On the accession of Louis X., in 1315, war against the Flemish was
imminent, although the royal treasury was absolutely empty. The King
unfortunately, in spite of his father's advice, attempted systematically
to tamper with the coinage, and he also commenced the exaction of fresh
taxes, to the great exasperation of his subjects. He was obliged, through
fear of a general rebellion, to do away with the tithe established for the
support of the army, and to sacrifice the superintendent of finances,
Enguerrand de Marigny, to the public indignation which was felt against
him. This man, without being allowed to defend himself, was tried by an
extraordinary commission of parliament for embezzling the public money,
was condemned to death, and was hung on the gibbet of Montfauçon. Not
daring to risk a convocation of the States-General of the kingdom, Louis
X. ordered the seneschals to convoke the provincial assemblies, and thus
obtained a few subsidies, which he promised to refund out of the revenues
of his domains. The clergy even allowed themselves to be taxed, and closed
their eyes to the misappropriation of the funds, which were supposed to be
held in reserve for a new crusade. Taxes giving commercial franchise and
of exchange were levied, which were paid by the Jews, Lombards, Tuscans,
and other Italians; judiciary offices were sold by auction; the trading
class purchased letters of nobility, as they had already done under
Philippe le Bel; and, more than this, the enfranchisement of serfs, which
had commenced in 1298, was continued on the payment of a tax, which varied
according to the means of each individual. In consequence of this system,
personal servitude was almost entirely abolished under Philippe de Long,
brother of Louis X.
Each province, under the reign of this rapacious and necessitous monarch,
demanded some concession from the crown, and almost always obtained it at
a money value. Normandy and Burgundy, which were dreaded more than any
other province on account of their turbulence, received remarkable
concessions. The base coin was withdrawn from circulation, and Louis X.
attempted to forbid the right of coinage to those who broke the wise laws
of St. Louis. The idea of bills of exchange arose at this period.
Thanks to the peace concluded with Flanders, on which occasion that
country paid into the hands of the sovereign thirty thousand florins in
gold for arrears of taxes, and, above all, owing to the rules of economy
and order, from which Philip V., surnamed the Long, never deviated, the
attitude of France became completely altered. We find the King initiating
reform by reducing the expenses of his household. He convened round his
person a great council, which met monthly to examine and discuss matters
of public interest; he allowed only one national treasury for the
reception of the State revenues; he required the treasurers to make a
half-yearly statement of their accounts, and a daily journal of receipts
and disbursements; he forbad clerks of the treasury to make entries either
of receipts or expenditure, however trifling, without the authority and
supervision of accountants, whom he also compelled to assist at the
checking of sums received or paid by the money-changers (Fig. 279). The
farming of the crown lands, the King's taxes, the stamp registration, and
the gaol duties were sold by auction, subject to certain regulations with
regard to guarantee. The bailiffs and seneschals sent in their accounts to
Paris annually, they were not allowed to absent themselves without the
King's permission, and they were formally forbidden, under pain of
confiscation, or even a severer penalty, to speculate with the public
money. The operations of the treasury were at this period always involved
in the greatest mystery.
[Illustration: Fig. 279.--Hotel of the Chamber of Accounts in the
Courtyard of the Palace in Paris. From a Woodcut of the "Cosmographie
Universelle" of Munster, in folio: Basle, 1552.]
[Illustration: Fig. 280.--Measuring Salt.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut of the
"Ordonnances de la Prevosté des Marchands de Paris," in folio: 1500.]
[Illustration: Fig. 281.--Toll under the Bridges of Paris.--Fac-simile of
a Woodcut of the "Ordonnances de la Prevosté des Marchands de Paris," in
folio: 1500.]
The establishment of a central mint for the whole kingdom, the expulsion
of the money-dealers, who were mostly of Italian origin, and the
confiscation of their goods if it was discovered that they had acted
falsely, signalised the accession of Charles le Bel in 1332. This
beginning was welcomed as most auspicious, but before long the export
duties, especially on grain, wine, hay, cattle, leather, and salt, became
a source of legitimate complaint (Figs. 280 and 281).
Philip VI., surnamed _de Valois_, a more astute politician than his
predecessor, felt the necessity of gaining the affections of the people by
sparing their private fortunes. In order to establish the public revenue
on a firm basis, he assembled, in 1330, the States-General, composed of
barons, prelates, and deputies from the principal towns, and then, hoping
to awe the financial agents, he authorised the arrest of the overseer,
Pierre de Montigny, whose property was confiscated and sold, producing to
the treasury the enormous sum of 1,200,000 livres, or upwards of
100,000,000 francs of present currency. The long and terrible war which
the King was forced to carry on against the English, and which ended in
the treaty of Bretigny in 1361, gave rise to the introduction of taxation
of extreme severity. The dues on ecclesiastical properties were renewed
and maintained for several years; all beverages sold in towns were taxed,
and from four to six deniers in the pound were levied upon the value of
all merchandise sold in any part of the kingdom. The salt tax, which
Philippe le Bel had established, and which his successor, Louis X.,
immediately abolished at the unanimous wish of the people, was again
levied by Philip VI., and this king, having caused the salt produced in
his domains to be sold, "gave great offence to all classes of the
community." It was on account of this that Edward III., King of England,
facetiously called him the author of the _Salic_ law. Philippe de Valois,
when he first ascended the throne, coined his money according to the
standard weight of St. Louis, but in a short time he more or less alloyed
it. This he did secretly, in order to be able to withdraw the pieces of
full weight from circulation and to replace them with others having less
pure metal in them, and whose weight was made up by an extra amount of
alloy. In this dishonest way a considerable sum was added to the coffers
of the state.
King John, on succeeding his father in 1350, found the treasury empty and
the resources of the kingdom exhausted. He was nevertheless obliged to
provide means to continue the war against the English, who continually
harassed the French on their own territory. The tax on merchandise not
being sufficient for this war, the payment of public debts contracted by
the government was suspended, and the State was thus obliged to admit its
insolvency. The mint taxes, called _seigneuriage_, were pushed to the
utmost limits, and the King levied them on the new coin, which he
increased at will by largely alloying the gold with base metals. The
duties on exported and imported goods were increased, notwithstanding the
complaints that commerce was declining. These financial expedients would
not have been tolerated by the people had not the King taken the
précaution to have them approved by the States-General of the provincial
states, which he annually assembled. In 1355 the States-General were
convoked, and the King, who had to maintain thirty thousand soldiers,
asked them to provide for this annual expenditure, estimated at 5,000,000
_livres parisis_, about 300,000,000 francs of present currency. The
States-General, animated by a generous feeling of patriotism, "ordered a
tax of eight deniers in the pound on the sale and transfer of all goods
and articles of merchandise, with the exception of inheritances, which was
to be payable by the vendors, of whatever rank they might be, whether
ecclesiastics, nobles, or others, and also a salt tax to be levied
throughout the whole kingdom of France." The King promised as long as this
assistance lasted to levy no other subsidy and to coin good and sterling
money--i.e., _deniers_ of fine gold, _white_, or silver coin, coin of
_billon_, or mixed metal, and _deniers_ and _mailles_ of copper. The
assembly appointed travelling agents and three inspectors or
superintendents, who had under them two receivers and a considerable
number of sub-collectors, whose duties were defined with scrupulous
minuteness. The King at this time renounced the right of seizin, his dues
over property, inherited or conveyed by sale, exchange, gift, or will, his
right of demanding war levies by proclamation, and of issuing forced
loans, the despotic character of which offended everybody. The following
year, the tax of eight deniers having been found insufficient and
expensive in its collection, the assembly substituted for it a property
and income tax, varying according to the property and income of each
individual.
[Illustration: Fig. 282.--The Courtiers amassing Riches at the Expense of
the Poor.--From a Miniature in the 'Tresor of Brunetto Latini, Manuscript
of the Fourteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.]
The finances were, notwithstanding these additions, in a low and
unsatisfactory condition, which became worse and worse from the fatal day
of Poitiers, when King John fell into the hands of the English. The
States-General were summoned by the Dauphin, and, seeing the desperate
condition in which the country was placed, all classes freely opened their
purses. The nobility, who had already given their blood, gave the produce
of all their feudal dues besides. The church paid a tenth and a half, and
the bourgeois showed the most noble unselfishness, and rose as one man to
find means to resist the common enemy. The ransom of the King had been
fixed at three millions of _écus d'or,_ nearly a thousand million francs,
payable in six years, and the peace of Bretigny was concluded by the
cession of a third of the territory of France. There was, however, cause
for congratulation in this result, for "France was reduced to its utmost
extremity," says a chronicler, "and had not something led to a reaction,
she must have perished irretrievably."
King John, grateful for the love and devotion shown to him by his subjects
under these trying circumstances, returned from captivity with the solemn
intention of lightening the burdens which pressed upon them, and in
consequence be began by spontaneously reducing the enormous wages which
the tax-gatherers had hitherto received, and by abolishing the tolls on
highways. He also sold to the Jews, at a very high price, the right of
remaining in the kingdom and of exercising any trade in it, and by this
means he obtained a large sum of money. He solemnly promised never again
to debase the coin, and he endeavoured to make an equitable division of
the taxes. Unfortunately it was impossible to do without a public revenue,
and it was necessary that the royal ransom should be paid off within six
years. The people, from whom taxes might be always extorted at pleasure,
paid a good share of this, for the fifth of the three millions of _écus
d'or_ was realised from the tax on salt, the thirteenth part from the
duty on the sale of fermented liquors, and twelve deniers per pound from
the tax on the value of all provisions sold and resold within the kingdom.
Commerce was subjected to a new tax called _imposition foraine_, a measure
most detrimental to the trade and manufactures of the country, which were
continually struggling under the pitiless oppression of the treasury.
Royal despotism was not always able to shelter itself under the sanction
of the general and provincial councils, and a few provinces, which
forcibly protested against this excise duty, were treated on the same
footing as foreign states with relation to the transit of merchandise from
them. Other provinces compounded for this tax, and in this way, owing to
the different arrangements in different places, a complicated system of
exemptions and prohibitions existed which although most prejudicial to all
industry, remained in force to a great extent until 1789.
When Charles V.--surnamed the Wise--ascended the throne in 1364, France,
ruined by the disasters of the war, by the weight of taxation, by the
reduction in her commerce, and by the want of internal security, exhibited
everywhere a picture of misery and desolation; in addition to which,
famine and various epidemics were constantly breaking out in various parts
of the kingdom. Besides this, the country was incessantly overrun by gangs
of plunderers, who called themselves _écorcheurs, routiers, tardvenus_,
&c., and who were more dreaded by the country people even than the English
had been. Charles V., who was celebrated for his justice and for his
economical and provident habits, was alone capable of establishing order
in the midst of such general confusion. Supported by the vote of the
Assembly held at Compiègne in 1367, he remitted a moiety of the salt tax
and diminished the number of the treasury agents, reduced their wages, and
curtailed their privileges. He inquired into all cases of embezzlement, so
as to put a stop to fraud; and he insisted that the accounts of the public
expenditure in its several departments should be annually audited. He
protected commerce, facilitated exchanges, and reduced, as far as
possible, the rates and taxes on woven articles and manufactured goods. He
permitted Jews to hold funded property, and invited foreign merchants to
trade with the country. For the first time he required all gold and silver
articles to be stamped, and called in all the old gold and silver coins,
in order that by a new and uniform issue the value of money might no
longer be fictitious or variable. For more than a century coins had so
often changed in name, value, and standard weight, that in an edict of
King John we read, "It was difficult for a man when paying money in the
ordinary course to know what he was about from one day to another."
The recommencement of hostilities between England and France in 1370
unfortunately interrupted the progressive and regular course of these
financial improvements. The States-General, to whom the King was obliged
to appeal for assistance in order to carry on the war, decided that salt
should be taxed one sol per pound, wine by wholesale a thirteenth of its
value, and by retail a fourth; that a _fouage_, or hearth tax, of six
francs should be established in towns, and of two francs in the
country,[*] and that a duty should be levied in walled towns on the
entrance of all wine. The produce of the salt tax was devoted to the
special use of the King. Each district farmed its excise and its salt tax,
under the superintendence of clerks appointed by the King, who regulated
the assessment and the fines, and who adjudicated in the first instance in
all cases of dispute. Tax-gatherers were chosen by the inhabitants of each
locality, but the chief officers of finance, four in number, were
appointed by the King. This administrative organization, created on a
sound basis, marked the establishment of a complete financial system. The
Assembly, which thus transferred the administration of all matters of
taxation from the people at large to the King, did not consist of a
combination of the three estates, but simply of persons of
position--namely, prelates, nobles, and bourgeois of Paris, in addition to
the leading magistrates of the kingdom.
[Footnote *: This is the origin of the saying "smoke farthing."]
The following extract from the accounts of the 15th November, 1372, is
interesting, inasmuch as it represents the actual budget of France under
Charles V.:--
Article 18. Assigned for the payment of men at arms ...... 50,000 francs.
" 19. For payment of men at arms and crossbowmen
newly formed .............................. 42,000 "
" " For sea purposes ............................. 8,000 "
" 20. For the King's palace ........................ 6,000 "
" " To place in the King's coffers................ 5,000 "
" 21. It pleases the King that the receiver-general
should have monthly for matters that daily
arise in the chamber ...................... 10,000 "
" " For the payment of debts ..................... 10,000 "