© CGB
© CGB
Token - Provost of the Merchants of Paris - Michel-Étienne Turgot
1733 year| Silver | - | 31.5 mm |
| Location | France |
|---|---|
| King | Louis XV (1715-1774) |
| Type | Utility items › Counter tokens |
| Year | 1733 |
| Composition | Silver |
| Diameter | 31.5 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Milled |
| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
| Updated | 2024-11-13 |
| Numista | N#324617 |
|---|---|
| Rarity index | 100% |
Reverse
Arms of Paris
Script: Latin
Lettering: LA. VILLE. DE. PARIS.
Edge
Milled
Comment
Michel-Étienne Turgot, marquis de Sousmont, seigneur de Bons, Ussy, Brucourt, was a French magistrate born on June 9, 1690 and died on February 1, 1751. He was Provost of Paris from 1729 to 1740, and his name is attached to one of the most famous plans of Paris: the "Turgot Plan".Michel Étienne Turgot was the son of Jacques-Étienne Turgot de Sousmont (1670-1722), maître des requêtes, intendant in Lorraine, and Marie-Claude Le Peletier de Sousy (1671-1711). He was appointed to the Paris Parliament in 1711, and became president of the second chamber of inquiries in 1717.
On July 14, 1729, Louis XV appointed him Provost of Paris. The choice had to be ratified by the échevins, and when the time came to vote, they cast their ballots in accordance with the royal decision. Although the Parisian municipality was subject to the kings of France, it was nevertheless able to work on a daily basis to improve the city's roads, embellish its buildings and provide supplies.
Turgot - the demanding Voltaire first - is credited with dynamic, sound management of Paris' finances, and with a number of positive achievements:
* in 1737, the covering of the Grand Égout, the collector sewer on the right bank;
* development of the Quai de l'Horloge (Île de la Cité);
* the Quatre-Saisons fountain on rue de Grenelle, sculpted by Edmé Bouchardon in 1739-1745;
* the estacade on the eastern tip of Ile Louviers to divert ice carried by the Seine.
Turgot also appointed Pierre Nicolas Bonamy as the city's historiographer and, in March 1735, Abbé Jean Delagrive as the city's ordinary geographer. The latter had just presented a project for an urban cadastre of Paris, to be carried out between 1746 and 1754. In July 1737, Turgot had the municipality purchase the so-called "Tapisserie" plan (an elevation plan dating from 1570), demonstrating that the new mayor was as interested in the ancient knowledge of Paris as he was in the fate of his constituents. However, his name remains essentially associated with the Plan de Turgot, a cavalier perspective plan he commissioned from Louis Bretez.
Appointed Conseiller d'État by semester in 1737, he became Ordinary in 1744. In 1741, he became President of the Grand Council. In 1743, the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres admitted him as one of its honorary members, replacing Cardinal de Fleury.
