The Fiscal System in Renaissance France

Hardcover, in-8, 385 pp., bibliography, index. Note LT: Wolfe argues that there was 'discontinuity, i.e. a set of institutions and attitudes so different from those of a prior period'. This view on history was new in 1972. Contract of Poissy (21/10/1561) (p. 123-124); Forced alienations of church property (p. 126-129); Venality: the worst expedient (p. 129-132). Well written and important work. Explains how taxes and royal government (i.e. the power to tax) were interwoven and what was the role of the church in all this. Quote: "There is an intriguing similarity between the demands raised at Pontoise (1561) to strip the church of part of its wealth and the debates of 1789 that led to the famous assignats." (p. 122)