The principal centres of lace-making were Aurillac, Sedan, Rheims, Le Quesnoy, Alençon, Arras, and Loudun, and the name "Points de France" was given without distinction to all laces made at these towns; preference was given in choosing these centres to those towns already engaged in lace-making. Alençon produced the most brilliant results, for from the beginning of the seventeenth century the town had been engaged in needle-point lace, and some of the lace-makers earned high wages, and showed great aptitude for the art. In her Histoire du Point d'Alençon, Madame Despierres has made some interesting extracts from various marriage contracts and wills:—
"A notable instance is that of a family named Barbot, the mother having amassed 500 livres. Her daughter, Marthe Barbot, married Michel Mercier, sieur de la Perrière, and brought him a wedding-portion of 300 livres, the earnings of her industry; while her sister Suzanne Barbot's wedding-portion, upon her marriage with Paul Ternouillet, amounted to 6,000 livres, earned in making cut-works and works en velin (needle-point lace done on a parchment pattern), which command a high price" (Lefébure).
The Venetian Senate, according to Charles Yriarte, regarded this emigration of workers to France as a crime against the State, and issued the following decree:—
"If any artist or handicraftsman practises his art in any foreign land to the detriment of the Republic, orders to return will be sent him; if he disobeys them, his nearest of kin will be put into prison, in order that through his interest in their welfare his obedience may be compelled. If he comes back, his past offence will be condoned, and employment for him will be found in Venice; but if, notwithstanding the imprisonment of his nearest of kin, he obstinately decides to continue living abroad, an emissary will be commissioned to kill him, and his next of kin will only be liberated upon his death."
To afford an idea of the importance of the lace trade in France at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and of the immense consumption of lace in France, we give the following statistics:—In 1707, the collection of the duties of lace was under-farmed to one Étienne Nicolas, for the annual sum of 201,000 livres. The duty then was of 50 livres per lb. weight of lace, so that there entered annually into France above 400,000 lbs. of lace, which, estimating at the lowest 1,000 lbs. of lace to be worth 1,000 livres, would represent 4 millions of that epoch. Taking into calculation that fraud was extensively practised, that the points of Venice and Genoa, being prohibited, could not appear in the receipts; and that, on the other part, the under-farmer did not pay the farmer-general the 201,000 livres without the certainty of profit to himself, we must admit that the figure, though high, is far from representing the value of the foreign laces which entered France at that period. We think that 8 millions (£320,000) would be below the true figure.—Rapport sur les Dentelles fait à la Commission française de l'Exposition Universelle de Londres, 1851. Felix Aubry. The best history of lace published.
"Deux tours de chaire de point de France donnez depuis quelques années par deux dames de la paroisse."—Inv. de l'église de Saint-Merry, à Paris. Arch. Nat. L. L. 859.