The Ancient Regime eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 652 pages of information about The Ancient Regime.

The Ancient Regime eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 652 pages of information about The Ancient Regime.

2.  To the guard, besides his lodging, warming and the use of three arpents, 200 livres.

3.  To the steward or registrar, to preserve the archives, look after repairs, collect lods et ventes, and fines, 432 livres, besides the use of ten arpente.

4.  To the king, the vingtièmes.  Formerly the estates of Blet and Brosses paid 810 livres for the two vingtièmes and the two sous per livre.  After the establishment of the third vingtième they paid 1,216 livres.

Notes: 
[1] Archives nationales, G. 319 ("Etat actuel de la Direction de Bourges au point de vue des aides,” 1774).

[2] Blet, at the present day, contains 1,629 inhabitants. (This was around 1884, in 1996 it remains a small commune and a village of 800 people on the route nationale N76 between Bourges and Sancoins.  Sr.)

[3] The farms of Blet and Brosses really produce nothing for the proprietor, inasmuch as the tithes and the champart (field-rents), (articles 22 and 23), are comprehended in the rate of the leases.
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End-note 3: 

Difference between the actual and nominal revenues of
ecclesiastical dignities and benefices.

According to Raudot ("La France avant la Revolution,” p.84), one-half extra must be added to the official valuation; according to Boiteau ("Etat de la France en 1789,” p.195), this must be tripled and even quadrupled.  I think that, for the episcopal sees, one-half extra should be added and, for the abbeys and priories, double, and sometimes triple and even quadruple the amount.  The following facts show the variation between official and actual sums.

1.  In the “Almanach Royal,” the bishopric of Troyes is valued at 14,000 livres; in “France Ecclésiastique of 1788,” at 50,000.  According to Albert Babeau ("Histoire de la Révolution dans le department de l’Aube"), it brings in 70,000 livres.  In “France Ecclésiastique,” the bishopric of Strasbourg is put down at 400,000 livres.  According to the Duc de Lévis ("Souvenirs,” p. 156) it brings in at least 600,000 livres income.

2.  In the same work, the abbey of Jumiéges is assigned for 23,000 livres.  I find, in the papers of the ecclesiastic committee, it brings to the abbé 50,000 livres.  In this work the abbey of Bèze is estimated at 8,000 livres.  I find it bringing to the monks alone 30,000, while the abbés portion is at least as large. ("De l’Etat religieux, par les abbés de Bonnefoi et Bernard.,” 1784).  The abbé thus receives 30,000 livres, Bernay (Eure),. is officially reported at 16,000.  The “Doleances” of the cahiers estimate it at 57,000.  Saint-Amand is put down as bringing to the Cardinal of York 6,000 livres and actually brings him 100,000. (De Luynes, XIII. 215).

Clairvaux, in the same work, is put down at 9,000, and in Warroquier ("Etat Général de la France en 1789,”) at 60,000.  According to Beugnot, who belongs to the country, and a practical man, the abbé has from 300,000 to 400,000 livres income.

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The Ancient Regime from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.