Firm General

the Farm general , really made up in 1726, was a company of financial to which were leased by lease the rights of Draft and other rights indirect.

Introduction

Under the Old Mode, the farmers general were those which were due to farm or lease the public incomes, made up especially then of the size, the Gabelle (the tax of salt), of the tax of the Tabac S, the Octroi S, etc They formed a privileged association, the general farm, which counted a long time 40 members, and who was then changed to 60. They grew rich quickly. Their nomination depended on the Minister for Finance, and generally the minister received from the character preferred a considerable bribe. The institution of the farmers general goes up with Philippe Beautiful the. It gave place to a crowd of abuse, that the constituent Assembly made disappear in 1790, by removing the farms.

History

The general Farm developed at one time when monarchy suffered from chronic financial problems. The leasing of the customs duties and the taxes had the advantage of getting for the Treasury foreseeable and regular receipts, while removing it from the concern of perception.

The rights were initially leased separately to various farmers, were named “treating” (who collected the right of Draft) or “partisans” (who took a tax in party). Those were committed paying with the Treasury the sum stipulated with the lease, with load for them to perceive the corresponding receipt while being remunerated on the possible surpluses.

The farm before Colbert

To the 15th century and 16th century, the needs for the Treasury bring to a multiplication of the import duties and of exit (ancestors of the customs duties) and result in resorting largely to the system of the leasing to ensure covering of it. Each right is leased separately, which causes a great administrative complexity, the taking out of bond of a loading which can utilize several farms.

In 1598, Sully entrusts to only one firm, instead of five, the collection of the duties raised in the provinces subjected to the rights of the King, said “Provinces of the Five Large Farms”. In 1607, it promulgates a General Règlement on the drafts to try to harmonize the procedures. In same time, he seeks to constitute the whole of the kingdom in a single custom's area and nap, but without success, the provinces “considered foreign” to meet in the “Five Large Farms”.

In the middle of the 17th century, the French territory is divided into three principal parts: provinces of the “Five Large Farms”, provinces “considered foreign”, the provinces “following the example effective foreigner” which form free zones.

The farm under Colbert: treating and in favor

To reduce the number of these farmers and to increase the share of the collection transferred with the Treasury, Jean-Baptiste Colbert sought to gather a great number of rights together in “general farms”. The first general farm was made up in 1680 to collect gabelles, assistances, fields, drafts and entries.

Sometimes of obscure origin, the financial ones which took these rights to farm often quickly carried out immense fortunes which enabled them to play a political role and social considerable. Their greed and their excesses shocked the opinion and were turned into ridiculous by the literature, for example by Alain-Rene Lesage in Turcaret , inspired by Paul Poisson de Bourvallais.

The general farm (1726 - 1790)

In 1726, all the existing farms were gathered in a single lease. The forty farmers general, who went guarantee of the contractor of the lease, became powerful characters and fabulously rich person. Among the representatives of the first generation of these farmers, one can quote the Crozat, the Frères Paris, Alexandre the Rich person of Pouplinière…

Criticisms addressed to the general Farm led the State to introduce in 1769 the system of the control, into which the perception of the taxes and the administration of the service which in to the load are entrusted at public agencies, managers receiving a fixed remuneration.

In 1780, on the initiative of Jacques Necker the indirect taxes were distributed between three farm companies: the general farm (customs duties), the general league (rights on drinks) and general Administration of the fields and the domanial rights (rural, fee fields registration).

At the end of the 18th century, the general Farm has the appearance of a symbol of the uneven company. The Farmers general, with their colossal fortunes, appear as the mark even of the perversion of the political system and social. One charges the injustices and the annoyances to them which rise from the complexity of the tax system, the brutality of the guards of the brigades and the brutal repression of the fraud and smuggling. The Gabelle is of all the rights most unpopular.

The general Farm is thus one of the institutions of the Ancien Mode which was most highly criticized during the Revolution. Depicted like raptors and tyrants, the farmers general paid the price of them on the scaffold: 28 former farmers general were guillotines on May 8th 1794, among which men of great value like the chemist Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier. The general Farm itself was removed in 1790.

Organization

The lease of the general Farm was concluded for six years between the King and a natural person who was used as figurehead. The Farmers general went guarantee of the contractor. Their number was fixed at 40, after having reached nearly 90. The contractor committed himself paying with the Treasury the amount of the lease and preserved for remuneration the surplus possibly carried out. This remuneration was reached a maximum starting from 1780.

The general Farm had its seat with Paris. It employed in its central offices nearly 700 people including two chaplains. The local services counted up to 42 provincial directions and nearly 25.000 agents distributed in two branches of activity; that of the offices which checked, liquidated and charged the fees; that of the brigades which sought and repressed smuggling with very severe sorrows (galères, hanging).

The employees of the Farm were not royal civils servant, but they acted in the name of the king and profit for this reason from particular privileges and the protection of the law. The guards of the service of the brigades had moreover the right to carry the weapons.

The direction of the company was assured collégialement by the farmers general. Those met in committees of experts and were distributed the control of the external services.

The day before the Revolution, almost all the rights of drafts and rights indirect (Gabelle, returned from the Tobacco and many rights of the local tariffs) were leased. The lease of the Farm represented more than 50% of the public revenue.

The prefiguration of the modern tax authorities

The internal organization of the Farm is regarded today as the administrative system just and most modern of the Old Mode. The general farm was useful, in its administrative operation, of model to the tax authorities of the 19th century.

With a brought up to date vocabulary, Externalisation, Outsourcing,… in the place of the obsolete expression Leasing , it fits even in the liberal reflections of “less State”. For example today, in French right, the leasing is one of the forms which a Public service delegation can take. She is frequently used for the management of the services of drinking water and cleansing. She saves with the community the cost of an administration of taking away and control of the taxes.

However, one can make with the leasing the same reproaches as with the general farm of the Old Mode:

the community is deprived of a resource;
the rendered service is not always better, on the long run;
the cost can be higher for the user or the taxpayer, who pays his taxes plus the margin taken by the farmer general;
the recovery of the debts (of tax arrears) can be made brutally by the farmer;
depriving itself of a resource, the community must be involved in debt, and lease new incomes to obtain fresh money.

Thus at the end of the 18th century, the French State was involved in debt considerably; states as Morocco also ended up being colonized in fact, and had to undergo a Protectorat, having entered a Vicious circle of debt/leasing/reduction in the available resources.

References

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