Gabelle

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The term Gabelle or Gabella (from medieval Latin gabulum : levy, interest) was originally used in France for taxes on all kinds of goods. As gabella emigrationis , it was a departure fee that an emigrant used to have to pay for the property he had taken with him. The gabella hereditatis was the tax that had to be paid on an inheritance or gift going abroad.

The map shows the individual regions of France with the different levels of levy for the salt tax, gabelle .

The table was gradually limited to a salt tax . Over time, the salt tax became one of the most hated and most unevenly distributed taxes in the country, but although all reformists disapproved of it, it was not abolished until March 21, 1790 by a decree of the Assemblée Constituante .

First raised as a stopgap measure during the reign of Philip IV in 1286 , it was made a permanent tax by Charles V. The government required every individual over eight years of age to buy a minimum amount of salt per week at a fixed price; the tax thus acted as a state monopoly. When the gabelle was first introduced, it was uniformly imposed on all the provinces of France, but for the longer part of its history it varied in different provinces, which can be classified into five groups:

  1. The Pays de grandes gabelles with the highest tax (light blue district on the map). Normandy , Champagne , Picardy , Île-de-France , Maine , Anjou , Touraine , Orléanais , Berry , Bourgogne , Bourbonnais .
  2. The Pays de petites gabelles where the tax was half of the previous one (gray district). Dauphiné , Vivarais , Gévaudan , Rouergue , Provence , Languedoc .
  3. The Pays de salines , where the tax was levied on the salt from the salt marshes (olive green district). Lorraine , Alsace , Franche-Comté , Lyonnais , Dombes , Roussillon .
  4. The pays redimés , which acquired an exemption from tax in 1549 (green district). Poitou , Limousin , Auvergne , Saintonge , Angoumois , Périgord , Quercy , Bordelais , Guyenne .
  5. The pays exempts , which required an exemption from tax when they were merged with the Kingdom of France.

The producers had their salt to the Grenier à sel ( salt chambers since 1342 ) provide that were set up in each province; failure to comply could result in confiscation. The salt chamber set the price it paid for the salt and then sold it to retailers at a higher rate.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L'Assemblée Constituante - Les réformes - Automne 1789-Automne 1790. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 20, 2013 ; Retrieved September 16, 2018 (French).