généralité

généralité, the basic administrative unit of 17th- and 18th-century France. It was first established in the late 14th century to organize the collection of royal revenues. In the 15th century, four généralités covered most of France. An edict of 1542 established their number at 16, each under a receveur (“receiver”) général (from which the unit took its name).

In the 17th century the already existing généralité became the sphere of authority of the intendant, a direct agent of the king with wide police, justice, and finance powers. In the language of the time, généralité came to be synonymous with intendancy. In 1789 there were about 33 généralités; their boundaries were often arbitrarily chosen without any geographic or historical basis. The district seats (chefs-lieux), from which the généralités took their names, were themselves often inconveniently located in a corner of the territory.