society, in which money rather than rank was the salient consideration,
were laid, although in some ways, as will become clear, the Napoleonic
system also acted as a bar on the development of a society dedicated to
Mammon alone.
The key to Napoleon's social and administrative system was the rule of
the so-called 'notables'. These, in a word, were the people in each
Department who paid the highest taxes. Typically, the notables were
landowners, rentiers and lawyers with an annual income of more than
s,ooo francs from real estate. Financiers, merchants and manufacturers
joined the ranks of the notables by investing in land their profits from
colonial produce or those generated by the boom given industry by new
continental outlets. A man who was one of the six hundred most highly
taxed people in his Department had a chance of entering the electoral
college in the principal towns or being appointed a Senator or Deputy to
the Legislature. The amount of land-tax paid was the determinant of a
notable, who was often in any case a highly paid official. It did not take
much to reach the magic figure of s,ooo francs from real estate when
lavish salaries were being paid to officia ldom: a Councillor of State was on
25,0 00 francs a year plus perks, a Parisian prefect received an annual
salary of 30,000 francs, a provincial prefect anywhere between 8-24,000,
an inspector-general of civil engineering I2,000 and a departmental head
6,ooo. Even the lower officials were in with a chance of ultimate
distinction: a departmental deputy received an annual salary of 4,500, an
ordinary solicitor or drafter of deeds 3,500 and a clerk 3,ooo.
It was undoubtedly the solidity of his regime in the years I8oo-o4 that
encouraged Napoleon in his imperial ambitions, but there were straws in
the wind from the very beginning of his consulate. He loved to hold
military reviews and stirring marches in the Champs de Mars or the Place
du Carousel, where he would preside in brilliant red uniform. The
informal sumptuary laws extended to the consular guard, where the
horsemen were dressed all in yellow. There were dinner parties in the
Tuileries and balls at the Opera, just as in the ancien regime. In I8oi he
reintroduced court dress for men, with silk knee-breeches and cocked
hats, and encouraged Josephine and Hortense to pioneer a female fashion
of dressing in white; Josephine additionally received a bevy of ladies-in
waiting drawn from France's most noble families. After he had been
appointed Consul for life, Napoleon's imperial proclivities became more
marked. In I 802 he was declared President of the Cisalpine Republic and
Protector of the Helvetic Republic. In I803 coins bearing his effigy were
struck, his birthday (IS August) became a public holiday, and his
swordhilt was adorned with Louis XVI's diamonds.
marcin
(Marcin)
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