Wall of the Ferme générale
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The Wall of the ''Ferme générale'' was one of the several
city walls of Paris The city walls of Paris ( French: ''enceintes de Paris'' or ''murs de Paris'') refers to the city walls that surrounded Paris, France, as it grew from ancient times until the 20th century, built primarily to defend the city but also for adminis ...
built between the early
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and the mid 19th century. Built between 1784 and 1791, the 24 km Wall roughly followed the route now traced by line 2 and line 6 of the Métro. It crossed the districts of the
Place de l'Étoile Place Charles de Gaulle (), historically known as the Place de l'Étoile (), is a large road junction in Paris, France, the meeting point of twelve straight avenues (hence its historic name, which translates as "Square of the Star") including t ...
,
Batignolles Batignolles () is a neighbourhood of Paris, part of its 17th arrondissement. The neighbourhood is bounded on the south by the Boulevard des Batignolles, on the east by the Avenue de Clichy, on the north by Rue Cardinet and on the west by the Ru ...
,
Pigalle Pigalle may refer to: Places ;Paris, France *Quartier Pigalle, an area in Paris around the Place Pigalle, on the border between the 9th and the 18th arrondissements *Place Pigalle, public square in the Quartier Pigalle at the foot of the Montmartre ...
, Belleville,
Nation A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
, the
Place d'Italie The Place d'Italie (; en, Italy Square) is a public space in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The square has an average dimension somewhat less than 200 meters in extent (comprising about 30,000 m²), and the following streets meet there: *Boule ...
, Denfert-Rochereau,
Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...
and the
Trocadéro The Trocadéro (), site of the Palais de Chaillot, is an area of Paris, France, in the 16th arrondissement, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. It is also the name of the 1878 palace which was demolished in 1937 to make way for the Palais ...
. The wall was demolished in the early 1860s, though elements at several of its gates remain.


History

Unlike earlier walls, the Farmers-General Wall was not intended to defend Paris from invaders but to enforce the payment of a toll on goods entering Paris ("
octroi Octroi (; fro, octroyer, to grant, authorize; Lat. ''auctor'') is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. Antiquity The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being ...
"). It was commissioned by the nobleman and scientist
Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and th ...
on behalf of the
Ferme générale The ''ferme générale'' (, "general farm") was, in ''ancien régime'' France, essentially an outsourced customs, excise and indirect tax operation. It collected duties on behalf of the King (plus hefty bonus fees for themselves), under renewable ...
(''General Farm''), a
tax farming Farming or tax-farming is a technique of financial management in which the management of a variable revenue stream is assigned by legal contract to a third party and the holder of the revenue stream receives fixed periodic rents from the contract ...
corporation that paid the French State for the right to collect (and keep) certain taxes. Lavoisier was a shareholder and Administrator of the Ferme générale and determined that the cost of building, staffing, and maintaining the wall would be compensated by better revenue collection. The wall's tax-collection function made it very unpopular: a play on words of the time went "Le mur murant Paris rend Paris murmurant" ("The wall walling Paris keeps Paris murmuring") There was also an epigram: The Wall was five meters high and 24 km long, following the then-boundaries of the city of Paris. No buildings could be erected within 98 meters of its exterior or within 11 meters of its interior. The outside of the wall was flanked by boulevards. Along the inside, surveillance by customs officials was facilitated by a raised protected walkway (''
chemin de ronde A ''chemin de ronde'' ( French, "round path"' or "patrol path"; ), also called an allure, alure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk, is a raised protected walkway behind a castle battlement. In early fortifications, high castle walls were difficu ...
''), except between the barrière d'Italie (now the
Place d'Italie The Place d'Italie (; en, Italy Square) is a public space in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. The square has an average dimension somewhat less than 200 meters in extent (comprising about 30,000 m²), and the following streets meet there: *Boule ...
) and the
barrière d’Enfer Barrière is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747), French cellist and composer *Jean-François Barrière (1786-1868), French historian *Jean de la Barrière (1554–1600), French religio ...
(now the
Place Denfert-Rochereau Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place d'Enfer, is a public square located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France, in the Montparnasse district, at the intersection of the boulevards Raspail, Arago, and Saint-Jacques, and the ave ...
).  Architect
Claude Nicolas Ledoux Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (21 March 1736 – 18 November 1806) was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only domestic architecture but also town planning; as ...
designed its 62 toll gates (''barrières)'' in a neo-classical or even classical style. The Parisian writer (and tax critic)
Louis-Sébastien Mercier Louis-Sébastien Mercier (6 June 1740 – 25 April 1814) was a French dramatist and writer, whose 1771 novel ''L'An 2440'' is an example of proto-science fiction. Early life and education He was born in Paris to a humble family: his father was a ...
, who witnessed the construction, dubbed the buildings "dens of the Tax Department metamorphosed into palaces with columns." The Finance Minister. Loménie de Brienne, in 1787 worried about the very high cost of the construction and considered stopping the work, but never actually did so because it was so far advanced. In the early years of the French Revolution, with the Wall scarcely finished, tax farming and the toll on goods were abolished. But in 1798 French municipalities were granted the octroi, which soon became their primary source of revenue. The city of Paris consequently took responsibility for maintaining the Wall and staffing its revenue officials. When in 1860 the suburban communes were annexed to Paris, the customs boundary moved out to the Thiers fortifications, with duties collected at its numerous
gates Gates is the plural of gate, a point of entry to a space which is enclosed by walls. It may also refer to: People * Gates (surname), various people with the last name * Gates Brown (1939-2013), American Major League Baseball player * Gates McFadde ...
(portes). Under
Haussmann Hausmann is a German word with former meanings "householder" and "freeholder" and current meaning "house-husband." Hausmann (Hausman), Haussmann (Haussman), Haußmann, Hauszmann, etc. are German-origin surnames that may refer to: Hausmann * C ...
's auspices the Wall of the Ferme générale was quickly demolished and a series of boulevards constructed over its path. Municipal customs duties were collected until the 1940s.


Current

remains Remains or The Remains may refer to: Music *The Remains (band), a 1960s American rock band *The Ramainz, originally The Remains, a Ramones tribute band Albums * ''Remains'' (Alkaline Trio album), 2007 * ''Remains'' (Annihilator album), 1997 * ' ...

Some portions of the wall still exist, such as the rotunda of the ''Barrier of La Villette'' (now
Place de Stalingrad The Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad is a square in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. It was named after the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the major battles of World War II. The square lies at the intersection of the Canal de l'Ourcq and the Can ...
), the ''Barrière du Trône'' (now
Place de la Nation The Place de la Nation (formerly Place du Trône, subsequently Place du Trône-Renversé during the Revolution) is a circle on the eastern side of Paris, between Place de la Bastille and the Bois de Vincennes, on the border of the 11th and 12t ...
), the ''Barrière d'Enfer'' (now
Place Denfert-Rochereau Place Denfert-Rochereau, previously known as Place d'Enfer, is a public square located in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, France, in the Montparnasse district, at the intersection of the boulevards Raspail, Arago, and Saint-Jacques, and the ave ...
), and the rotunda of
Parc Monceau Parc Monceau () is a public park situated in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, at the junction of Boulevard de Courcelles, Rue de Prony and Rue Georges Berger. At the main entrance is a rotunda. The park covers an area of 8.2 hectares (20 ...
. The wall itself was replaced by the route of the following streets: *On the left (south) bank of the
Seine ) , mouth_location = Le Havre/Honfleur , mouth_coordinates = , mouth_elevation = , progression = , river_system = Seine basin , basin_size = , tributaries_left = Yonne, Loing, Eure, Risle , tributarie ...
from the east: ''Boulevard Vincent-Auriol'', Auguste-Blanqui, ''Boulevard Saint-Jacques'',
Boulevard Raspail Boulevard Raspail is a boulevard of Paris, in France. Its orientation is north–south, and joins boulevard Saint-Germain with place Denfert-Rochereau whilst traversing 7th, 6th and 14th arrondissements. The boulevard intersects major roadw ...
, ''Boulevard Edgar-Quinet'', ''Boulevard de Vaugirard,'' ''Boulevard Pasteur'', ''Boulevard Garibaldi'' and ''Boulevard de Grenelle''. *On the right (north) bank, from the west: ''Rue de l'Alboni'', ''Rue Benjamin-Franklin'',
Avenue d'Iéna The Avenue d'Iéna is a tree-lined avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, running from the Trocadéro (Avenue Albert De Mun) to the Place de l'Étoile. Passing through Place d'Iéna, Place de l'Amiral de Grasse, Place de l'Uruguay and Place Ri ...
,
Avenue Kléber Avenue Kléber is an avenue in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, one of the twelve avenues that converge on Place Charles de Gaulle. It was named after Jean Baptiste Kléber, a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. Before 1879, it ...
, ''Rue La Pérouse'',
Rue de Presbourg Rue de Presbourg is a street in the 8th and 16th arrondissements of Paris, France. Since 1864 it has been named after Napoleon's 1805 diplomatic success at the Peace of Pressburg and, with the Rue de Tilsitt Rue de Tilsitt is a street in ...
,
Rue de Tilsitt Rue de Tilsitt is a street in the 8th and 17th arrondissements of Paris. It is one of two streets which form a circle around the Place de l’Étoile (renamed the Place Charles-de-Gaulle in 1970) - the other is the Rue de Presbourg. It was n ...
,
Avenue de Wagram Avenue de Wagram is a street in the 8th and 17th arrondissements of Paris, extending from the Place de Wagram to the Place Charles de Gaulle (formerly ''Place de l'Étoile'', and the site of the Arc de Triomphe). It is long and wide, and is di ...
, ''Boulevard de Courcelles'', ''Boulevard des Batignolles'', Clichy, Boulevard de Rochechouart,
Boulevard de la Chapelle The boulevard de la Chapelle marks the border between the 10e arrondissement of Paris, 10e arrondissement and the 18e arrondissement of Paris, 18e arrondissement of Paris. It corresponds in part to the mur des Fermiers généraux, which, until 186 ...
, ''Boulevard de la Villette'', ''Boulevard de Belleville'', ''Boulevard de Ménilmontant'', ''Boulevard de Charonne'', ''Boulevard de Picpus'', ''Boulevard de Reuilly'' and ''Boulevard de Bercy''.


References


Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wall Of The Farmers-General Taxation in France City walls in France Fortifications of Paris Ferme générale