ABSTRACT
On 3 May 1759, Catherine Bompard, a day labourer’s wife and her 26-year-old son living in La Grave in the mountain valley of Oisans, appeared before the Salt Warehouse Tribunal in Briançon, a small town in the Upper-Dauphiné close to the border with Piedmont. She was suspected of smuggling contraband salt between the Valley of Briançonnais, where it was sold at a low price and the Valley of Oisans where taxes made it much more expensive. A little more than 7 pounds of this precious foodstuff had been found hidden in sacks of rye on the back of their mare as they were returning from the Briançon Fair where they had gone to sell ‘earthenware’ plates. Both risked a fine of several hundred livres. 1
