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The ''Ferme générale'' ((:fɛʁm ʒeneʁal)) was, in ''ancien régime'' France, essentially an outsourced customs, excise and indirect taxes operation which collected duties on behalf of the King (plus hefty bonus fees for themselves), under renewable six-year contracts. The major tax collectors in that unfair, and therefore highly unpopular tax farming system were known as the ''fermiers généraux'', which would be ''tax farmers-general'' in English.〔This article is largely from :fr:Ferme générale, which cites: Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang (eds), ''Dictionnaire universel d'histoire et de géographie'', 1878.〕 (The English word "farmer" in the sense of "agricultural producer" is derived from the French word ''fermier'' which means "leaseholder" (of an agricultural business or any other thing). Initially the word "farmer" designated in England only those agricultural producers who were not the owners of the land they were cultivating. Subsequently "farmer" became the generic term of all agricultural entrepreneurs, whether they owned the cultivated soil or not. ) In the 17th and 18th centuries the ''fermiers généraux'' became immensely rich and figure prominently in the history of cultural patronage, as supporters of French music, major collectors of paintings and sculpture, patrons of the ''marchands-merciers'' and consumers of the luxury arts in the vanguard of Parisian fashions. In his 1833 novel ''Ferragus'', writer Honoré de Balzac attributes the sad air that hangs about the Île Saint-Louis in central Paris to the many houses there owned by fermiers généraux. Their sons or grandsons purchased patents of nobility and their daughters often married into the aristocracy. Especially members of impoverished aristocratic families were eager to marry daughters of the ''fermiers généraux'' in order to restore the wealth they had prior to their ruin. This was called in popular French ''redorer son blason'' (literally "to re-plate one's coat of armours with gold").〔Le petit Larousse 2013, p932〕 ==History== Before the French Revolution in 1789, the public revenue was based largely on the following taxes: *The ''Taille'' – Direct land tax imposed on French peasant and non-noble households, based on how much land they held. In some provinces, the principle of ''taille réelle'' was used, which meant that the tax was based on the actual market value of the real estate. In a majority of provinces the ''taille personnelle'' was applied: the tax level was the result of an arbitrary and gross estimation of the real estate value. Noblemen, public office holders and the inhabitants of the large cities were exempt from the ''taille''. *The ''Taillon'' – Tax for military expenditure. *The ''Vingtième'' (''one-twentieth'') – Based solely on revenue (5 percent of net earnings from land, property, commerce, industry and from official offices). *The ''Gabelle'' – A very complicated system of taxes and outsourced regional monopolies on salt with enormous price disparities between the different provinces (e.g. the salt price in Paris was thirty times higher than in Britanny). *The ''Aides'' – National tariffs on various products, including wine and tobacco. *The ''Traites'' – Custom duties for either the import or export of goods to and from France, or for the transport of goods from one French province to the neighbouring one (internal customs). *The ''Octroi'' – A local tariff levied on products entering the cities, especially Paris. *The ''Droits féodaux'' (feudal rights), a long list of petty duties for every possible event or activity in a peasant's life (the right to marry, to inherit , to use the mill, to use the roads of the local aristocrat, to be exempt from doing mandatory chores for the local lord, etc etc etc), to be paid to the local lord, the King or both and generally considered by the peasant to be arbitrary and humiliating. *The ''Dîme'' ("the tenth ()) – A mandatory tithe to support the state church and its clergy, collected by the local vicars, monks or bishops (and so, not a tax in the legal sense). The ''Dîme'' had to be paid either in legal tender (money) or in material assets by all residents regardless of their religion. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ferme générale」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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