ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned mainly with the seventeenth century in Europe. The King’s great interest in the detail of administration meant that special attention had to be given to the preparation of despatches and other documents for his information or signature. The changes in French government and administration were to have important consequences in the future, but their immediate development was largely informal, brought about by Richelieu ‘by inspiring confidence in a well-meaning but unimaginative king’. A working system of administration already existed, calling only for practical adjustment to grapple effectively with the needs of an expanding policy. The King at the top was the natural source of law, justice and the police power. The proliferation of data and the expansion of the bureaucracy automatically generated new administrative problems for the government, but changes went far beyond those actually needed by the growing requirements of the administration.
