Catalog
500 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset note printed in black on cream paper, enclosed within an ornamental floral and foliate border. The text body, set in a mix of roman and italic letterpress type, states the denomination and legal authority in French, referencing the Royal Edict of 10 June 1788. A rectangular panel at centre carries the denomination legend "CINQ CENTS LIVRES" in bold capitals, and two manuscript signatures appear below, attributed to the Intendant général des Colonies and the Intendant général des fonds de la Marine & des Colonies. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON. BILLET DE CINQ CENTS LIVRES TOURNOIS, QUI AURA COURS AUX ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON, CONFORMEMENT A L'EDIT DU ROI, DU 10 JUIN 1788. CINQ CENTS LIVRES. INTENDANT GÉNÉRAL DES COLONIES. INTENDANT GÉNÉRAL DES FONDS DE LA MARINE & DES COLONIES. |
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| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued colonial currency for the French Caribbean possessions — principally Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and Guadeloupe — under a system chronically short of specie. By 1788, the colonial financial administration was already under severe strain, and notes of this denomination circulated in an economy where plantation credit, slave-trade debt, and metropolitan merchant accounts were perpetually tangled. The livres tournois remained the official unit of account even as the French monetary system was moving toward the reforms that would produce the franc in 1795.
Pick 12 is poorly documented in terms of surviving populations, and the 1788 date places this note just one year before the revolutionary upheaval that would ultimately destroy the colonial financial order entirely.