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BOISGUILBERT, PIERRE LE PESANT, SIEUR...

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 154 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BOISGUILBERT, See also:PIERRE LE PESANT, SIEUR DE (1676—1714) , See also:French economist, was See also:born at See also:Rouen of an See also:ancient See also:noble See also:family of See also:Normandy, allied to that of See also:Corneille. He received his classical See also:education in Rouen, entered the magistracy and became See also:judge at Montivilliers, near See also:Havre. In 1690 he became See also:president of the bailliage of Rouen, a See also:post which he retained almost until his See also:death, leaving it to his son. In these two situations he made a See also:close study of See also:local economic conditions, personally. supervising the cultivation of his lands, and entering into relations with the See also:principal merchants of Rouen. He was thus led to consider the misery of the See also:people under the See also:burden of See also:taxation. In 1695 he published his principal See also:work, Le Detail de la See also:France; la cause de la diminution de ses biens, et la facilite du remede. . . . In it he See also:drew a picture of the See also:general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the See also:bad economic regime. In opposition to See also:Colbert's views he held that the See also:wealth of a See also:country consists, not in the abundance of See also:money which it possesses but in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the See also:time was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which would allow the poor to consume more, raise the See also:production and add to the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the faille, the suppression of See also:internal customs duties and greater freedom of See also: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 See also:

revenue of all See also:property was naturally opposed by the farmers of taxes and found little support. Indeed his work, written in a diffuse and inelegant See also:style, passed almost unnoticed. See also:Saint See also:Simon relates that he once asked a See also:hearing of the See also:comte de Pontchartrain, saying that he would at first believe him mad, then become interested, and then see he was right. Pontchartrain bluntly told him that he did think him mad, and turned his back on him. With See also:Michel de Chamillart, whom he had known as See also:intendant of Rouen (1689—169o), he had no better success. Upon the disgrace of See also:Vauban, whose See also:Dime royale had much in See also:common with Boisguilbert's See also:plan, Boisguilbert violently attacked the controller in a pamphlet, Supplement au detail de la France. The See also:book was seized and condemned, and its author exiled to See also:Auvergne, though soon allowed to return. At last in 1710 the controller-general, See also:Nicolas See also:Desmarets, established a new See also:impost, the " tenth " (dixieme), which had some See also:analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the former imposts, however, Desmarets simply added his dixieme to them; the experiment was naturally disastrous, and the See also:idea was abandoned. In 1712 appeared a Testament politique de M. de Vauban, which is simply Boisguilbert's Detail de la France. Vauban's Dime royale was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilbert's See also:works were collected by Daire in the first See also:volume of the Collection See also:des grands economistes.

His letters are in the Correspondance des controleurs generaux, vol. i., published by M. de Boislisle.

End of Article: BOISGUILBERT, PIERRE LE PESANT, SIEUR DE (1676—1714)

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