ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the social aspects of faux-saunage and its contribution to the economy in the mountain valleys. Although it is difficult to quantify incidences of fraud, trial records in the archives of Briançon’s salt warehouse provide details for establishing a sociological profile of fraudsters, both men and women, and analysing the reasons for their involvement in smuggling. Faux-saunage was one of many family strategies which involved both licit and illicit activities. As such, it highlights both the status of women in the mountains and the role they played in a local economic situation where male migration was common. The attitudes displayed and the arguments put forward by faux-sauniers when interrogated by ferme agents and the tribunal reveal the rationale behind the fraud and demonstrate how their involvement in smuggling could be seen as ‘legitimate’. Furthermore, the ambiguous attitude that the local elite and the authorities themselves displayed when dealing with faux-saunage reveals a level of tolerance and variations in sentences that are also analysed.
