Les réseaux de crédit en Languedoc au XVIII siècle et les origines sociales de la Révolution

While the historiography has had its «Durkheimien Moment,» in examining the process by which new social institutions led to the Revolution, questions already raised about the family or consumption, can be reasonably applied to the problem of credit. Languedoc is in this respect an interesting region given its provincial institutions, its fiscal system, and the characteristics of its elites. Indeed, the extension and control of the practices of credit, notably those related to the financial demands of the monarchical State and its increasing debt, are the crucial issues around which the preliminary tensions of the Revolution developed. Prominent among the issues were the pursuit of investment in the equipment of the economic development of the region and the distribution of resources between multiple social groups, especially peasants. This article encourages further studies on the popular participation in the transformation of social institutions and on the regional personalities involved in these transformations at the end of the eighteenth century.