Why Did Chambres de Justice Disappear in Eighteenth-Century France? Fiscal Profit and Institutional Change, 1688–1788

Joël Félix ()
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Joël Félix: University of Reading

Chapter Chapter 9 in The War Within, 2018, pp 195-227 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter examines the vexing question of the causes for the waning, in eighteenth century France, of Chambres de Justice, or extraordinary courts periodically set up by the French kings to try their financiers. To this effect, we analyse the relationship between government and tax-farmers, and calculate the profits made by these financiers during the years 1688–1780. Results do not reveal any obvious link between return on capital invested by financiers to run their business on behalf of the king and the setting up of Chambres de Justice. Yet, analysis also indicate that government adjusted its relationship with financiers across time, as a result of fiscal strains, external pressure from competitors, and public criticism of excessive profits and the fiscal system, alternating periods of private and direct administration. We conclude that Chambres de Justice, or the threat to establish one, were essentially a political instrument.

Keywords: Chambres de Justice; Tax farm; Financiers; Profit; Ancien régime (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psitcp:978-3-319-98050-8_9

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-98050-8_9

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