other Italians; judiciary offices were sold by auction; the trading class purchased letters of nobility, as they had already done under Philippe le Bel; and, more than this, the enfranchisement of serfs, which had commenced in 1298, was continued on the payment of a tax, which varied according to the means of each individual.  In consequence of this system, personal servitude was almost entirely abolished under Philippe de Long, brother of Louis X.

Each province, under the reign of this rapacious and necessitous monarch, demanded some concession from the crown, and almost always obtained it at a money value.  Normandy and Burgundy, which were dreaded more than any other province on account of their turbulence, received remarkable concessions.  The base coin was withdrawn from circulation, and Louis X. attempted to forbid the right of coinage to those who broke the wise laws of St. Louis.  The idea of bills of exchange arose at this period.

Thanks to the peace concluded with Flanders, on which occasion that country paid into the hands of the sovereign thirty thousand florins in gold for arrears of taxes, and, above all, owing to the rules of economy and order, from which Philip V., surnamed the Long, never deviated, the attitude of France became completely altered.  We find the King initiating reform by reducing the expenses of his household.  He convened round his person a great council, which met monthly to examine and discuss matters of public interest; he allowed only one national treasury for the reception of the State revenues; he required the treasurers to make a half-yearly statement of their accounts, and a daily journal of receipts and disbursements; he forbad clerks of the treasury to make entries either of receipts or expenditure, however trifling, without the authority and supervision of accountants, whom he also compelled to assist at the checking of sums received or paid by the money-changers (Fig. 279).  The farming of the crown lands, the King’s taxes, the stamp registration, and the gaol duties were sold by auction, subject to certain regulations with regard to guarantee.  The bailiffs and seneschals sent in their accounts to Paris annually, they were not allowed to absent themselves without the King’s permission, and they were formally forbidden, under pain of confiscation, or even a severer penalty, to speculate with the public money.  The operations of the treasury were at this period always involved in the greatest mystery.

[Illustration:  Fig. 279.—­Hotel of the Chamber of Accounts in the Courtyard of the Palace in Paris.  From a Woodcut of the “Cosmographie Universelle” of Munster, in folio:  Basle, 1552.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 280.—­Measuring Salt.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut of the “Ordonnances de la Prevoste des Marchands de Paris,” in folio:  1500.]

[Illustration:  Fig. 281.—­Toll under the Bridges of Paris.—­Fac-simile of a Woodcut of the “Ordonnances de la Prevoste des Marchands de Paris,” in folio:  1500.]