Pierre Le Pesant, sieur de Boisguilbert
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and a Jansenist, one of the inventors of the notion of an economical market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
.
He was born at Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
of an ancient noble family of Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, allied to that of Corneille
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille was a French tragedian who was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine...
. He received his classical education in Rouen, and was also taught at the Petites écoles de Port-Royal
Petites écoles de Port-Royal
The Petites écoles de Port-Royal was the name given to a teaching system set up in 1637 by the intellectuals who gathered at Port-Royal-des-Champs in the middle of the 17th century at the height of the Jansenist controversy...
, entered the magistracy and became judge at Montivilliers
Montivilliers
Montivilliers is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region in northern France.-Geography:A large light industrial and farming town by the banks of the river Lézarde in the Pays de Caux, situated just north of Le Havre, at the junction of the D489, D52, D926 and D31...
, near Le Havre
Le Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
. In 1690 he became president of the bailliage of Rouen, a post which he retained almost until his death, leaving it to his son.
In these two situations he made a close study of local economic conditions, personally, supervising the cultivation of his lands, and entering into relations with the principal merchants of Rouen. He was thus led to consider the misery of the people under the burden of taxation. In 1695 he published his principal work, Le détail de la France; la cause de la diminution de ses biens et la facilité du remède. In it he drew a picture of the general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the bad economic regime. In opposition to Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...
's mercantilist views he held that the wealth of a country consists, not in the abundance of money which it possesses but in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the time was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which would allow the poor to consume more, raise the production and add to the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the taille
Taille
The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien Régime France. The tax was imposed on each household and based on how much land it held.-History:Originally only an "exceptional" tax The taille was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in Ancien...
, the suppression of internal customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
duties and greater freedom of trade. In his Factum de la France, published in 1705 or 1706, he gave a more concise resume of his ideas. But his proposal to substitute for all aides and customs duties a single capitation tax of a tenth of the revenue of all property was naturally opposed by the tax farmers and found little support.
Indeed his work, written in a diffuse and inelegant style, passed almost unnoticed. Saint-Simon
Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon
Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon, often referred to as Henri de Saint-Simon was a French early socialist theorist whose thought influenced the foundations of various 19th century philosophies; perhaps most notably Marxism, positivism and the discipline of sociology...
relates that he once asked a hearing of the comte de Pontchartrain
Louis Phélypeaux (1643-1727)
Louis Phélypeaux , marquis de Phélypeaux , comte de Maurepas , comte de Pontchartrain , known as the chancellor de Pontchartrain, was a French politician....
, saying that he would at first take him for a fool, then he would see that he deserved attention, and that eventually, he would be satisfied with his system. Pontchartrain, who was besieged with innumerable advice givers, began to laugh replying that he would go no further than the first, and turned his back on him. With Michel de Chamillart, whom he had known as intendant
Intendant
The title of intendant has been used in several countries through history. Traditionally, it refers to the holder of a public administrative office...
of Rouen (1689-1690), there was a plan to experiment with Boisguilbert's ideas in one province but the plan was abandoned when it was realized that the effort would provoke the collapse of the existing tax system before the experiment began. Upon the publication of Vauban's, Dîme royale in 1707 which had much in common with Boisguilbert's plan, Boisguilbert published Supplément au détail de la France. Both Vauban's and Boisguilbert's books were condemned. In addition, Boisguilbert was exiled to Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
for six months. At last in 1710 the controller-general, Nicolas Desmarets
Nicolas Desmarets
Nicolas Desmarets, Marquis De Maillebois was a Controller-General of Finances during the reign of Louis XIV of France....
, established a new tax, the tenth (dixième), which had some analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the former taxes, however, Desmarets simply added his dixième to them.
In 1712 appeared a Testament politique de M. de Vauban, which is simply Boisguilberts Détail de la France. Vauban's Dîme royale was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilberts works were collected by Daire in the first volume of the Collection des grands économistes. His letters are in the , vol. i., published by M. de Boislisle. A complete study of Boisguilbert, his ideas and his writings was published by the Institut National d'Études Démographiques
Institut national d'études démographiques
The Institut national d'études démographiques is a French research institute specialized in demography and population studies in general.-A research institute founded in 1945:...
in 1966.
----