavier. Finally, it means obeying the law, giving more merchandise rather than less, and not representing one type of good as being another. . . . With regard to the profit that can be made, it is impossible to make rules. If the wares are silk, drapery fabric, serge, or black cloth, their price is not affected by changes in fashion. If they are manufactured in the realm, there are no import risks involved. And if they are ordinary wares, merchants cannot make big profits since it is well-known merchandise. Sortable Date 1757-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jacques Savary, Le Parfait négotiant, vol. 1 (Paris: new enlarged edition by Philemont-Louis Savary, 1757; originally published 1675), 41–46. Description An account of the resource Unlike the Marquis de Mirabeau, (see document Tension between Rich and Poor) Jacques Savary sought to promote commerce and those who engaged in it. In this excerpt from his 1757 edition of The Perfect Merchant, which was widely read, Savary comments on the proper relations between apprentices learning a trade and the masters who owned the shop. Although his views in general were favorable to the chance for personal advancement made possible by commerce, he also retained a clear preference for hierarchy. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 358 Title A name given to the resource Apprentices and Masters Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/358/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1757 Economic Conditions Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document For the houses here, there is no other clock than the sun. The people are three centuries behind in terms of skills and customs. Every private fight becomes public as women, unhappy with their husbands, plead their cases in the peoples' court [the street], rounding up all the neighbors to tell them her man's scandalous confession. Every kind of discussion ends in a fist fight, but by evening they have reconciled, even though one of them has had their face covered with scratches. There, a man holes up in a garret, evades the police and the hundred eyes of their stool pigeons, almost like a tiny insect escapes the most concentrated effort to find him. An entire family occupies a single room with four bare walls, where straw mattresses have no sheets and kitchen utensils are kept with the chamber pots. All together the furniture is not worth twenty crowns and every three months, the inhabitants, thrown out for owing back rent, must find another hole to live in. So they wander, taking their miserable possessions from refuge to refuge. They own no shoes, and only the sound of wooden clogs echo in the stairwells. Their naked children sleep helter-skelter. On Sunday, the people from this area go to Vaugirard for its many cabarets, for men must try to forget their troubles. There, men and women, dancing without shoes and swirling without stop, raise so much dust that within an hour they can no longer even be seen. With a terrible, confused din and a vile odor, everything keeps you far away from this horribly crowded place. Here, the masses drink a wine as disagreeable as their surroundings and engage in other suitable pleasures. Sortable Date 1783-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Tableau de Paris, vol. 1 (Amsterdam, 1783), 112–14. Description An account of the resource The writer Louis–Sébastien Mercier recorded in his Portrait of Paris detailed and witty commentaries on many aspects of life among the common people. In this article on the Saint–Marcel neighborhood, he comments on the difficulties faced by urban workers. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 357 Title A name given to the resource The Saint–Marcel Neighborhood Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/357/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1783 Economic Conditions Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document By the simple act of giving work to poor people, the resident seigneurs did an infinite amount of good. We are all familiar with the habit of continually giving presents to oneÕs seigneurs, and know that this impulse was so strong that it took on near manic proportions. But in my lifetime alone I have seen this habit virtually die out, and rightfully so. In this life every good deed must be related to something, and if the scales are weighted, the heavier side is naturally the stronger. The seigneur is no longer good for anything, and so it is in the normal order of things for him to be forgotten by the people, just as he has forgotten them. And it cannot be said that this is a carry-over over from the former system of servitude, for this would either be completely erroneous or said in bad faith. In the areas where giving presents is still practiced, the good people, even the poorest amongst them, would be mortified should their presents be refused or should the seigneur tried to pay them back by offering them a present of equal or greater value. I have witnessed this a hundred times.What remains of the tyranny dating from our fathersÕ time demonstrates that, at a minimum, the peasants knew the seigneur just as he knew them. And whatever oneÕs opinion may be of human malevolence, an axiom that has been accepted and proven by experience is that those who know us and have worked with us will deal with us more fairly that those to whom we are total strangers. The principle of dulcis amor patriae is based on the truth of this adage. Consequently, when nobody knows his seigneur anymore, everyone will steal from himÑwhich is completely natural.Another reason, closely related to the former, is that fiefs are constantly being transferred to new owners. A country is never more secure than when its constitution perpetuates succession within the same family. The same can be said, on a smaller scale, for each of the members making up that state. I am not dealing with political considerations here; rather, I am working humbly in the countryside. But in passing I cannot resist saying that, all other things being equal, respect for the old system maintains an orderly hierarchy among the rural inhabitants. I have seen examples of communities that have purchased their rights from their seigneur who was trying to sell them, only to give themselves back to him. I have seen hundreds of people who were saddened by the mere rumor of such a change, and even more who were tranquil and obedient with their old seigneur, but entered into all sorts of lawsuits with the new. And people are much more ready to turn to litigation if the new seigneur is the grandson of a certain Jacques, with the last name of Lafontaine, who cannot claim that his father had a title when he had purchased the land. Peasants have a fine ear and a good memory, and they constantly repeat that their seigneur is no better than they are. If he is wealthier, it is only because he knew more about making money. As for all his additional income, he is welcome to eat two dinners.A final reason for the discrediting of land ownership in France, but one infinitely less problematic than all the others, is the high interest rate on money. Sloth, a sister of luxuryÉ is the reason why all its adherents prefer a fixed interest that can be collected by a lackey when it comes due, to all the thought and supervision that would have to be given to working the land. They prefer their peace and quiet to the benefits that could be derived from time, industriousness, and stability. The higher the interest rates on their money, the less these latter advantages are apt to be appreciated.The prosperity of a state is also harmful to agriculture if it fosters a set of values, based on lavishness and spectacle, which brings about a disgust and rejection by those in agriculture.When studying a country in its primitive state of isolation and self-reliance, it is irrefutable that all classes and all men of a state live off of the landowners; this principle is universally recognized. A spring originating in headlands or on high ground fertilizes a region as far as its water can spread. However, a spring that originates in a low lying area only forms a swamp, until it wends its way and is lost in the nearest river, completely useless to the surrounding fields.I compare the first spring to the landowner who is the keystone of all the surrounding industry. Because of his position he must take the lead in production, for no one has more at stake than him. Should he do so, he invigorates the entire region and protects the isolated farmer. Even if the backwardness of the area does not allow him to have open and educated views, which today is highly unlikely, he will still emit some of the good that is endemic to his very position. If, on the other hand, he is at the center of consumption, he becomes the spring that produces the low-lying swamp, contributing to the inundation of the terrain that was already too wet to begin with.The luxury enjoyed by the nobility will necessarily exhaust its landed wealth, for we shall see how the yield from even the most fertile land, if it is converted into to luxury goods, amounts to almost nothing. The nobility surrounds the king and tries to persuade him that the stateÕs riches are meant to be passed from the prince to his subjects, and that the most worthy way to show generosity is to satisfy the nobility. The number of persons seeking favors grows every day. He who receives a pension of 6,000 livres is being given the taxes collected from six villages. The tax revenue, already reduced by the profits skimmed off by the tax collectors, is exhausted by such generosity. The nobility, which, if it stayed at home could be the support, strength, and luster of the state, unwittingly acts as a veritable leech. Sortable Date 1756-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marquis de Mirabeau, L'Ami des hommes ou traité de la population (Paris, [1756] 1883), 62Ð66, 80Ð83, 85Ð88. Description An account of the resource The Marquis de Mirabeau, a well–educated nobleman, worried about the migration of French nobles to the cities and the passing of lands into the hands of "new men," wealthy commoners without a sense of paternal obligation toward the peasants on that land. In a 1756 treatise entitled The Friend of Men, or Treatise on Population, he expressed concern about rising tensions between wealthy landowners and poor peasants, which he thought signaled a decline in morality. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 356 Title A name given to the resource Tension between Rich and Poor Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/356/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1756 Economic Conditions Nobility Peasants Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I. The small properties of the peasants are found every where, to a degree we have no idea of in England; they are found in every part of the kingdom, even in those provinces where other tenures prevail; but in Quercy, Languedoc, the whole district of the Pyrenées, Béarn, Gascogne, part of Guienne, Alsace, Flanders, and Lorraine, they abound to a greater degree than common. In Flanders, Alsace, on the Garonne, the Béarn, I found many in comfortable circumstances, such as might rather be called small farmers than cottagers, and in Basse Bretagne, many are reputed rich, but in general they are poor and miserable, much arising from the minute division of their little farms among all the children. In Lorraine, and the part of Champagne that joins it, they are quite wretched. I have, more than once, seen division carried to such excess, that a single fruit tree, standing in about ten perch of ground, has constituted a farm, and the local situation of a family decided by the possession. II. Hiring at money rent is the general practice in Picardy, Artois, part of Flanders, Normandy (except the Pays de Caux), Isle of France, and Pays de Beauce; and I found some in Béarn and about Navarre. Such tenures are found also in most parts of France, scattered among those which are different and predominant; but, upon a moderate estimate, they have not yet made their way through more than a sixth or seventh of the kingdom. III. Feudal tenures—These are fiefs granted by the seigneurs of parishes, under a reservation of fines, quit rents, forfeitures, services, etc., I found them abounding most of Bretagne, Limousin, Berry, La Manche, etc. where they spread through whole provinces; but they are scattered very much in every part of the kingdom. About Verson, Vatan, etc., in Berry, they complained so heavily of these burdens, that the mode of levying and enforcing them must constitute much of the evil; they are every where much more burdensome than apparent, from the amount which I attribute to that circumstance. Legal adjudications, they assert, are very severe against the tenant, in favour of the seigneur. IV. Monopoly—This is commonly practised in various of the provinces where métaying is known; men of some substance hire great tracts of land, at a money rent, and re-let it in small divisions to métayers, who pay half the produce. I heard many complaints of it in La Manche, Berry, Poitou, and Angoumois, and it is met with in other provinces; it appears to flow from the difficulties inherent in the métaying system, but is itself a mischievous practice, well known in Ireland, where these middle men are almost banished. V. Métayers—This is the tenure under which, perhaps, seven-eigths of the lands of France are held. In Champagne there are many at tier franc, which is the third of the produce, but in general it is half. The landlord commonly finds half the cattle and half the feed; and the métayer labour, implements, and taxes; but in some districts the landlord bears a share of these. At the first blush, the great disadvantage of the métaying system is to landlords; but, on a nearer examination, the tenants are found in the lowest state of poverty, and some of them in misery. At Vatan, in Berry, I was assured that the Métayers almost every year borrowed their bread of the landlord before the harvest came round, yet hardly worth borrowing, for it was made of rye and barley mixed; I tasted enough of it to pity sincerely the poor people; but no common person there eats wheaten bread; with all this misery among the farmers, the landlord's situation may be estimated by the rents he receives. At Salbris, in Sologne, for a sheep-walk that feeds 700 sheep, and 200 English acres of other land, paid the landlord, for his half, about 331. sterling; the whole rent, for land and stock too, did not, therefore, amount to 1s. per head on the sheep! In Limousin, the métayers are considered as little better than menial servants, removable at pleasure, and obliged to conform in all things to the will of the landlords; it is commonly computed that half the tenantry are deeply in debt to the proprietor, so that he is often obliged to turn them off with the loss of these debts, in order to save his land from running waste. In all the modes of occupying land, the great evil is the smallness of farms. There are large ones in Picardy, the Ile of France, the Pays de Beauce, Artois, and Normandy; but, in the rest of the kingdom, such are not general. The division of the farms and population is so great, that the misery flowing from it is in many places extreme; the idleness of the people is seen the moment you enter a town on market-day; the swarms of people are incredible. At Landivisiau, in Bretagne, I saw a man who walked seven miles to bring two chickens, which would not sell for 24s. the couple, as he told me himself. At Avranches men attending each a horse, with a pannier load of sea ooze, not more than four bushels. Near Issenheim, in Alsace, a rich country, women, in the midst of harvest, where their labour is nearly as valuable as that of men, reaping grass by the road side to carry home to their cows. Sortable Date 1787-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Arthur Young, Travels during the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789, vol. 1 (Bury St. Edmunds: J. Rackham, 1792), 402–17 Description An account of the resource Arthur Young, an Englishman, traveled across France on the eve of the Revolution recording his impressions of life there, particularly those aspects that seemed to him to compare unfavorably with his native land. In the excerpt below, he comments on the peasantry’s landholdings, remarking on the multiple arrangements of land tenure and on the small size of peasant farms, all of which seemed strange to him, because, in England at this time, most of the arable land belonged to absentee landlords who hired others to work their large farms for them. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 355 Title A name given to the resource Arthur Young Views the Countryside Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/355/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1787 Economic Conditions Peasants Provinces Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document This land produces grain, but everything else is lacking. And even the sale of this produce is uncertain due to the variability of the harvest, which is reduced considerably by too much drought or too much rain. The sale of young cattle, which the inhabitants pursue with all possible industriousness, is the only sure source of income. And as it is insufficient to pay the taxes, they supplement it by annual emigration. They go to work on a part of the forests throughout France, to do road work, or to work in the carrying trade. After that, they go to do the harvest work in Languedoc and Burgundy and then return home for their own harvest, and to replant the land that their wives have cultivated during the good season. Thus it is that with the greatest sobriety and the most arduous work these men bring back each year the money necessary to pay the taxes of their district and even of the valley, which they do to exchange part of the money earned outside the province for wine, hemp, iron, and other goods that they don't have at home and which the valley furnishes them either from its soil or through its trade. Those who have the most intelligence or are accustomed to the work, hire others and make a profit from their labor. These entrepreneurs have some money left over each year after they have paid their taxes. Because they have little property, they buy up one after another the fields cultivated by their families or others that are within their reach. This picture shows to what extent emigration is necessary in all these districts and how villages pay more in taxes than their soil can produce. It is astonishing that this emigration is not total, and that need and the sight of misery does not destroy among the people the feeling that ties men to the place of their birth. For a long time the inhabitants of the Cantal region have been engaged in the boilermaker's trade. The boiler factory established in Aurillac favors them in this kind of industry, which takes them even beyond the frontiers of the kingdom. The greatest number return each year and bring to the tax collectors and to their families the money they have earned. At last, repelled by these long trips, accustomed to an easier life, and disgusted with agriculture, they take their whole family and move to the place where they have spent their winters, either abandoning their land or giving it away at the lowest price. The Limagne is the place where indigence is greatest. The inhabitants do not even have the cruel resource of seeking a living for their families elsewhere for part of the year, because the vines demand constant care. They cannot neglect them for one year without harming the harvests of following years. Some travelers who have crossed both the mountains and the valley have been struck by the external differences they see. In the mountains, especially to the west and south of the province, men are big and strong, their bearing and their confident air depict a well-developed character and seem to indicate that they know that there is no real difference between one man and another. In the Limagne, on the contrary, they are small, ugly, bent and present only the image of men ground down by slavery, threatened by the least illness that may happen to them to be forced to have recourse to beggary, pursued without respite by need. They seem even to be ignorant of their superiority over the animals. The observer cannot recover from his astonishment when he sees all the signs of poverty surrounding him in a country that is so pleasing to the eye on account of its varied forms and of the wealth that nature has lavished there. . . . He sees people live on bread made of rye mixed with barley whose bran has not even been removed. It is without any doubt the worst bread eaten in France. . . . Never does the peasant go to the butcher shop, and he eats a few pieces of salted pork four or five times a year only. He sells good grain and green beans he has raised in order to live on black beans, which are used elsewhere only as fodder for livestock. He sells his wine and throws water on the residue of his vat to make his best drink. If nature has given him several daughters, he employs them to gather in grass in the grain fields and limits his ambition to having a cow so as to cut down his work by coupling it to the plow together with his neighbor's cow. The butter he gets from it is sold and his soup and his vegetables are seasoned only with the same walnut oil that feeds his lamp at night. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jeffry Kaplow, ed., France on the Eve of Revolution: A Book of Readings (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), 25–32. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Description An account of the resource The difficulty of life in rural regions led some to leave home and seek a better life elsewhere, particularly in the growing cities. Such migration worried some observers, who feared villages would be emptied and no one would be left to work the land. In the excerpt below, a local government official in the Auvergne region comments on the causes and effects of emigration. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 354 Title A name given to the resource Poverty in Auvergne Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/354/ Economic Conditions Peasants Provinces Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The cold began to be felt at the end of October 1708, on the evening of the Feast of the Apostles Saint Simon and Jude, 28 October 1708. The wind shifted to the north, the rain that had been falling all day long turned into ice and snow, and one saw therein a warning of what was to happen later on because the snow, having frozen in the trees, weighed on them so heavily that branches as heavy as men were seen to succumb under the burden and fall to the ground, and I am an eyewitness that most of the oak trees of the parish were badly damaged. Nothing withstood this cold; many men died of it, but to tell the truth not in the immediate vicinity; almost no birds remained; partridge were taken by hand or were found dead, together with other game, either as a result of the cold or because the ground was always covered with snow. But if only that had been the greatest evil! Wheat died and vines dried up; none of the large trees, neither the oaks nor the fruit trees, could withstand it; and the chestnut and walnut trees were especially ill treated. When one had confidence to venture out, one could hear the oaks breaking apart, and I have seen some open to a width of three fingers from top to bottom. Finally, after three weeks of this cold, which increased continually, the thaw came. Its sad effects were not yet known. Work was begun on the vines in the usual manner, but this soon became impossible because the cold began again at the start of Lent toward the middle of February and lasted fifteen days in the same violent manner. The sun, however, was stronger and made the cold more bearable to men during the day, but much more damaging to what remained of the produce of the earth, which could not resist the terrible nights that caused almost everything to die, so that it was scarcely possible to gather enough to provide for next year's seed. Wheat was soon at 28 livres the septier, and wine at 100 francs the pipe. It was hardly possible even for those who knew how, to find money, when there wasn't any. The number of poor people increased incredibly because the continuing rains of the previous year, 1708, had been very bad and had damaged the grain crops. . . . The poor of the countryside were destitute of any aid, no longer possessing a cabbage or a leek in their gardens, so they crowded into the cities to take part in the liberalities of the inhabitants, which were very considerable, at least in Nantes—for I cannot speak of other cities. But they were soon begrudged the only help they had. They were forced, by the threat of great penalties, to return to their homes, and there soon appeared the most beautiful edicts in the world to help them, which, however, served only to increase their misfortune. Each parish was supposed to feed its own poor; but for this it would have been necessary for the poor to feed the poor. So these lovely edicts were without effect, and the only way to help the poor, by decreasing the taxes with which they were burdened, was never put into practice. On the contrary, they were increased. Sortable Date 1709-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jeffry Kaplow, ed., France on the Eve of Revolution: A Book of Readings (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1971), 9–12. This material is used by permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Description An account of the resource Village priests served as community leaders in a variety of respects, including keeping a register of births, marriages, and deaths. One such curate, the abbé Lefeuvre, also included in his register impressions of life during the severe winter of 1709, which give a sense of the difficult and fragile lives of the poor in rural towns in the eighteenth century. Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Web version password protected Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 353 Title A name given to the resource ! Poverty Observed: Journal of a Country Priest Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/353/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1709 Economic Conditions Peasants Provinces Religion Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document You know Messieurs that more than ten years ago, when the nation had not yet explained its desire on provincial assemblies, I started substituting ancient and long habits for this kind of administration. Experience showed me I was not wrong, and I tried to establish this kind of administration to all the provinces of my kingdom. And to assure a general trust to all the new administrations, I wanted their members to be elected freely by all the citizens. You improved these views in many different ways, and the most important one, I think, deals with an equal subdivision. It weakens the former separations from province to province, it establishes a general and complete system of balance, and it gathers to a same spirit and a same interest all the different parts of the kingdom. We owe you this great idea. All this could be done because the Nation representatives wanted to do it, and also because of their influence on the public opinion. I will favor, I will assist by all the means in my power, the success of this vast organization, in which the safety of France depends on. I am too busy with the interior situation of the kingdom, my eyes are fully open on the various dangers around us, and I think it is necessary to say that a new order has to be established with calm and quietness, or else the kingdom will be exposed to all kind of calamities. . . . Let's do our best to accomplish our hopes through a unanimous agreement. Everybody should know that the Monarch and the Nation representatives have the same interests and the same desires, so the opinion will spread in the provinces a spirit of peace and goodwill. Also all the commendable citizens need to hasten to take part in the different subdivisions of the general administration, whose linking and the whole must participate effectively to reestablish order and prosperity in the kingdom. I will defend, I will maintain the constitutional freedom, whose general desire has devoted principles. I will do more, and together with the Queen, who shares all my feelings, I will prepare early the spirit and the heart of my son to the new order of things. I will teach him at a very young age to be happy for the French people's happiness. I will also tell him that a wise Constitution will preserve him from the dangers of inexperience, and also a fair freedom will add a new price to the feelings of love and fidelity. I shall not doubt that you will take care with wisdom and ardor to the strengthening of the executive power. Without it a durable order could not exist. It is your duty, as citizens and as faithful representatives of the Nation, to assure the State and the public freedom that everything will remain stable. . . . I cannot talk about the main interests of the State without urging you to take care of everything concerning the reestablishment of finances. It is time to calm all fears down. It is time to give this kingdom all its strength back. You cannot do everything at the same time. So when you will have made decisions about Justice, when you will have assured the foundations of a perfect balance between incomes and expenses, finally when you will have finished the work with the Constitution, you will be publicly recognized. New means of prosperity will be added to the successive continuation of National Assemblies. May this day, when your Monarch comes to unite with you in the most honest and personal ways, be an unforgettable time in the history of this empire! Sortable Date 1790-02-04 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived M. J. Mavidal and M. E. Laurent, eds., Archives parlementaires de 1787 à 1860, première série (1787 à 1799), 2d ed., 82 vols. (Paris: Dupont, 1879–1913), 1:429–31. Description An account of the resource On 4 February 1790, the Marquis de Favras was executed for plotting to spirit the King out of France and stage a coup against the Constituent Assembly. The exposure of this plot generated such negative publicity for the crown that after the execution, the King addressed the Constituent Assembly and condemned Favras, declaring his support for the Revolution. At Necker’s prompting, he here "places himself at the head of the Revolution" and declares fidelity to the "nation" and to the constitution. In return, he requests that the National Assembly take up at last the question of the deficit. The speech is enthusiastically received in the assembly, and Pierre–Victor Malouet, a leading supporter of the crown, tries to exploit this support by asking the assembly to vote to confirm Louis as head of the army and state—ensuring a powerful executive role for the King in the new constitution. However, Malouet’s proposal is not adopted. Although an apparently well–thought–out and necessary attempt at conciliation, the speech is seen by hard–liners at court as a humiliating capitulation. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 352 Title A name given to the resource An Attempt at Conciliation: The Royal Address of 4 February 1790 Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/352/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 4, 1790 Monarchy Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document It is with the most painful regret that we have witnessed the officers of our Parlement of Paris commit an act of disobedience that violates the law, their oaths of office, and the needs of the public interest. We have seen them establish the principle of arbitrary suspension of their functions, finally openly granting themselves the right to prevent the execution of our will. To embellish their claims with a specious pretext, they tried to alarm our subjects over their condition, their property, and even the future of the laws establishing the succession to the throne . . . as if disciplinary rule ever extend to threaten these sacred subjects. We are rightfully unable to change these institutions. Their stability will always be guaranteed by the inseparable link that binds us to our people. We have long postponed exercising our authority, hoping that reflection would return our officers to their duties. However, our kindness has only served to increase their resistance and the number of their illegal actions, finally forcing us to choose between punishing them and sacrificing the most essential rights of our crown.Obliged to provide judges for our subjects, we have first turned to the officers of our council, whose talents, intelligence, zeal, and service have always justified our confidence. Having provided for the immediate needs, we looked forward and have felt that in these circumstances the interests of our peoples, the good of the judicial system, and our very future required reform of the abuses existing in the administration of justice. We recognized that the venality of offices, a result of the adversity of the moment, presented an obstacle to the choice of our officers and often excluded those who, by virtue of their talents and merit, most deserved to belong in the magistracy. We owe our subjects a swift, unsullied, and cost-free system of justice, and the slightest hint of private interest could only serve to offend the sensibilities of the magistrates responsible for maintaining the inviolable rights of honor and property. The excessive size of the jurisdiction of our Parlement of Paris was infinitely harmful to those within its purview who were obliged to leave their families behind in order to come and seek a slow and expensive legal decision. Already exhausted by the expense of their trips and travels, their ruin was assured by the length and multiplicity of the proceedings, often forcing them to abandon their completely legitimate claims. Finally, we have considered that the custom which forces seigneurs to bear the costs of prosecuting crimes committed within the bounds of their jurisdiction was a very heavy burden upon them, sometimes a reason to allow the criminal to escape.In consequence, we have decided to establish high courts in various provinces whose officers will be freely chosen on the basis of their talents, experience, and ability, and who will receive no pay besides their salaries. In this way, by bringing the judges closer to the people in their jurisdiction, we shall facilitate access to the courts and make them more useful. By simplifying the forms and diminishing the costs of lawsuits, we shall make these courts more beloved by the people. Finally, by showing those lords who dispense justice that it is to their personal advantage to prosecute the guilty and by compensating them for the costs of criminal trials, we shall ensure that our subjects will be peaceful, that the public order will be maintained, and that crimes will be punished. If, in order to carry out these intentions we have been forced to narrow the legal jurisdiction of our Parlement of Paris, we have made it our responsibility to preserve all its rights and prerogatives. As the depository of the law, the parlement is responsible for the promulgation and execution of those laws, for pointing out their weaknesses, and for informing us of the needs of our peoples. Final judge of all questions which involve our crown and the rights of peers and peerage, our parlement will continue to enjoy the most precious sort of prestige, that which is conferred by virtue, intelligence, zeal, and impartiality. Sortable Date 1771-02-23 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jules Flammermont, Le Chancelier Maupeou et les parlements (Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1883), 277Ð79. Description An account of the resource This edict came at the end of the extended legal confrontation between the parlements and Louis XV. After orders that the judges stop obstructing the work of administration against the actions of the central government failed to halt the magistrates’ defense of local privilege, the decision was made to take even more decisive action. Chancellor René Maupeou was the chief executor of Louis XV’s "coup," which suppressed the parlements by "exiling" the magistrates, thereby eliminating venality of office. This edict established six "superior courts" to replace the Parlement of Paris and was rationalized by the shift that made justice free of charge to those bringing cases. Despite heavy opposition from "public opinion," these reforms were enacted. Even after the death of Louis XV four years later, Louis XVI had to make a decision to recall the magistrates, which he did in 1774, starting a new round of conflict with the judges. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 351 Title A name given to the resource Edict Creating "Superior Councils" (23 February 1771) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/351/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource February 23, 1771 Laws Text Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre: to allpresent and all to come, greeting. The systematic approach, asuncertain in its principles as it is bold in its undertakings andwhile causing grave damage to religion and morals, did not follow thedecisions of several of our judicial courts. We have seen themsuccessively give rise to new ideas and advance principles which, atany other time and from any other body, would have been condemned asupsetting to the public order.We have seen them resort several times to interruptions andstoppages of service, causing our subjects to suffer from delays inthe justice for which we are responsible. They hoped that theseproblems, to which our affection for our peoples makes us verysensitive, would force us to yield.On other occasions they have handed in their combined resignationsand, in a singular contradiction, they have disputed our right toaccept these resignations.Finally, they formed a confederation amongst themselves.They believed that they formed but a single body and a singleparlement, divided among several classes and spread among thevarious parts of our kingdom.This innovation, first conceived and later dropped by our Parlement of Paris when it seemed useful to do so, still persists in our other parlements. It recurs in their decrees and verdicts which contain terms such as 'classes,' 'unity,' or 'indivisibility.' It is as if our courts forgot that several of them exist in provinces that were not part of our kingdom, but belong to us personally. Or it is as if they forgot that the establishment of each parlement took place on a different date, and that our predecessors, in creating them, formed them independently of each other and created no precedent for relations amongst them. They gave limits to each that we or our successors can extend or limit when the interests of our peoples demand it, and beyond these limits their decrees can only be executed by our orders. . . .One of the most pernicious effects of this system is to persuade our parlements that their deliberations become more weighty, and already several of them, thinking that they have become more powerful and independent, have laid down some maxims heretofore unknown. They have called themselves the representatives of the nation, the indispensable interpreters of the king’s public will, the watchmen over the government’s administration and the settlement of the sovereignty’s debts. And soon, by not granting any validity to our laws until these laws have been adopted and sanctioned in free deliberation, they will raise their authority as high as our own, or and even above it. Our legislative power will thereby be reduced to the simple function of proposing our desires to them, while they reserve the right to prevent them from being carried out. . . .We owe it to the good of our subjects and to the interests of themagistracy itself, even more than to the interest of our royal power,to halt the development of these dangerous innovations. However,before prohibiting them by our edict, we wish to remind our courts ofthe principles from which they must never deviate.God alone has granted us our crown. The right to make the laws bywhich our subjects must be guided and governed belongs to us alone,without subordination or division. We direct these laws to ourcourts, which shall examine them, discuss them, and see that they areexecuted. . . .Article I:We prohibit our parlements from employing the terms 'unity,' 'indivisibility,' 'classes' or other synonyms which signify and express that together they constitute but one and the same parlement, divided into several classes.We forbid them to send to our other parlements, except inthe cases allowed for by our ordinances, any documents, titles,proceedings, memoranda, remonstrances, orders, or decrees relative tocases to be tried before them either by our orders or as a normalconsequence of their jurisdiction.As also we forbid them to depose in their records or to deliberate on the documents, titles, proceedings, memoranda, remonstrances, orders, or decrees drawn up or handed down by other parlements, and order them to send to us all such documents. . .all upon the risk of loss or suspension of their offices.Article II:We desire that, in accordance with the ordinances and in our name, the officers of our courts dispense to our subjects the justice we owe them, and that they do this without any other interruptions besides those authorized by these same ordinances. Consequently, we forbid them to cease their services, either as a result of their own deliberations or by interrupting these services due to all chambers assembling together during the session. This except in cases of absolute necessity, recognized as such by the first president with whom we shall consult. . .and this upon risk of loss and suspension of their offices.We prohibit them, under the same penalties, from tending theirresignations, either combined or in unison, or as a result of acommon deliberation or oath. . . .When we have listened as often as we deem necessary to understandand judge their comments, we shall persevere in our will and shallhave registered, in our presence or in the presence of the bearers ofour orders, said edicts, declarations, or tax letters. And we forbidthem to make any orders or pass any decrees that might tend toprevent, impede, or delay the execution of said edicts.Similarly, we prohibit any person who shall have presided over thesessions, the officer who brought said edicts for registry, of anyothers, from signing any record of such orders or decrees. Weprohibit all recorders, clerks, or other officials from drawing upand authorizing any copying or engrossment of such decrees. Weprohibit all bailiffs, sergeants, or mounted police who might be soordered to proclaim or execute such decrees. All of this is upon riskof loss or suspension of their offices, and of being prosecuted andpunished for the disobedience of our orders. Sortable Date 1770-00-00 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Jules Flammermont, Le Chancelier Maupeou et les parlements (Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1883), 116–20. Description An account of the resource The extended legal confrontation between the Parlement of Brittany and Louis XV lasted from 1765 to 1770 over the right of the central administration to govern directly in a province that had always had substantial autonomy. Supported by the other regional Parlements and by many commentators in the contemporary press, the judges defended their predominance in local matters and by implication, the distinct privileges, or "liberties," of each region of France. Louis XV responded by invoking absolutist doctrine, but the deterioration of relations with the Parlements convinced Louis XV that he had to act decisively. In 1770 a new set of ministers, led by the "triumvirate" of Chancellor Maupeou, the Abbé Terray as finance minister, and the Duke d’Aguillon as foreign minister, set out to reform the royal government by gaining even more power for the King’s hand–picked ministers, over the objections of the Parlements that such centralization would violate the "liberties" of the "nation" to participate, indirectly, in the government through the Parlements and regional Estates. This document excerpts the Parlements’ "last chance" in the sense that when the magistrates ignored these commands, Louis XV—frustrated by this continual opposition to his decrees—later dissolved all twelve Parlements by "exiling" the magistrates and selecting new ones for each court. The crisis came to an end four years later when Louis XV died suddenly of smallpox and his successor, Louis XVI, recalled the magistrates to their seats, setting off a new round of protest. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 350 Title A name given to the resource Louis XV Asks the Parlements to Desist (1770) Relation A related resource https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/350/ Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1770 Laws Monarchy Text