‘Il nous est de toute impossibilité d’en déterminer la somme’: quantifying charitable giving in the généralité of Rouen on the eve of the Revolution

Abstract

Abstract

Abstract Poor relief in France on the eve of the Revolution was found wanting, both by contemporaries and historians. But existing economic histories of almsgiving suffer from serious flaws, of the kind common to quantification on a macro scale. They extrapolate from patchy data and ignore variation in favour of averages. Their judgements employ a highly subjective language of ‘generosity’, based on narrowly defined quantitative measures. Their calculations, by their own admission, omit all giving that cannot be readily counted, such as so-called ‘informal’ charity. This article moves away from macro estimates to a micro-level approach, using a rare set of sources: the responses to an enquiry into poverty in the Rouen area by the Commission intermédiaire de l’Assemblée provinciale in 1788, which notably includes voluntary alms. Ultimately, the article invites a wider and less negative reassessment of charitable giving that encompasses both ‘small’ and ‘big data’.