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Business Investment and Social Attitudes in 16th-Century France: The Example of the Paris Grocers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Ronda Larmour
Ronda Larmour
Affiliation:
Columbus, Ohio
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Abstract

In the manner of the Creole tradesmen of Louisiana, whose lagniappe to their patrons is legendary, the Editor offers a similar bonus to readers of the Review. Instead of trifling presents added to a purchase, however, our lagniappe will be notes and documents illustrative of the evolution of business enterprise.

Type
Lagniappe
Information
Business History Review , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , Winter 1966 , pp. 491 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1966

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References

1 Une famille de marchands: les Ruiz (Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, VIe section, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Affaires et gens d'affaires, Paris, 1955), 116–17.

2 Introduction à la France moderne (1500–1640), essai de psychologie historique (L'évolution de l'humanité, bibliothèque de synthèse historique,” LIII, “3e section, Le monde moderne,” III, Paris, 1961), 210.

3 Ibid., 209–10.

4 Also included are a few inventories drawn up after the deaths of grocers' wives or on the occasion of the dissolution of the community of possessions between grocers and their wives. All the inventories are located in the Minutier Central at the Archives Nationales in Paris.

“Grocer” is used here as a translation for espicier. The translation is not altogether satisfying, since sixteenth-century espiciers had little in common with modern grocers; but they did perform very similar functions to London grocers at the same period — cf. Sylvia Thrupp. “The Grocers of London: A Study of Distributive Trade,” Studies in English Trade in the Fifteenth Century, ed. by Eileen Power and M. M. Postan (London School of Economics, Studies in Economic and Social History, V, London, 1933), 248–50, 264–84. The translation of the French word, espicerie, by the English, “grocery,” is also suggested by English usage during the period studied. Both were collective singular terms used to describe the goods grocers commonly sold.

5 While only three of the nine earlier grocers invested more than 10 per cent as much in property as in business, at least sixteen of the later group invested this much. Usually the proportion of property to business investment was much higher than 10 per cent.

6 Seventeen bought urban property, thirteen rural property; only four spent more in the country than in town.

7 For nine, their house was their only urban investment; six bought other urban property as well; only five of the twenty who bought property did not own the house in which they lived.

8 Bernard Schnapper, Les rentes au XVIe siècle, histoire d'un instrument de crédit (Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, VIe section, Centre de Recherches Historiques, Affaires et gens d'affaires, Vol. XII, Paris, 1957), 101–02, 231.

9 For seven, under 10 per cent; three, 10–20 per cent; the others, 30 per cent, 51 per cent, 68 per cent, and 1 unknown.

10 Seventeen, as compared to fourteen of the twenty-six property-owners.

11 For eight of the seventeen, less than 20 per cent of total property investment; for seven, between 20 and 60 per cent; for two others, possibly over 60 per cent.

12 See Schnapper, 159–73, for a detailed description of the rentes, the dates of issue, and the pressure exerted to sell them.

13 See Spooner, Frank L., L'économie mondiale et les frappes monétaires en France, 1493–1680 (Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, VIe section, Centre de Recherches His toriques, Monnaie — prix — conjoncture, Vol. IV, Paris, 1956), 169–72Google Scholar, for the aggravation of the monetary crisis between 1575 and 1589.

14 Bonnardot, Françoiset al. (ed.), Registres des délibérations du bureau de la ville de Paris (Histoire générale de Paris, (Paris, 1883-)Google Scholar, VII, 315, Dec. 15, 1575; VIII, 74, about March 27, 1577, 318, Feb. 16, 1583.