Chambre des comptes

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The Paris Chamber of Accounts.

The chambers of accounts (also chambers of accounts ; French chambres des comptes ) were independent financial control authorities in France under the Ancien Régime , which were directly subordinate to the King of France. The Paris Chamber of Accounts, the oldest of these financial courts, is the forerunner of today's Court of Accounts ( Cour des comptes )

The Paris Chamber of Accounts

In order to keep the income and expenditure of the empire under control, the king originally used the Curia regis alone , the assembly of his closest advisers. In the middle of the 12th century he entrusted the finances to the Knights Templar , who ran a banking house in Paris, so that the state treasury was now organized like a financial institution and income and expenditure ran through accounts. The royal tax officials in the country, who sent the income to the Templars, were examined at the royal court, which in turn had special representatives at the Templars, called Curia in compotis and who took part in the deliberations of the Curia regis when it came to financial questions. From 1297 the accounts were audited twice a year, at the solstice (then June 24th and December 25th). What at first was simply a treasure trove for receiving money, developed into an auditing office that split off from the Curia and eventually became its own court of law.

In 1256 a royal ordinance of Louis the Saint prescribed that mayors and city councilors were to give an account of the gens des comptes in Paris; Although the spiritual general secretariat of the Curia specialized in this task, some secular councilors ( maîtres lais ) were placed at their side as confidants of the king with hearing and decision-making powers.

Around 1303 the Paris Chamber of Accounts settled in the Palais de la Cité , where it was to remain until it was dissolved by the French Revolution . Her job was primarily to oversee the management of the crown property , and secondly to control public spending: she checked the royal household, the overseers and commissioners, baillis and seneschals . With the dissolution of the Knights Templar in 1307, King Philip IV moved the state treasure to the Louvre . For the group of examiners who had been assigned a special room in the royal palace, the term camera compotorum came up and they were viewed as an independent office, although they continued to represent only a commission of the Curia regis .

The Ordonnanz von Vivier-en-Brie from January 1319, which was published on April 17, 1320 by Henri IV. De Sully , laid down the organizational principles of the Chamber of Accounts: It comprised first three, later four clerical councils ( maîtres-clercs ) as auditors as well as three secular ( maîtres-lais familiers du Roi ) as associate judges, as well as eleven employees ( petits clercs , later clercs des comptes ). The office of president of the chamber was created for the clergy in 1381, another presidency for the secular in 1400. Registrars were hired as well as auditors ( correcteurs ) to support the councils, the king also sent other auditing officers ( conseillers ).

Decline of the Chamber of Accounts

From the late 14th century onwards, the Chamber of Accounts lost its unique position in terms of royal finances. A separate Chambre des monnaies was created for coinage, new taxes ( aide, taillage, gabelle ) were introduced and administered by the Cour des aides , created in 1390 . The importance of the crown property, which continued to supply the Chamber of Accounts, for the financing of the court decreased. In addition, separate chambers were set up in some of the new provinces when they were placed under the crown: The oldest regional accounting chamber was that of the Dauphiné , which was founded in 1368; others were set up in Normandy (1465), Provence, Burgundy, Nantes (for Brittany), Navarra, Languedoc and Roussillon, Nancy, Metz and Bar-le-Duc. On the other hand, an ordinance dated February 26, 1464 established the Paris Chamber of Accounts as the independent final authority in financial matters.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert , who was Minister of Finance from 1665 to 1683, finally withdrew the management of the water and forests from the Accounts Chamber. An edict from February 1704 then created the " Chambres souveraines des Eaux et Forest " as a new authority .

Dissolution of the chambers of accounts

In the 18th century, the Paris Chamber of Accounts was still responsible for the crown estate, financial control, auditing of all royal officials and the registration of privileges. It had expanded its jurisdiction over the entire kingdom, but had to take into account the existence of the subordinate chambers in a dozen provinces, whose powers were regulated differently.

At the end of the day, the Paris Chamber of Accounts had a chief president and twelve vice-presidents, each of whom had been in office for six months; in addition there were 68 councilors ( maîtres ), etc., so that in 1789 the Chamber of Accounts had 289 officials.

During this period, the Accounts Chamber was viewed as an archaic institution with no real power or use in orderly finances. It worked so slowly that it took an average of ten years to audit the accounts. His decisions were seldom implemented, regarded as purely formal. Indeed, the Chamber of Accounts had become a nuisance due to the fact that it failed to document decisions of the Parliament in the financial field on several occasions. On September 17, 1791, the Paris Chamber of Accounts was finally dissolved and replaced by a Commission de comptabilité ; the same happened to the provincial chambers on September 29th.

List of presidents

Web link

Remarks

  1. ↑ In French: “ Cour souveraine, principale, première et singulière du dernier ressort en tout le fait du compte des finances ”.
  2. ↑ » Il est expressément défendu aux officiers des chambres des comptes de vérifier aucunes Lettres-Patentes sur le fait des Eaux & Forêts du Roi & autres, dans lesquels sa majesté a intérêt, ou ceux des ecclésiastiques & communautés, qu'ils n'en aient avant ordonné la communication au grand maître du Département, & vu les avis, si ce n'est que lesdites lettres eussent été expédiées sur ses procès verbaux et avis attachés sous le contre-scel. (Art. 15 du tit. Premier). Il leur est également défendu de recevoir, vérifier, enregistrer & ensaisiner aucuns aveux, dénombremens, contrats d'acquisitions & déclarations d'héritages tenus en centsive dans l'enclos, & à cent perches des Forêts du Roi, qu'ils n'aient été communiqués aux procureurs du Roi des Maîtrises, & c. ils ne peuvent alinérer ou infé or aucun bois appartenant au Roi sous quelque prétexte que ce soit, si ce n'est en vertu d'Arrêts du Conseil, & c. (...) «(M. Chailland: Dictionnaire raisonné des eaux et forêts , Volume 1, p. 112).
  3. ↑ Chailland, p. 112
  4. ↑ cf. Marion, Bruel, Mérilhou and Coustant d'Yanville
  5. ↑ In 1771 the office of chief president was worth 500,000 livre, that of vice president 300,000 livre; In addition, there were numerous privileges for the officials such as belonging to the high nobility, freedom from public duties and taxes, etc.
  6. ↑ Raymond Cazelles : La Société politique et la crise de la royauté sous Philippe de Valois (1958), pp. 94-95

literature

  • Jean Raynaud: La Cour des comptes . Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1988.
  • Dominique Le Page (Ed.): Contrôler les finances sous l'Ancien Régime. Regards d'aujourd'hui sur les Chambres des comptes, Colloque des 28, 29 and 30 November 2007 . Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France, Paris 2010.
  • Marcel Marion: Dictionnaire des institutions de la France aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles . Picard, Paris 1923.
  • François Mérilhou: Étude sur la chambre des comptes de Paris . In: Revue de législation et de jurisprudence , September 1851 (pp. 1-27) and October 1851 (pp. 1-32). Paris BNF: LF27-10.
  • Alexandre Bruel: La Chambre des comptes de Paris, notice et état sommaire de 3363 registres de comptabilité des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles versés aux Archives nationales en 1889 . In: Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes 55 (1894).
  • H. Coustant d'Yanville. Chambre des Comptes de Paris. Essais historiques et chronologiques, privilèges et attributions nobiliaires et armorial par le Cte ​​H. Coustant d'Yanville . Dumoulin, Paris 1866-1875. Paris BNF: LF27-55.