The Ferme Générale was, in ancien régime France, essentially a franchised customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, through 6-years adjudications. The major tax collectors in that system were known as the fermiers généraux. Ancien Régime means Old Rule or Old Order in French; in English, the term refers primarily to the social and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties. ...

The history of these taxes dated back to the Roman occupation of France, a system known as the portoria. This method of taxation was continued after the departure of the Romans by Charlemagne. These taxes were retained throughout the Middle Ages into the 16th and 17th centuries. However, collection proved to be a difficult proposition. In 1598 Sully effectively privatised collection of the taxes. The process was further developed under the aegis of Jean-Baptiste Colbert Minister of Finance to Louis XIV. The Ferme Générale itself was established in 1726. A Frankish king, like Charlemagne, (center) depicted in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870) Charlemagne (c. ... Events January 7 - Boris Godunov seizes the throne of Russia following the death of his brother-in-law, Tsar Feodor I April 13 - Edict of Nantes - Henry IV of France grants French Huguenots equal rights with Catholics. ... Jean-Baptiste Colbert Jean-Baptiste Colbert (August 29, 1619 – September 6, 1683) served as the French minister of finance for 22 years under King Louis XIV. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy... Louis XIV (Louis-Dieudonné) (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715) reigned as King of France and King of Navarre from May 14, 1643 until his death. ... Events George Friderich Handel becomes a British subject. ...

The Ferme générale was an unpopular institution, with the fermiers enriching themselves using the country's taxes. It was suppressed during the French Revolution. During the Reign of Terror, the former fermiers were prosecuted. The former fermier, the scientist Antoine Lavoisier, was guillotined. The period of the French Revolution in the history of France covers the years between 1789 and 1799, in which democrats and republicans overthrew the absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church was forced to undergo radical restructuring. ... The Reign of Terror (June 1793 - July 1794) was a period in the French Revolution characterized by brutal repression. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 – May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ... Public guillotining in Lons-le-Saunier, 1878 Badische Guillotine Portrait of Dr. Guillotin The guillotine is a machine used for the application of capital punishment by decapitation. ...