are laid upon some certain Commodities Some Years ago there were 44 Jurez so they call them Created all at once to Sell or Appraise Fowls and each of them paid down above 3000 Pounds and to repay themselves they took 3 Half-pence per Livre A like number was Created for Fish with the same Salary Those for Hay are far more numerous but then they are not altogether so dear for they may be bought for 2307 l. 13 s. 6 d. Those upon Charcoal cost above 3000 l. but they are not many but those upon Wood are innumerable and I am very well informed that the French King has received out of those Offices for Wood near Two Millions Four Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling Now to re-pay themselves they are allowed as I have said some Duties but the King very often demands from them some ready Money and this encreaseth their Duties so much the more and is the Reason that all manner of things are grown gradatim in Paris to such an excessive Price for there is a General Excise upon all things in the World that come into that City even to the very Ashes and Old Lees of Wine and the Duty laid upon them was Let at 1223 l. 1 s. 6 d. And this Duty of Entry is not particular only to Paris for it is imposed upon most parts of France with this only Difference That the Duties are not exacted so high every-where One Example of this I hope will be sufficient At Caen in Normandy a Place well known to our English-men they pay for every Pound of Butter a Half-penny For a Load of Fire-wood 10 Pence For a Load of Timber 13 Shillings 4 Pence For a Load of Hay 1 Shilling 8 Pence For a Horse-Load of Wood as they use in that Country 2 Pence Half-penny For a Horse-Load of Fish 3 Shillings and 5 Pence For the Load of a Man or Woman of Fish 8 Pence And For a Horse-Load of Corn 1 Shilling ARTICLE V. Of the King 's DEMESNE and CUSTOMS I Have but very little to say upon these Heads for I don't look on them to be an Effect of Arbitrary Power All Crowns in the World must have a sufficient Revenue either in Lands or Customs to support them and so has the Crown of France But as the French Kings have within this last Century very much enlarged their Primitive Power 't is no wonder if they have encreased likewise their ancient Patrimony The Duty join'd to the Demesne which I take to be Tyrannical is that called Lods Ventes that is a certain Summ ef Money which People are forced to pay whenever they sell their Estates or any part of them Indeed this Duty is not in all Places alike in the Country where the Customary Law of Paris is received the Buyer is obliged to pay the King the Twelfth Penny that is to say Out of 12 Thousand Pound One Thousand But at Troyes in Champaigne they pay Three Shillings and four Pence out of every Pound and that Duty is paid the one half by the Buyer and the other half by the Seller This is very hard This Tax for truly it deserves no better a Name is not of the Creation of this French King but about Twelve Years ago he created another very like it For he ordered That all People should pay the same Duty whenever they Bartered their Lands as if they had sold them for ready Money This was harder yet than the other and never were the French King's Subjects so much harass'd and plagu'd upon account of any Tax as they have been of this For they have been forced to pay the Arrears thereof if I may so call it having been call'd to give an account for these Twenty Years last past The Traites Foraines or Customs are a Duty laid upon all Commodities that are exported from France or imported into it But this in it self is not very surprizing since some such Duty as this is generally over all the World and is no doubt the slightest of all Taxes yet the French King has raised it to such a vast degree that it is become absolutely Tyrannical and Slavish I 'll give you but one Instance viz. upon Sugar which pays Three Pence per Pound Another Observation I shall make upon these Customs is That the following Provinces to wit Brittany Poictou Xaintonge Guienne Languedock Provence Dauphine Lorrain and the New Conquests being look'd upon all of them as Foreign States there is another Custom upon all Commodities that are exported or imported into these Provinces which is so severe and rigorous as if they were exported into Holland Why these Provinces should be accounted Foreign States I could never hear any other Reason given but that formerly they were subjected to some particular Princes and not to the Crown of France but pray Was not Normandy Ruled by her own Dukes as well as Aquitaine ARTICLE VI. Of several TAXES and Creations of OFFICES THE Office of Councellor in Parliament in France are not Disposed of like those in England for The Paulette these are given Gratis but the others are Sold by the French King There is also another considerable Difference between them viz. That the Place of a Judge here is Quam diu bene se gesserit whereas the Imployments of Councellors in Parliament in France are Hereditary But this must be observed that to keep those Places to their Families they are obliged to pay every Year a Duty which is called Paulette from one Paulet who was the first that contrived this Tax This Duty amounts to Fifty Pounds per Ann. for each Councellor and besides all this they are forced likewise to make a Loan or rather a Gift to the King every Five Years which is Nine times as much as the Annual Duty and should they fail performing these Conditions they presently lose their Right of Inheritance When ever a Councellor dies or by any Resignation his Son comes into his Place he must pay another Duty which amounts to the Eighth Part of the Price of the Place whatever it be so that if the Place be valued at Fifty Thousand Crowns he must pay above Six Thousand There is an Office appointed for the receiving of this Money and for the Sale of vacant Places called Le Bureau des Parties casuelles The Decimes or Tenths of the Clergy is a Tax which The Decimes of the Clergy all the Clergy-Men of the Kingdom pay to the King out of their Livings This Tax at first was granted the Kings of France upon Pretence of a War against the Infidels and if I am not mistaken it began in 1189. It was very inconsiderable at first as appears by its very Name and granted only for a certain time but succeeding Kings have found out a way to raise it and not only so but to make it perpetual This present King especially the most ingenious and exquisite Prince in the World for increasing his Revenues has raised it as he hath done
necessary to explain my self The truth is That the States of Languedoc and Britanny were formerly like those of England but now they are only a Shadow of what they have been They meet every Year and upon their meeting the Governour of the Provinces or some other Great Lord demands from them in the Name of the King Three or Four millions of Livres more or less as the King pleaseth His Speech for the Formality sake is indeed taken into Consideration but the Summ must be granted with this only Shadow or Remain of Authority That they grant somewhat less perhaps by Fifty Crowns than the King hath demanded This is all for they have no Power to meddle with any other Affairs After such a Digression which I have thought necessary for my Reader 's Information give me leave to resume the Thread of my Discourse Some Towns also are free from the Taille but instead of that they pay some other Duties more than an Equivalent with that Horrid Tax Those Duties are called Entries but they deserve to be considered a-part by themselves in another Article which will be no less curious or useful to be known Where the Taille is Personal the Noblemen and Chief Magistrates as Councellors in Parliament are also free from it at least as to their Personal Estate but their Lands are assessed as well as those of other Men except seven or eight Acres and provided they plough them themselves that as the King is resolved to lose nothing it happens that their Farmers are a great deal more Taxed than other Men and I remember thereupon That a Farmer of a Mannor at Villeneuve St. George called Les Bergeries about four Leagues from Paris was Assessed every Year * 69 l. 4. s. 6 d. sterl Nine hundred Livres though he paid but Five hundred to his Landlord Monsieur de Commartin Councellor of State These are the Observations I have thought fit to make upon the Taille which I hope will give a pretty clear Idea of it I will now proceed to consider the Consequences of it For it is not of this Monster like that of the Naturals that those die without any Issue but this has a numerous Posterity The first is the Taillon which is an additional Tax and that was raised at first by Henry II. Anno 1549. towards the encrease of the Pay of his Gens d'Armes who then lay Billetted in Villages and to enable them to pay their Hosts whatever they had from them The poor Country-men thought then to have got a little ease but soon after they became as much oppressed by their unruly Guests as ever So that whatever had been pretended to them for their Ease proved only a Trick to drain their Purses the more Now every-body knows that the custom of Billetting the Gens d'Armes in Villages has been laid aside but for all that the Taillon is still continued and so the People are bound to pay it which amounts to above the Third part of the Taille The other Children of that Monster are the Contributions which the French King raises upon his Subjects and a Subsidy for the Winter-Quarters of his Soldiers To explain this it must be observed That in time of War the French King is obliged to Quarter his Troops upon the Frontiers as also or at least the greatest part of them in time of Peace because of the numerous Garisons he is forced to have Now to keep them in Pay there is a general Assessment laid upon most of the Towns of the Kingdom whereby they are forced to pay the Subsidy called the Winter-Quarters at the rate of Five pence a Day for each private Sentinel and because the Country-People are bound to contribute Oats and Hay for the maintenance of the Horse that are Garison'd in the Towns when the Troops are in Flanders or in other Frontiers they are likewise forced to convert those Oats and Hay into Money and this is called Contribution which brings to the King a great Summ of Money those Commodities being valued at the Discretion of those Officers who are appointed for that purpose Now what Summ that Subsidy or Contributions produce 't is impossible to determine but it cannot but be very great considering the vast number of Soldiers that the French King has in Pay and the numbers of the Towns he has in France And yet how chargeable soever that Subsidy is the French Soldiers are such insulting and sawcy Guests that the People would pay twice as much more if they could but free themselves from those troublesome Visits And this Insolence is countenanced by the Government so much the more because of the great Advantage the King receiveth by it many Towns paying more to be free from their Winter-Quarters than they do for the Taille which they should not do were these Soldiers kept under as severe a Discipline as they are in England and only Quartered in Publick Houses ARTICLE II. Of the GABELLE THIS is not so much a Tax laid by the French King upon his People as it is the engrossing of a Trade to Himself whereby his Subjects are forced to buy the Salt from him at his Granaries and at his own Price How great a Profit he maketh of that Commodity few People know and I am afraid that few will believe what I am going to say upon that Subject For though we are used to hear of the great and advantagious Returns that our Merchants receive from the East and West-India's yet they are not to be compared to what the French King gets upon his Subjects by this Gebelle How common Salt is in France those that have travelled in the Pays d'Aunix or Xaintonge cannot be ignorant of but for those who have not seen the Salt-Marshes of that Country I hope it will be sufficient to let them know That a certain Measure called Muyds de Bosse weighing 5200 Pounds is bought there at some times for Three shillings and Six pence and never dearer than Four shillings and Six pence of Engglish Money 'T is there that the French King buys that Commodity to sell it again to his Subjects in all the Provinces of his Kingdom except Poictou Xaintonge Guienne and Britanny where the Gabelle is not as yet imposed There may be also some other Tracts of Land free from that Tax but they are very inconsiderable Now to understand what Profit he maketh upon that Merchandise it ought to be observed That the Muyds de Bosse contains 52 other Measures called Minots that is 100 Pounds weight and that each Minots is sold at this time in Paris at the King's Granaries for 64 Livres So that there being 52 Minots in each Muyds de Bosse as I have said it follows That the same quantity of Salt that the French King buys for Four shillings and Six pence at utmost is sold to his Subjects at his Granaries in Paris for 3328 Livres that is 256 l. Sterling 'T is true it is not sold at that rate in all
the Provinces where the Gabelle is imposed but there is a very inconsiderable difference and now every-where near Paris as in Normandy c. it bears the same Price I don't question but that at the first sight of so extravagant a Price many People will be apt to think that I impose upon their Credulity but there are so many considerable Witnesses of what I say in this Kingdom 't is very easie for any Man to enquire into the Truth of this matter I must only give you this Caution That in time of Peace the Minots which is now sold for 64 Livres was then bought for 44 l. but with this difference alone the whole Account is but pure matter of Fact How necessary soever the Commodity of Salt be that high Price would discourage many People from making use of it but to prevent that there are such good Orders made that it is impossible to avoid it 1. The importing of foreign Salt is forbidden upon pain of Death So that let the Salt of the King's Granaries be never so dear yet because it is absolutely necessary the French are forced to buy it 2. Salt is imposed upon the People there as the Taille so that each Family must take every Year a certain quantity of it proportioned to the number of their Family and Estate and so let them be never so willing to eat their Bread and Meat without Salt yet the King will lose nothing by it This is the reason that some Provinces are said to be liable to the Salt of Granaries and others to the Salt of Imposition To understand this Distinction it must be observed That in Paris and some other Cities and Countries Salt is not imposed upon the Inhabitants as the Taille and that if they buy any it is out of necessity and not from any other violence But in Normandy Picardy Champaigne Anjou and other Places there are Officers appointed to examine each Family and to assess them a Minot more or less according to their Number and Estate Let People say what they will as That they are so poor as that they are unable to pay it they must take the quantity assessed and if they do not pay it within six Months after they must expect a Military Execution and God knows how severe that is A Man so compelled to buy a Commodity which is a great deal too dear for his Purse would gladly sell it again could he find a favourable Opportunity And there is nothing in this but what is very natural but there are such Penalties both for the Buyer and Seller that it is very dangerous for either of them to drive on such a Trade The first Offence is punish'd with a Fine but in case the Offender be unable to pay it he is condemned to the Penalty of the second Offence which is Corporal viz. To be branded with a Red Flower-de-Luce upon the Cheek or the Shoulder And so hard a Punishment ought one would think to deter any Man from Offending twice Yet there are some who Offend a third time and those upon Conviction are sent Slaves to the Gallies were it only for a Pound of Salt given sold lent or bartered The same Punishment is inflicted upon the Faux Sauniers that is a sort of People who invited by the high Price of Salt convey it secretly from Poictou and Britanny into the Provinces liable to the Gabelle The Fishermen and other Inhabitants of the Sea-Coasts would have a very officious Neighbour were they but suffered to make use of Salt-Water But to hinder it there are Watches appointed and were a Man once convinced for having made use of it he would be no less severely punished than a Faux Saunier How heavy that cursed Gabelle is upon the French Nation will appear I hope by what I have already said But yet were it fairly managed it would not however be intolerable For it is certain that the Cheats and Knaveries committed on that account are more to be feared than the Imposition it self This Tax robs a Man but of his Money but the Managers of it can deprive him both of his Reputation Life and Estate For the Tools of Slavery and Arbitrary Power being always and every-where alike I mean Covetous Base Unmerciful and Treacherous it happen many times that under colour of searching a Man's House upon pretence of Forbidden Salt they will hide some themselves in a Corner where they are sure to find it again upon a second Visit and this is sufficient to fine a Man perhaps more than he is worth in the World But if a Man should have an Enemy who is so base as to bribe the Officers of the Salt into his Interests and oblige them to serve that Trick thrice upon him which he can do for a little Summ of Money that Man shall be sent a Slave to the Gallies which is a Punishment worse a thousand times than Death it self This Observation is not grounded only upon a bare Peradventure but there are many Examples of it and were it not for fear of bringing a Disgrace upon some Families that are now in England I could produce very good Authorities I have said that the Province of Poictou Xaintonge Britanny and Guienne are free from the Gabelle and perhaps some will wonder at it and should I omit to say what I know upon that point likely enough I should be blamed That distinction in my Opinion is grounded upon three Reasons 1. Britanny being united to the Crown of France but since Charles VIII who married the Heiress of that fine Dutchy 't is no wonder that the Inhabitants of that Province have greater Privileges than others And so I may say the same thing as to Poictou and Guienne those Countries being formerly subjected to the Crown of England But as for Xaintonge or Pays d'Aunix truly there is another particular Reason For First Would it not be too severe nay and inconsistent too with the French King's Interests to impose the Gabelle in that very Place where the Salt is made Secondly If we consider how common and general the Insurrections were in Britanny and Guienne in 1674. when the French King attempted to put that burthensome Excise upon them perhaps we shall find a reasonable Cause to conclude That if the Gabelle be not introduced in those Provinces 't is purely because the Inhabitants are no ways disposed to suffer it Their Insurrection was so great that they were forced to give over that Design and had the Confederates but made use of that favourable Opportunity it might have proved a fatal Consequence to the Grandeur of that Prince Thirdly Though these Reasons seem very probable and it is possible that they have in a great measure contributed to the Ease of those Provinces yet I take the French King to be so great an Enemy to every thing that has but the Shadow of Liberty and so jealous of his Arbitrary Power that I do verily believe he would have crushed the pretended
Huitieme that is the Eighth part of the Price of their Wine And as to the Countries because there can be no Duty of Entry laid on them they pay therefore in lieu of it another which in my Opinion is much worse As soon as ever the Vintage is over the Rats de Cave Cellar Rats so the People call the Officers for the Aides go into every Man's Cellar be he of what Sort soever and take an exact Account of the Wine they have in them And three Months after they make a second Search to see what is become of that Wine and if any has been Sold they must strait produce the Acquitances of the Office which is appointed for the Declaration of the Price and of the Additional Duty which I have already explained And as for the Wine which has been drunk in the Family they pay another Duty called Le trop beu that is to say Too much drunk and this Tax amounts to 8 Livres or 12 Shillings Sterling Now this Visit coming Quarterly must needs be very roublesom But is this not an undeniable Proof of the Fatherly care the French King takes of his People Perhaps they would otherwise make an immoderate use of the Creature but this Duty indoctrinates them to be sober in pity to their Purses I had forgot the Province of Normandy must also be excepted though others pay only the Eighth Part but this pays the Fourth of all the Liquors that are Sold in Publick Houses as Wine Beer Cider Aqua vitae and the like so that if a Quart of Wine should be Sold for Two Shillings the King must have Six Pence out of it besides all other Duties of Entry c. which I have before mentioned These Duties of Entry are different one from the other almost in every Town but at Rouen the Capital City of the Province they amount to 15 Livres per Muyd that is 22 Shillings and 6 Pence Sterling I cannot say positively what it is they pay for Cider or Beer but as much as I can remember of it 't is about the Fourth Part of what they pay for Wine It is likewise to be observed that because Normandy produces no Wine and there are excessive Customs every where upon the Frontiers of that Province as well as at the Sea Ports therefore instead of the Quatrieme or Fourth Part the King receives above one Half When I said that the Duty of Entry for Wine amounts at Paris but to 22 Livres or 33 s. and 9 d. Sterling it is to be understood of the most Common Wine for the Best pay a great deal more The Muscadine for instance pays 2 l. 10 s. and the Aqua vitae 3 l. 16 s. 6 d. But I must observe to you that the Aqua vitae pays a double Duty that is the Fourth Part instead of the Eighth Though Britanny be a Pays d'Etats as the French call it yet it hath a terrible Excise there upon Wine Such are the Great and Little Duties of the States which come to a Hundred Livres or 7 l. 13 s. 9 d. Sterling per Tonneau Bourdeaux Measure that is 4 Hogsheads of Wine containing in all about 840 of our London Quarts And though this Excise is raised upon Wine Sold only in Publick Houses and no where else yet about six Years ago was it let to Farm for Three Millions of Livres which amounts to 230769 l. 4 s. 6 d. Sterling whereof Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Livres are paid to the King and the other Five Hundred Thousand are to bear the Charges of the States of the said Province Over and above these Duties there is another called Impost Billot belonging only to the King which brings every Year into his Coffers 500000 Livres This Duty consists in 34 Shillings and 7 Pence which the King takes there upon every Tun of Wine He hath also a Custom of 3 Shillings 9 Pence upon every Tun of Wine brought to Britanny by Sea So that all these Duties when compared together make it plainly manifest that the Excise upon every Tun of Wine amounts to 9 l. 4 s. 6 d. which is more than the Price of the Wine This I think is sufficient to explain the Matter I was to make out viz. Wherein consisted the Excise upon Wines which the French call Les Aides but to have it more clearly understood I would again desire the Reader to read it with Care and Attention ARTICLE IV. Of the ENTRIES THIS is a General Excise upon every thing that comes to Paris for nothing there is free but Air besides the River which runs through the middle of the City I wish I could be as particular upon this Article as I have been upon the others but it cannot reasonably be expected that the Memory of a Man is able to supply him for such an Undertaking however I 'll do my Endeavour to explain it as well as I can In the Entries of Paris and Rouen there is included a Duty which the French call Pie-fourchie that is an Excise upon all Cloven-footed Beasts as Oxen Sheep Swine and the like They pay for every Ox at this time 9 Shillings Sterling for a Cow 7 Shillings 6 Pence 3 Shillings 4 Pence for a Calf or a Hog half a Crown for a Sheep and five Groats for a Lamb. I say at this time for in times of Peace this Duty was not so high by one half There is a Duty too upon Fowls which is 4 Pence per Livre let unto Farm near 25 Thousand Pounds The Imposition that is laid upon Timber and other Wood fit for Work and Service is Let or at least was so some Years ago for 15384 l. 12 s. Sterling per Annum That upon Fire-wood amounts to much more but indeed I cannot now remember nor learn how much the just Summ is But this I can say that they pay One Shilling and Three Pence for every Load of Fire-wood and whosoever will consider the largeness of the City of Paris the Numbers of Families in it and that they burn no Sea-Coles cannot but agree that this Tax must bring in a vast Summ of Money to the Exchequer I must plead the like Excuse as to the Duties of Entry laid upon Charcoal and Hay and both Salt and Fresh Fish but the Reader may easily guess that they are not in any disproportion to those I have already mentioned Eggs Butter Cheese and all manner of Herbs pay 4 Pence per Livre that is 4 Shillings per Pound If all the Money accreuing from those Impositions were brought into the King's Treasury it would amount to a vast Summ but it must be observed that from time to time the French King Createth to use the French Phrase many Imployments en Titre d'Office that is Hereditary-Imployments to be Overseers of the Sales of certain Commodities with a Privilege that no Body shall Sell what they Sell themselves and besides they take for their own Use one part of the Duties that
other Taxes according to his own Pleasure and from the Tenth he has brought it up now to the Fourth part so that if a Curate hath a Living but of a Hundred Pounds per Annum he must pay every Year to the King 25 Pounds of it besides what he is obliged to contribute towards the Free-Gift that the Clergy make every Five Years to the King If the Clergy who are Favourites be so much Oppress'd What must be the Condition of the Laity Paper and Parchment Mark'd The Paper and Parchment Mark'd was imposed in the Year 1672. And they are so called from a Flower-de-Luce wherewith they are stamped all Indentures Bonds Agreements Leases in a word all manner of Writings except private Letters and Bills of Exchange must be written upon this Paper or Parchment only otherwise they are void in Law The Paper is divided into Sheets half Sheets and Quartes of a Sheet The whole Sheet is sold for Three pence the Half for three Half-pence and the Quarter for Three Fathings The Parchment is dearer for you must give Twenty pence for a Skin Now whosoever consider the great Extent of France must needs agree that this must bring in a mighty Summ of Money The Controlle At much about the same time that this Paper-Tax was imposed there was another Tax found out called Controlle Now to rightly understand what this is I must observe to you that whereas Law Suits generally begins here in England by Arrests they begin in France by a Summons to appear before the Judges This Summons must be Controlled that is viewed and Signed by an Officercalled Controller whose Fee is Five pence All the Silver and Gold Plate that is made throughout The King 's Mark upon Gold and Silver Plate the Kingdom must be also stamped with the King's Mark and the Goldsmith pays for that 3 Shillings and 4 pence for every Mark that is for every Eight Ounces This Duty was Yearly set to Farm for 25000 Pounds Pewter must be also stamped with the King's Mark Upon Pewter which Costs one Penny per Pound The Stockings coming from Foreign Countries are also Upon Stockings Mark'd and the King hath for his Mark Two pence per Pair So are also all Hats and the Duty upon them is 10 d. Upon Hats Pence a piece Iron Steel Copper and Leather must be also Marked but indeed I cannot positively say now what the Duty is Every Hackney-horse in the Kingdom pays Yearly to the King Two Crowns The new Tax upon Chocolate Tea and Coffee was let yearly at 30769 l. 4 s. 6 d. In many Provinces of France as in Normandy c. the Pidgeon-Houses are Assessed in Ten Years some of them pay 25 Crowns others more or less according to the bigness of them The French Nobility and Gentry being obliged or at least used to spend more than their yearly Revenue it often happens that they Contract so many Debts as makes them forced to Sell their Estates Now if their Noble Mannors are sold to any Merchant or other under the Quality of a Nobleman they must pay every Twentieth Year a whole Year's Revenue to the King and this is what the French call Francfief There is another Duty all over the Kingdom called Barrage which is paid by the Waggoners and Carriers and this was employed for the repairing of Bridges and High-ways now the King hath appropriated it all to his own use under the Promise That he himself would take care of Pavements Bridges c. But he has kept his Word herein as Religiously as he hath the Treaty of Nimeguen Every House in Paris was Assessed at a certain Summ for the Poor and the Scavengers as they are here in London but the King hath obliged the Proprietors of each House to redeem that Tax by paying a certain Summ into his Coffers and he hath taken upon him the care of keeping the Poor and of Cleansing the Streets but how he hath performed what he had promised we may learn from Publick Intelligences wherein we are told That all the Inhabitants of Paris have been now lately Assessed upon the Account of the Poor Besides the Duties of the Custom-House there is a kind of Tax upon Tobacco I say a kind of Tax because it is rather in reality an Engrossing of the Trade of that Commodity There are a Company of People that pay to the King a Summ of Money yearly to have the Privilege of selling Tobacco and that at their own Word This Summ amounts to about 60000 l. Sterling All People who let Lodgings Furnished in Paris and all the Inn-keepers upon High-ways have been Taxed within these three Months Though the Councellors in Parliament be very numerous yet the French King hath lately I mean since the beginning of this War encreased their-Number of Eighth in each Parliament who have paid ready Money for their Places each of them 100000 Livres that is 7692 l. 6 s. 1 d. 2 fart Sterling And over and above this Summ they pay the Annual Duty as well as others and each of them have been Taxed since that time 12 Thousand Livres or 976 Pounds 18 Shillings Sterling The French King hath Erected En Titre d'Office the Mayors of all the Cities of the Kingdom and because this Place is Hereditary and those in possession of them are free from Quartering of Soldiers and other Publick Charges besides the Honour they have been Sold very dear I will give but an Instance the Mayor of Caen in Normandy which is not one of the most considerable Cities in France has paid about 4000 l. Sterling Those who sell any Brandy by Retail in their Shops or in the Streets at a Half-penny a Glass as they use in most part of France have been Erected also since this War En Titre de Office and have paid 23 Pounds 1 Shilling 6 Pence A very poor Sort of People called Criers of old Shooes Hats and Rags have also been Erected En Titre d'Office and each of them has paid 7 Pounds 13 Shillings 6 Pence The Barbers who were Perriwig-makers were Erected En Titre d'Office in 1672 and then they paid 153 Pounds 18 Shillings and soon after they were forced to pay a like Summ and since this War they have been Taxed a-new each of them at 38 Pounds 7 Shillings 6 Pence I will not however say that in all the Cities of France they have paid so much for I would have this be understood of Paris only for in the other Cities they have paid proportionable to their Trade Another Observation I must make is that the very Country-Village Barbers have been forced to take Letters of License from the King and I suppose no Body will think that they are Granted gratis when they are so forced upon them The French King begun by the Perriwig-makers to Tax Trades-men For in a little while after all the other Trades-men and Artificers throughout the Kingdom were Assessed likewise To be particular in