Cloth Seal, French, Grosse Ferme De France, Paris, Image by StuE, Found by Nasher.
Found in Hertfordshire near Baldock, 28 x 36mm, 23.8g.
Two disc cloth seal showing a roundel containing a three-mast ship in full sail with seven fleur-de-lis above, inscription around - (CINQ?) GROSSE FERM(E) DE (F)RANC(E) all in a border of short rays // crowned shield bearing three fleur-de-lis, inscription around - ... EMPLIER
The style of three masts ship, facing left with a flag on its ship bowsprit was first used on the arms of Paris in 1699 and was replaced in 1735 by Michel-Étienne Turgot with a different style of ship facing in to the right. Similar seals with a single masted ship from an earlier period can be seen in Egan, G., 1994, Nos.301-303 Fig.39, but these must be from the late seventeenth century rather than the late eighteenth as suggested as the single mast ship shown on them was not used again until 1924 apart from six years under Napoleon I when bees replaced the fleur-de-lis in chief.
The Cinq Grosse Fermes refers to the five large tax farms that made up the single farm set up by the Duke of Sully in 1598. The five things covered by the farms were a strange mixture of products, areas and permits; the salt tax, commodities entering Paris, the right to move goods from one province to another, tobacco and tax rights to an area of western France. They covered only twelve provinces of the kingdom; Normandy, Picardy, Champagne, Burgundy, Bresse, Bourbonnais, Berry, Poitou, Aunis, Anjou, Maine and Beaujolais.
From Philippe Lanez, "the leaseholder's name is TEMPLIER.
This lease was for 6 years from 1697/04/30 to April 1703. The annual amount was 59 000 000 per year, that's to say 354 000 000 for six years.
See Ferme générale,"... The lease is granted to a farmer who is an individual in whose name the Ferme Générale lease is passed and whose Fermiers Général are sureties for the duration of the lease. The name of this adjudicator is the only one which appears on the decree of the council by which the new general farmers are placed in possession of the King's Farms. This judgment is most often made one year or six months before the expiry of the current lease. It must be covered by letters patent so that it can be registered in the sovereign courts and in the jurisdictions to which the knowledge of disputes relating to Farm rights is attributed. All the judgments and judgments rendered on the facts of the Farms only relate to the successful tenderer. Judicial documents of all kinds are passed in his name and served at his elected domicile either at the Hôtel des Fermes in Paris, or in the provinces in all the collection offices. By this name we mean all of its sureties; it is collective to designate the body of the Ferme Générale or the company of the general farmers. The successful tenderer is generally a man of low extraction, for example Girardin, successful tenderer in 1750, was Machault d'Arnouville's valet de chambre. He is ultimately only a nominee and receives an annual salary of 4,000 pounds for his services. He does not exercise any function in the offices of the Farm. Finally, the successful tenderer received a salary of £6,000 during the six years of the lease, then a salary of £300 for the following six years.
The lease provides that no action may be brought against the Farmer beyond the period of two years after its expiration. Actions brought during the lease or within the 2-year period are prescribed within the 10-year period, as actions between individuals, the purchaser and his sureties are therefore discharged, 10 years after the expiry of the lease, from the custody and representation of registers, except for proceedings under investigation.
The farmers general were originally (Fauconnet lease) numbering 30, they could agree to sub-farms. Subfarmers are accountable to them. In 1756, when the Henriet lease was established, sub-farms were banned and the number of administrators increased to 60.
The terms of organization of auctions, conduct of auctions, registration of leases were very precisely regulated by the regulations of the July 25, 1681, but these formalities quickly fell into disuse. In fact, few people had the financial capacity to take on the burden of the leases, and in the last year of the current lease, the Farmers in place were negotiating with the Comptroller General of Finance the terms of a new contract without it needing special formalities.
This table of the various leases since 1680 is mainly taken from an autograph memoir by Lavoisier supplemented by elements removed from the Fermier Généraux article of the Guyot Directory. We must distinguish three distinct periods, until 1703 when the General Farm finds its base and develops its activities, especially in tobacco. But, from 1691, the concerns of the monarch are no longer in the organization of the collection of the tax, the receipts of the tax and the financial situation of the Treasury deteriorate. From 1703 a troubled period began which followed the difficulties encountered with the consequences of the Wars of Louis XIV .
Between 1703 and 1726, the situation is extremely confused, the leases no longer find takers, some must be transformed into Régie. The Bankruptcy of Law and the bankruptcy of the Compagnie des Indes made tax management, even in the form of Régie, impossible.
The situation finally improved from 1726 with the Carlier lease...."