Catalog
1000 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
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| Value | 1000 Livres Tournois |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON BILLET DE MILLE LIVRES TOURNOIS QUI AURA COURS AUX ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON CONFORMÉMENT À L'ÉDIT DU ROI, DU 10 JUIN 1788 MILLE LIVRES DE VAIVRE, Intendant général des Colonies LE BRASSEUR, Intendant général des fonds de la Marine & des Colonies |
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| Signature(s) | De Vaivre and Le Brasseur |
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| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued colonial livres tournois notes under royal authority to manage chronic specie shortages across France's Caribbean possessions — a problem that had plagued Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and Guadeloupe for most of the eighteenth century. Hard coin consistently drained out of the colonies through trade imbalances, leaving administrators dependent on paper instruments that local merchants accepted only under duress.
1788 was a particularly fraught moment to be issuing high-denomination colonial paper. The French crown's finances were visibly collapsing, and confidence in any royal obligation — metropolitan or colonial — was deteriorating fast. Within a year the Revolution would render the issuing authority itself extinct.
De Vaivre served as Intendant of Saint-Domingue; Le Brasseur's countersignature indicates dual administrative authorization, a safeguard against unilateral overissuance.