ABSTRACT
On 20 March 1813 a law was passed to sell leased out plots of common land. France's financial affairs were deteriorating as more and more funds were being consumed by military spending. It is estimated that 462 million francs or 60 per cent of the 1807 budget was spent on financing Napoleon's military campaigns; by 1813 the figure had risen to 817 million or 80 per cent of the budget. According to Comte Mollien, the Minster of Finance, the war in Spain cost 70 million francs a year, while the Russian campaign had a price of 700 million francs. Nadine Vivier has argued that the sales under the 1813 law completed the process of moving substantial amounts of common land from the public to the private domain, which began with the 1793 Revolutionary partition law. The Royal Ordinance of 23 June 1819 was difficult to implement for many reasons.
