Letters : to Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, 1667-1678.

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Colbert, Jean Baptiste, 1619-1683. Letters : to Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, 1667-1678.

Letters : to Gabriel Nicolas de La Reynie, 1667-1678.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/189863085

Signed from Saint-Germain-en-Laye and later on from Versailles, the letters deal with a variety of subjects ranging from trade regulations, licensing, taxes, and imprisonment to simple requests for the expedition of certain orders. The correspondence brings clarity to La Reynie's wide range of responsibilities, since his position entailed not only jurisdiction over the security of the city and its environs but also control of food supply and prices, elections of masters and wardens of the merchant guilds, publishing, printing, and book selling, and reports of surgeons. At the same time La Reynie was in charge of police organization, which he managed to restructure in order to improve its efficiency. It becomes evident from the letters that both Louis XIV and Colbert himself left to the Lieutenant of the Police a high degree of independence in his work. A large part of the correspondence puts Colbert in the role of the King's messenger to La Reynie, often reinforcing the confidence that the two had in each other, while demanding evidence, elimination of privileges, and even imprisonment of certain subjects.

79 items (87 leaves)

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