ABSTRACT
Imagine yourself strolling in sunny Narbonne, France, during a summer almost three centuries ago. On the first of August, 1682, according to the report the Intendant of Languedoc sent to Paris,
there was a little movement in Narbonne on the occasion of the collection of the cosse tax, which had been ordered by an act of the royal council. Many women gathered with the common people, and threw stones at the tax collectors, but the Consuls and the leading citizens hurried over and put a stop to the disorder.l
A cosse was a local grain measure which held something like five liters. More important, it held one-fortieth of a setier of grain; to collect one cosse per setier, which was the aim of those tax collectors, was to tax grain at 2.5 percent. The royal domain had long held the legal right to collect the cosse on all grain sold by outsiders at Narbonne, but the sixteenthcentury Wars of Religion had interrupted the collection of the tax. In 1682, the royal council (guided by Colbert in its incessant search for revenue to pay for royal wars and regal display) had authorized the royal property agent to begin anew the collection of the cosse. The agent ordered the construction of toll booths at the city's gates, and directed his clerks to collect the tax on all grain brought in by nonresidents.
