Chambre des comptes

In Ancien Régime France, the chambres des comptes were sovereign courts specialising in financial affairs. Paris's chambre des comptes was the oldest among them, and was the forerunner of today's Cour des Comptes. They supervised the spending of public funds, the protection of royal lands ("domaine royal"), and legal issues involving these areas.

In Paris

To control the income and expenses of the kingdoms, at first the French king had recourse to his Conseil (that is, the "curia regis", the group of privy counsellors who surrounded him and assisted him in his several functions), then progressively the Chambre des comptes developed as a specialised and detached organ developed for this purpose.

In 1256, an ordinance of Saint Louis prescribed that the "mayeurs et prud'hommes" to come to make accounts before the "gens des comptes" at Paris. Certain clerks of the conseil specialised in this role. Some "maîtres lais" were delegated to the "comptes du Roi".

Around 1303, the Chambre des comptes of Paris was installed at the Palais de la Cité, where it remained until the French Revolution. The gens des comptes were charged with supervising income from royal lands and controlling public expenditure.

The ordinance of Vivier-en-Brie of 1320 put in place the fundamental principals of the organisation of the Chambre des comptes : it comprised three, then four, maîtres-clercs, to which were added three maîtres-lais familiers du Roi, charged with "ouïr" (hearing) the accounts. 11 minor clerks assisted them in their task. The post of président was created by the ordinance of 1381. The greffiers made their appearance. The correcteurs were selected, to assist the maîtres. The conseillers delegated by the king first appeared beside the maîtres ordinaires. Finally, the ordinance of 26 February 1464 qualified the Chambre des comptes as a "a court sovereign, principle, first and singular of the last resort in everything regarding financial accounts" ("Cour souveraine, principale, première et singulière du dernier ressort en tout le fait du compte des finances").

In the provinces

The oldest of the provincial Chambres des comptes was that of Dauphiné, created in 1368. Other Chambres des comptes appeared in Normandy (1465), in Provence, in Bourgogne, at Nantes for Britanny, in Navarre, in Languedoc and Roussillon, at Nancy, Metz and Bar-le-Duc.

Decline and suppresion

At the end of the Ancien Régime, besides the Chambre des comptes of Paris, 12 other companies of the same order, of which some (merged into the Cours des aides) continued to exercise all financial jurisdiction, including fiscal and estate cases.

Some sovereign chambres des comptes were raised from grand feudal estates also existing in certain provinces, and as such they did not form a homogeneous whole.

Only the French Revolution brought an end to all the chambres des comptes, eliminating them between 17 and September 29 1791.

Bibliography

* Jean Raynaud, "La Cour des comptes", Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, coll. Que sais-je ?, 1988.
* Anne Lemonde, "Le temps des libertés en Dauphiné. L'intégration d'une principauté à la couronne de France (1349-1408)", Grenoble, Presses Universitaires de Grenoble, 2002 (coll. La Pierre et l'Ecrit).