Quittance du sieur Dupont. 5 mars 1757. [Quittance for Payment by the Treasurer General of the Colonies.] Dupont, Pierre; Moreau; Beaulieu; Vaudésir, Georges Nicolas Baudard de Vaudésir 18th century,Americana,Autographs & Manuscripts,Economics,History

Manuscript document, 1 p. folio (c. 33 × 22 cm), written in brown ink, with three signatures at foot (Dupont, Moreau, Beaulieu) and a marginal registration note dated 26 August 1766 at the Contrôle de la Marine. Colonial quittance from Port-de-Paix, 1757, recording 290 livres paid by Treasurer General Georges Nicolas Baudard de Vaudésir for four cases of candles supplied to the King s stores. Receipt issued at Port-de-Paix in 1757, recording payment of 290 livres by Georges Nicolas Baudard de Vaudésir (1712 1771), Trésorier général des Colonies, for four cases of candles sold from the estate of the deceased merchant Sieur Landais. The act was drawn before the royal notaries of Port-de-Paix, where Pierre Dupont, as executor testamentary of Landais, acknowledged receipt of the sum through Vaudésir s local agent. Candles were a routine staple of the King s warehouses, consumed in bulk aboard ships, in garrisons, and in hospitals. A caisse of candles was typically packed in 24 36 dozen or more, so four cases meant roughly 1,500 candles. Such a shipment was not unusual in itself, yet at 290 livres the purchase was large enough to require formal notarization and entry in the Treasurer General s accounts. Recorded at the outset of the Seven Years War, when Saint-Domingue s ports were critical bases for the French navy, the quittance links this everyday act of provisioning to Georges Nicolas Baudard de Vaudésir, then Treasurer General of the Colonies and patriarch of the family that would soon dominate French state finance. Signed by Pierre Dupont, executor, and the notaries Moreau and Beaulieu (?). The latter may be identical either with the notary of that name active at Petit-Trou-de-Nippes in the 1750s (Robert 1951; Bolloc h & Menier 1951), or with Moreau de Beaulieu, procureur du roi at Port-de-Paix from 1721 and later judge (Lettres Mo-Mu, ANOM, p. 549; ark:/61561/tu245ijjkg). With later registration at the Contrôle de la Marine in Saint-Domingue, 26 August 1766, countersigned by an unidentified registrar. Georges Nicolas Baudard de Vaudésir (1712 1771), originally receveur des tailles at Angers, served as Trésorier général des Colonies from 1752 to 1758 and later held the posts of conseiller du roi and directeur des postes at Angers. His son Claude Baudard de Saint-James (1738 1787) succeeded him in office and rose to become one of the leading financiers of eighteenth-century France (Claeys, 2011, pp. 144 148). References: Claeys, T. (2011). Dictionnaire biographique des financiers en France au XVIIIe siècle (3rd ed., Vol. 1, A K). Paris: SPM.; Robert, R. (1951). Les minutes des notaires de Saint-Domingue aux Archives du Ministère de la France d Outre-Mer. Revue d histoire des colonies, 38(135), 281 338. 1951.1162; Bolloc h, A.-Y., & Menier, M. A. (1951). Dépôt des papiers publics des colonies: Saint-Domingue, Notariat. Revue d histoire des colonies, 38(135), 339 358. h1951.1163 . Old folds, light edge wear, lower right corner torn. Otherwise in very good condition. Manuscript document, 1 p. folio (c. 33 × 22 cm), written in brown ink, with three signatures at foot (Dupont, Moreau, Beaulieu) and a marginal registration note dated 26 August 1766 at the Contrôle de la Marine.