§ XXI
Justice in Private Contracts
The king must examine whether he treats private individuals with the same justice as an equal, or whether his power coerces them into accepting losses.
In the agreements you make with private individuals, are you as just as if you were on equal footing with the person you're dealing with? Is he free with you the way he would be with one of his neighbors? Doesn't he often prefer to take a loss — to buy himself free and get clear of harassment — rather than stand up for his right?
The Abuse of Royal Agents
The king's officials often act with a haughtiness he would never show, silencing the weak who wish to complain.
Your tax farmers, your revenue contractors, your intendants, and the rest —1 don't they cut decisions short with a haughtiness you yourself would never show; and don't they stifle the voice of the weak man who would want to complain?2
The Illusion of Royal Compensation
The king often compensates contractors with insecure assets that can be revoked by his successor, leading to the ruin of families.
Don't you often give the man you contract with compensation in annuities, in claims on your domain, or in newly created offices — things a stroke of your successor's pen can take away from him; because kings are always treated as minors, and their domain is inalienable?3 So private people are stripped of their secure patrimonies, only to be given what will later be taken from them — with the inevitable ruin of their families.
Read the original French
Dans les conventions que vous faites avec les particuliers, êtes -vous juste comme si vous étiez égal à celui avec qui vous traitez? Est-il libre avec vous comme avec un de ses voisins? N'aime-t-il pas mieux souvent perdre, pour se racheter et pour se délivrer de vexation, que de soutenir son droit? Vos fermiers, vos traitants, vos intendants, etc. ne tranchent-ils point avec une hauteur que vous n'auriez pas vous-même; et n'étouffentîls pas la voix du foiblc qui voudroit se plaindre? Ne donnez-vous pas souvent à l'homme avec qui vous contractez, des dédommagements en rentes, en engagements sur votre domaine, en charges de nouvelle création, qu'un coup de plume de votre successeur peut lui retrancher; parce que les Rois sont toujours mineurs, et leur domaine inaliénable ? Ainsi on ôte aux particuliers leurs patrimoines assurés, pour leur donner ce qui leur sera ôté dans la suite, avec une ruine inévitable de leurs familles.
Notes
- 1 ↩Ancien Régime fiscal offices: fermiers = tax farmers; traitants = financiers contracting for royal revenues; intendants = royal provincial administrators. Kept as historical terms rather than flattened to generic 'agents'.
- 2 ↩Normalized corruptions in source: 'n'étouffentîls' → 'n'étouffent-ils'; 'foiblc' → 'faible'; 'voudroit' read as older orthography for 'voudrait'.
- 3 ↩'Les Rois sont toujours mineurs' is the legal fiction of the French royal domain: the king cannot permanently alienate it, so grants charged against it remain revocable. 'Mineurs' is not psychological immaturity but legal incapacity regarding the domain.
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