Paulette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ancien Régime |
|---|
| Structure |
| Estates of the realm |
| Parlements |
| French nobility |
| Taille |
| Gabelle |
| Seigneurial system |
La Paulette (after the financier Charles Paulet, who proposed it) was the name commonly given to the "annual right" (droit annuel), a special tax levied by the French Crown during the Ancien Régime. It was first instituted on December 12, 1604 by King Henry IV's minister Maximilien de Béthune. Under the terms of the Paulette, the holders of various government offices could secure the right to transfer their office at will by annually paying the Crown one sixtieth of the value of their office.
This tax provided the Crown with a steady source of revenue while making many government offices, particularly seats in the Parlements, effectively hereditary, since holders usually transferred them to their heirs. This left the administration of justice in France in the hands of a new and increasingly powerful hereditary class of magistrates, which came to be known as the noblesse de robe ("nobility of the gown"), in contrast with the traditional aristocracy, known as the noblesse d'épée ("nobility of the sword"). This system was abolished after the French Revolution.
While the tax provided revenue for the Crown, the salaries of government officials stressed the royal funds and forced the Crown to tax the lower classes heavily. During the rule of Louis XIV, his minister of finance Jean Baptiste Colbert bought back the offices from the nobles in order to reduce the spending of the king.
