[Manuscript]. Ordonnance du Roy Francois Ier sur ce qu'il veult et entend prendre sur les poissons de mer sallez [...] de Normandie, Bretaigne et Picardie by [Law, France. Francois I. 1543]

Unbound. Very good. 4to. [16] pp. comprised of 8 half sheets folded once, unstitched, edges untrimmed. First leaf soiled, some dust-soiling throughout. Preserved in a mylar L-sleeve with lig-free board backing. Highly curious French legal manuscript concerning a rare 1543 Ordonnance on taxes on salt for preserving fish, a matter not only of national but international significance. The first and only edition of the "Ordonnance" was printed by Etienne Roffet in 1543, together with an Edict on lifting the Salt Tax (as here). While the Roffet tracts have never been reprinted in full, and only one copy has survived (at BnF), it is unlikely that the present MS is a direct copy because the Roffet edition is 36 pages in length, and is likewise a small 4to. The rarity of the Ordonnances is attested by the fact that even as early as the mid-18th century, no printed copy could be procured; that a MS was commissioned is self-evident, but by whom, or for what purpose, is no longer clear. There can be no doubt that our MS was written between 1740 and 1770: the watermark clearly reads: "I.B. [heart] Marcheval Fin / Auvergne." Gaudriault, p. 240, places Jean-Baptiste Marcheval at Thiers (Auvergne) exactly during these years.

THE ORDONNANCE: In 1541 Francois I ordered the south-west provinces, where salt was produced, to pay a single heavy tax, but the opposition was such that within two years the idea had to be dropped. "Instead, the rigid administration of the Grande Gabelle, with its controls on production, wholesale operations, and retail sales, was to be extended to this region. The result was a movement of some 40,000 farmers who rose up in armed rebellion" (Mark Kurlansky, "Salt: A World History"). In fact, Etienne Roffet printed two Edicts on this subject (both issued in May 1543), the first recording a tax of one livre per "muid" [ca. 8 cubic feet] of salt that was sold at the point of manufacture. The salt tax was doubled, but this applied only to salts that were transported into the interior of the kingdom. Exported salts were exempt, as were salts used for preserving fish, and salts consumed by the local inhabitants (Brittany was recognized as free from salt taxes). The preamble of the Ordonnance reproduces the remonstrance of the edict of 1542. The law prevented foreigners from coming to France to supply salt to French citizens; it also hindered fishing, and in this way ruined the populations of the coasts of the ocean. The second Edict of May 1543, which is reproduced in the present MS, grants salt tax exemptions to fishermen from Normandy, Brittany and Picardy coasts; moderate fees are set on salted sea fish: 5 deniers per hundred of white or herring; 10 deniers per hundred of mackerel, etc.

Further literature: Jean Jules Clamageran, "Histoire de l'impôt en France" (1868) II, pp. 122-3.