ABSTRACT
The term piquage d’once refers to the theft and resale of small quantities of silk by weavers—usually obtained from offcuts they were not supposed to keep. Since the mid-sixteenth century, theft of raw materials was considered, under the Regulations of the Grande Fabrique, to be an infraction and subject to prosecution. This chapter shows that piquage d’once and its criminalisation were closely linked to power struggles taking place between independent maîtres ouvriers and marchands fabricants within the Grande Fabrique in the eighteenth century. The recurring conflicts over the definition and calculation of levels of waste and the instrumentalisation of fraud by both sides prior to the French Revolution provide evidence of this development.
