The Courts of Aids (French: ''Cours des aides'') were

sovereign court A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fr ...

s in ''

Ancien Régime ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for "ancient, old" ** Société des anciens textes français * the French for "former, senior" ** Virelai ancien ** Ancien Régime ** Ancien Régime in France ''Ancien'' may refer to * the French word for ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, primarily concerned with customs, but also other matters of

public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achiev ...

. They exercised some control over certain excise taxes and

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, bein ...

duties, which were regarded as of a different nature from the

taille The ''taille'' () was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in ''Ancien Régime'' France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held, and was directly paid to the state. History Originally o ...

, the

gabelle The ''gabelle'' () was a very unpopular tax on salt in France that was established during the mid-14th century and lasted, with brief lapses and revisions, until 1946. The term ''gabelle'' is derived from the Italian ''gabella'' (a duty), itself ...

, and the general imposts of the kingdom. The Paris court sat in the Palais-Vieux, of which a monumental door can still be seen in the Rue du Temple. It was set up to judge appeal-cases of extraordinary (i.e. fiscal) and ordinary (i.e. "domaniale") financial matters relating to the chambre du Trésor (

treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

Guillaume de Lamoignon de Blancmesnil Guillaume II de Lamoignon, seigneur de Blancmesnil et de Malesherbes (Paris, 1683 —1772) was a French magistrate. Biography The second son of the président Chrétien François de Lamoignon, he was named general avocat for the Parlement of Pa ...

was "premier président" of the Paris Court of Aids from 1746 to 1749.

Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes (, 6 December 1721 – 22 April 1794), often referred to as Malesherbes or Lamoignon-Malesherbes, was a French statesman and minister in the Ancien Régime, and later counsel for the defense of Lou ...

, his son, succeeded him and served from 1750 to 1775. (According to an etching from 1655 Jacques Amelot was the "premier président" of the Cour des Aydes or, in English, Court of Aids. See the Metropolitan Museum of Art Gallery Images for his portrait of 1655 and its inscription.)

References

Legal history of the Ancien Régime Judiciary of France Defunct courts Courts and tribunals disestablished in the 18th century {{France-hist-stub