Abstract
Venal offices became valuable when their owners proved their indispensability to the monarchy, often by obstructing its initiatives and bringing the administration to a standstill. Governmental responsibility gave office holders prestige and brought forth patronage from the king. The reasons and evidence for this argument come from a study of the provincial assemblies established by the crown over most of the realm in the 1770s and 1780s. The assemblies portended a government shorn of venal offices. They brought forth opposition from socially predominant groups entrenched in the royal judiciary and administration. In opposing the assemblies, office holders made revealing statements about the centrality of venality to their rank in the social hierarchy. This study of the provincial assemblies also shows why so many office holders came to oppose royal absolutism and seek an alternative constitution of the state in 1789.