Bureaucrats and Beggars: French Social Policy in the Age of the EnlightenmentIn the mid-eighteenth century in France, the royal authorities launched a new campaign to sweep beggars from the streets, pinning their hopes on the creation of a uniform royal network of lock-ups in which anyone found begging might be detained. In this study, Adams probes the accomplishments and the failings of these so-called dépôts de mendicité, as seen by critics of the experiment (including learned judges and influential spokesmen of the provincial Estates) and as seen by those responsible for its success: the provincial intendants, the royal engineers, the doctors, the inspectors, the contractors, and various givers of advice. He shows how the debate--both internal and external--over the operation of the dépôts contributed to the intellectual ferment of the Enlightenment and the Revolution. The resulting web of reasoning and empirical data gave support to Montesquieu's principle that the state owes every one of its citizens "a secure subsistence, suitable food and clothing, and a manner of life that is not contrary to good health." |
Contents
3 | |
7 | |
2 The Impulse to Legislate | 28 |
3 Provisional Dépôts | 49 |
4 Running the Machine | 71 |
5 Deriving a Formula | 91 |
6 Attack on the Dépôts | 107 |
7 Philosophy and Bureaucracy | 134 |
9 Laboratory of Virtue | 187 |
10 Reform and Revolution | 212 |
11 Founding a New Regime | 232 |
Epilogue and Conclusion | 252 |
Abbreviations | 259 |
Notes | 260 |
Bibliography | 339 |
353 | |
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Common terms and phrases
A.D. Aisne A.D. Ille-et-Vilaine A.D. Indre-et-Loire A.D. Marne abbé administration Aisne alms bureaus archbishop of Narbonne archbishop of Toulouse argued arrest ateliers begging Bellevaux Bertier Besançon Brienne Brienne's Brittany Caen Calvados Camille Bloch Châlons charitable charité circular cited Cluzel Colombier Colombier's commission concierge conseil controller-general corvée Declaration of 1724 Denis dépôt de mendicité dépôt of St domiciled beggars economic edict Eighteenth-Century established Estates État finance France funds galleys généralité hospitals Ibid inmates institutions instruction intendant Joly de Fleury king l'état labor Languedoc Laverdy Laverdy's letter livres maisons de force Malvaux maréchaussée memoir mendiants mendicity ment Millière minister Montlinot Necker noted parish parlement of Paris pauvres penalty Physiocratic pionniers police Pont poor prisons province Rattier reform regulation Rennes repression request Revolution Rouen royal Sauvigny Schelle Seine-Maritime social Société Soissons subdelegate subsistence Terray tion Tours Trosne Turgot vagabonds vols workshops XVIIIe siècle