From Blind Obedience to Informed Consent. Financial and Administrative Knowledge as a Political Tool in some French Provincial Estates during the Ancien Régime, 1751-1789

Abstract

The quest for financial transparency in the last decade of the Ancien Regime in France generated developments in the science of administration, particularly in public accountancy. These changes were not confined to the national level. Increasing fiscal pressure from the monarchy prompted the provincial estates to produce their own administrative knowledge, especially in fiscal and financial matters, which would serve to improve policies for the public good. In this manner, the estates meant to bring about a shift from blind obedience to the king’s demands to informed consent, which had been denied them since the reign of Louis XIV.