Note (XVI.)—Page [35], line 8.
EXAMPLE OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS LEGAL CHARITY WAS ADMINISTERED.
We find in the report made to the provincial assembly of Upper Guienne in 1780: ‘Out of the sum of 385,000 livres, the amount of the funds granted by his Majesty to this généralité from 1773, when the travaux de charité were first established, until 1779 inclusively, the elective district of Montauban, which is the chef-lieu and residence of the Intendant, has received for its own share above 240,000 livres, the greater part of which sum was actually paid to the communauté of Montauban.
Note (XVII.)—Page [35], line 12.
POWERS OF THE INTENDANT FOR THE REGULATION OF TRADES AND MANUFACTURES.
The archives of the Intendancies are full of documents relating to this regulation of trades and manufactures.
Not only was industry subjected to the restrictions placed upon it by the corps d’état, maîtrises, &c., but it was abandoned to all the caprices of the Government, usually represented by the King’s council, as far as general regulations went, and by the intendants in their special application. We find the latter constantly interfering as to the length of which the pieces of cloth are to be woven, the pattern to be chosen, the method to be followed, and the defects to be avoided in the manufacture. They had under their orders, independently of the sub-delegates, local inspectors of manufactures. In this respect centralisation was pushed even further than at the present time; it was more capricious and more arbitrary: it raised up swarms of public functionaries, and created all manner of habits of submission and dependence.
It must be remembered that these habits were engrafted above all upon the manufacturing and commercial middle classes whose triumph was at hand, far more than upon those which were doomed to defeat. Accordingly the Revolution, instead of destroying these habits, could not fail to make them spread and predominate.