The Financial Support of Men of Science in France c . 1660 — c . 1800: A Survey

It would obviously be an anachronism to speak of people like Huygens and his immediate successors as ‘scientists’, so the phrase ‘men of science’ may be adopted on a parallel with ‘men of letters’. It was the phrase used by Lord Milton, President of the organization when he opened the first meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831. Alternatively they could be described by the French word savant but this term sometimes has a broader meaning than someone working specifically on science. The term ‘natural philosopher’, although useful for the early years, would be less appropriate to describe all practitioners over the whole period to the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Well-known examples of early wealthy natural philosophers who made major contributions to British science include Robert Boyle and Henry Cavendish.

Priestley Joseph , for example, was offered patronage by Lord Shelbourne in 1772 in the form of a generous salary for light duties.

For an extreme opinion see the entry “Pension” in Samuel Johnson's famous Dictionary: “Pension: In England it is generally considered to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.” For France see, e.g., McCloy Shelby T. , Government assistance in eighteenth-century France (Philadelphia, 1977), chap. 14.

A gratification is a present, sometimes a gratuity, Dictionnaire de la langue française, Le Robert (7 vols, Paris, 1981). Among the first meanings given to ‘gratification’ in the Oxford English dictionary is “the doing of a favour”.

Traditionally payment to physicians was regarded as an honorarium.

Tits-Dieuaide Marie-Jeanne , “Colbert et l'Académie des Sciences”, in Burguière A. (eds), L'histoire grande ouverte: Hommage à Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (Paris, 1997), 214–20. Also M.-J. Tits-Dieuaide, “Une institution sans statuts: L'Académie Royale des Sciences de 1666 à 1669”, in Brian Eric Demeulenaere-Douyère Christiane (eds), Histoire et mémoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1996), 3–13. This author hopes in the future to carry out a very detailed study of the finances of the Academy in its early years.

Colbert's predecessor Fouquet had also supported men of letters. Mongrédien Georges , “Colbert et les écrivains”, chap. 5 in his Colbert, 1619–1683 (Paris, 1963). Also Maber Richard , “Colbert and the scholars”, Seventeenth-century French studies, vii (1985), 1985–14.

We might also mention Pascal, who died in 1662 and Fermat in 1665.

Sturdy David J. , Science and social status: The members of the Académie des Sciences, 1666–1750 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1995), 70. This book is an excellent source of information on the income of several generations of academicians.

Taton René , Les origines de l'Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris, 1965), 49, note 70.

Bos H. J. M. , art. “Huygens” in Dictionary of scientific biography.

“Gratifications faites par Louis XIV aux savants et hommes de lettres français et étrangers” in Clément Pierre (ed.), Lettres, instructions et mémoires de Colbert, v (Paris, 1868), 466–98, taken for the years 1664 to 1667 from Bibliothèque Nationale, Mélanges Colbert, cccxi—cccxv (Bâtiments du roi). For the years 1668–83, Archives de l'Empire, Registres du secrétariat de la maison du roi, 0, 10392–416. Another source is Guiffrey J. J. , Comptes des bâtiments du roi sous le règne de Louis XIV (5 vols, Paris, 1881–1901), e.g. Pensions et gratifications des gens de lettres, 1664–65, i, 56–58.

Clément , op. cit. (ref. 13), v, 240.

Racine Molière received less because they were only at the beginning of their careers. It cannot be assumed that the pensions were always paid regularly, nor that gratifications continued indefinitely. Many literary incomes were reduced in the 1670s and even abandoned in 1690 (Mongrédien, op. cit. (ref. 8), 95–96). Fortunately the majority of savants, and certainly the senior members of the Academy, were more able to rely on their state pensions. The pension of Racine was raised considerably later, after he had completed successful plays. Molière was exceptional in being able to rely mainly on the direct income from his plays. G. D'Avenal, Histoire économique de la propriété, des salaires, des denrées et tous les prix en général depuis l'an 1200 jusqu'à l'an 1800 (7 vols, Paris, 1909; reprinted New York, 1968), v, 283, 286.

Huygens left Paris for Holland several times because of illness. The outbreak of war between France and Holland in 1672 made his position difficult but he stayed in Paris until 1681.

Taton , op. cit. (ref. 11), and Sturdy, op. cit. (ref. 10). In 1663 Colbert had founded the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres principally to choose inscriptions for medals and monuments to celebrate the King's military victories.

Huygens Christiaan , Oeuvres (The Hague, 1888–1950), v, no. 1426, p. 389, cited in Brian and Demeulenaere-Douyère (eds), op. cit. (ref. 7), 12n.

E.g., Maindron E. , L'Académie des Sciences (Paris, 1888), 99.

Stroup Alice , A company of scientists: Botany, patronage and community at the seventeenth-century Parisian Royal Academy of Science (Berkeley, CA, 1990).

There is no information about Colbert's early benefactions and there seems to be the assumption that gratifications were always paid annually, which was not always the case. For example, if a payment was made late by a few months, it was often considered to suffice for two years. Payment was particularly bad in the 1690s.

D'Avenal , op. cit. (ref. 15), vii, 257.

Although the individual sciences were not usually explicit until 1699, the mathematical sciences generally comprised geometry, mechanics and astronomy, whereas the other group included chemistry, botany and anatomy.

Cassini was above all an astronomer, but we must remember the special meaning given to the terms ‘mathematics’ and ‘la physique’ in the Academy at this time.

Cassini had come to Paris in the first instance only on a temporary basis. Yet, in addition to his generous income, there was the attraction of the new Paris observatory, which he helped to set up, and of which he became Director.

Holmes F. L. , “Chemistry in the Académie Royale des Sciences”, Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxxiv (2003), 41–68.

1683 was the last year of Colbert's life. The work continued until 1686.

Hahn Roger , The anatomy of a scientific institution: The Paris Academy of Sciences, 1666–1803 (Berkeley, CA, 1971), 185–94. For artisans and inventors there was the possibility of a patent but this was obviously not an appropriate reward for a savant. Landes David S. , The unbound Prometheus: Technological change and industrial development in Western Europe from 1750 to the present (Cambridge, 1969), 135.

Duhamel seems to have often been absent from Paris, visiting his native Normandy and sometimes being sent on government missions. Sturdy, op. cit. (ref. 10), 80–86.

It was only in 1694 that the secretary was required to take minutes of meetings. Tits-Dieuaide, op. cit. (ref. 7, 1996), 12.

Fontenelle used his éloges to present the life and work of academicians in the most heroic light. Paul Charles B. , Science and immortality: The éloges of the Paris Academy of Sciences (1699–1791) (Berkeley, CA, 1980).

The wealthier academicians could afford to ignore this bribe for regular attendance but the least wealthy would value the jetons to supplement their basic income. For each meeting a fixed sum was available, to be divided equally among those present, which meant that at a poorly attended meeting the value of each jeton would increase significantly. The money available for jetons was increased during the eighteenth century until in 1790 it reached the huge sum of 12,820 livres, thus becoming an important additional source of income (Maindron, op. cit. (ref. 19), 114. Very little information is available on the early history of jetons. See Stroup , op. cit. (ref. 20), 291.

Sturdy , op. cit. (ref. 10).

Sturdy , op. cit. (ref. 10), 358. Fontenelle had exceptional literary gifts, exemplified not only in the Histoire of the Academy and the éloges of its deceased members but also in other literary works, which he continued well into his nineties.

D'Avenal , op. cit. (ref. 15), v, 309–10.

Ibid., 288.

Ibid., 294.

Mallon Adrian , “L'Académie des Sciences à Paris (1683–85): Une crise de direction?”, in de Donville L. Godard (ed.), De la mort de Colbert à la revocation de l'edit de Nantes: Un monde nouveau? (Paris, 1984), 19–28.

Tits-Dieuaide , op. cit. (ref. 7, 1996), 10.

Règlement de 1699, Demeulenaere-Douyère Christiane Briand Eric (eds), Règlement, usages et science dans la France de l'absolutisme (Paris, 2006), pp. xxiii–xxviii.

This sum would cover administration, experimental funds, publication, etc., with the remainder for pensions and gratifications for academicians. Bléchet Françoise , “L'abbé Bignon, president de l'Académie Royale des Sciences: Un demi-siècle de direction scientifique”, Demeulenaere-Douyère Brian (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), 51–69.

Maindron , op. cit. (ref. 19), 100–1.

Louis King XIV had died in 1715, when Philip of Orleans was appointed Regent until the young Louis XV came of age.

Bertrand Joseph , L'Académie des Sciences et les académiciens de 1666 à 1793 (Paris, 1869; reprinted Amsterdam, 1969), 85–87.

“Réflections sur l'utilité dont l'Académie des sciences pourroit être au royaume …”, Maindron , op. cit. (ref. 19), 196, 109.

Such a conclusion does not take into account the supplementary value of jetons, which, at least later in the century, was considerable.

Maindron , op. cit. (ref. 19), 114–19.

Hahn Roger , “Scientific careers in 18th-century France”, in Crosland M. (ed.), The emergence of science in Western Europe (London, 1975), 127–38, p. 131.

These petites pensions were also used to pay those involved in calculating the ephemerides for the astronomical almanac Connaissance des temps, of which a famous editor was Lalande (from 1760 to 1776). More information on petites pensions is apparently available in MS 114 in Cornell University, which I have not been able to consult.

Sonnenscher M. , Work and wages: Natural law, politics and 18th-century French trade (Cambridge, 1989), 203.

Lardit Mathilde , “Les concours de l'Académie des Sciences”, in Demeulenaere-Douyère Brian (eds), op. cit. (ref. 40), 381–90.

Crosland M. Galvez A. , “The emergence of research grants within the prize system of the French Academy of Sciences”, Social studies in science, xix (1989), 71–99, pp. 93, 86.

Brian Eric , “Une institution sans statuts: L'Académie Royale des Sciences de 1666 à 1699”, in Brian Demeulenaere-Douyère (eds), op. cit. (ref. 7), 13–24, p. 21.

McClellan J. E. , “The Académie Royale des Sciences, 1699–1793: A statistical portrait”, Isis, lxxii (1981), 541–67. More information of specific employment of academicians is given in Hahn, op. cit. (ref. 48), 133–4.

Useful information on employment (and occasionally income) of academicians is provided by Gillispie Charles C. , Science and polity in France at the end of the Old Regime (Princeton, NJ, 1980), 85–88, 132.

The eldest Geoffroy, Etienne (1672–1731), made important contributions to chemistry in the Academy, notably his table of elective affinities (1718).

Sturdy , op. cit. (ref. 10), chap. 20, especially pp. 334, 341. This huge sum is largely explained by the fact that the eighteenth-century Geoffroys were the descendants of a long line of successful apothecaries and, therefore, benefited from inherited wealth.

Duveen Denis I. Hahn Roger , “Laplace's succession to Bézout's post of Examinateur des Elèves de l'Artillerie”, Isis, xviii (1957), 416–27.

Nicole Dhombres Jean , Naissance d'un nouveau pouvoir: Sciences et savants en France 1793–1824 (Paris, 1989), 180.

Smeaton W. A. , Fourcroy: Chemist and revolutionary, 1755–1809 (London, 1962).

Sadoun-Goupil M. , Le chimiste Claude-Louis Berthollet, 1748–1822, sa vie, son oeuvre (Paris, 1977), 22.

Gillispie Charles C. , Science and polity in France: The revolutionary and Napoleonic years (Princeton, NJ, 2004), 106–7. Romme, with strong political instincts, later played an important part in devising the revolutionary calendar.

Tudesq A.-J. , Les grands notables en France (1840–49) (2 vols, Paris, 1964), i, 458.

Archives parlementaires, Série 1, xiii, 379.

Ibid., xiv, 242.

Ibid., xiii, 566. Charles used ‘inflammable air’ (hydrogen) instead of hot air to lift the balloon which carried him and Robert some thirty miles. The King, who had originally opposed this dangerous experiment, later awarded Charles an apartment in the Louvre. A recent article has studied the preference of the Academy for the hydrogen balloon: Kim Mi Gyung , “Public science: Hydrogen balloons and Lavoisier's decomposition of water”, Annals of science, lxiii (2006), 291–318.

Archives parlementaires, Série 1, xiii, 521.

Maindron , op. cit. (ref. 19), 117–18.

McCloy Shelby T. , Government assistance in eighteenth-century France (Philadelphia, 1946), chap. 14.

Rapports du Comité des Pensions à l'Assemblée Nationale (4 vols, Paris, 1790), i, 1.

Archives parlementaires, Série 1, xvii, 444.

Ibid., 445.

An exception was the Jardin du Roi which survived under a new constitution and a new name: Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle.

They could well have been thinking of the famous recent explorer, La Pérouse, sent on a voyage of discovery in 1785 by Louis XVI, never to return.

Hahn , op. cit. (ref. 28), 186.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 62), 206–9, 304 (although the original proposal had been to set up a body to give rewards to “hommes de lettres, savants et artistes”, Hahn, op. cit. (ref. 28), 186).

But classified as 1792 in the archives of the Academy.

Académie des Sciences Archives, Dossier de généralités, [wrongly labelled] 1792. Mémoire [sur les traitements], beginning at f. 2. There is also discussion of pensions in the Lavoisier dossier, fiches 875 and 889.

One of the regulations of 1699 stated that if an academician absented himself from Paris, this was as if he was dead as far as the Academy was concerned. As early as 1667 Huygens, in a letter to his brother, explained that absences from Paris were not permitted. Tits-Dieuaide (ref. 7, 1996), 7.

Guillaume J. , (ed.), Proces-verbaux du Comité d'Instruction Publique (6 vols, Paris, 1891–1957), i, 442n.

“une réclamation identique”, ibid.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), i, 442.

McKie Douglas , Antoine Lavoisier, scientist, economist, social reformer (London, 1952), 275; Grimaux Edouard , Lavoisier, 1743–94, 3rd edn (Paris, 1899), 232–3.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), i, 463.

It certainly took a very long time for junior academicians to reach the rank of pensionnaire and then it was only the senior one who earned a reasonable sum.

Lakanal listed the laws of 22 August 1790, 13 June and 25 July 1791 and 9 December 1792.

As reported by Lakanal, see Grimaux , op. cit. (ref. 83), 233.

Poirier Jean-Pierre , Lavoisier, chemist, biologist and economist (Philadelphia, 1996), 331.

McKie , op. cit. (ref. 83), 279; Grimaux , op. cit. (ref. 83), 239.

Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent , Oeuvres (6 vols, Paris, 1864–93), vi, 559–69.

McKie , op. cit. (ref. 83), 279.

“Réflexions sur l'instruction publique”, Lavoisier , op. cit. (ref. 90), vi, 516–58, p. 551.

Lavoisier , op. cit. (ref. 90), vi, 556.

Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 62), 182–3. Gillispie quotes from a text by Lakanal only published in 1838.

Smeaton , op. cit. (ref. 60), 11.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), iii, 97–105.

Fourcroy's politics may be judged from the initiative he took in the Academy of Sciences to demand the expulsion of members opposed to the revolution. The blatant intrusion of politics into a scientific assembly shocked most of his colleagues and his proposal was rejected. Smeaton , op. cit. (ref. 60), 46–47.

Without state support men of science would not be able to afford “des cabinets d'histoire naturelle, de physique, des laboratoires de chimie”, it being understood that these were the necessary tools of their job, Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), ii, 101.

“Que la plus belle récompense d'un savant, d'un poète, d'un artiste, soit d'être nourri dans sa vieillesse aux frais du peuple français”, ibid.

Réimpression de l'ancien Moniteur (Paris, 1794), xxii, 19 vendemiaire an 3, 182–93.

“Les savants ne demandent pas de richesses; la précieuse médiocrité d'Horace sera toujours leur devise”, ibid., 192.

“Or la verité ne mène point à la fortune”, Rousseau J. J. , Du contrat social, Livre 2, chap. 2.

de Warville Brissot , De la verité (Paris and Lyon, 1782), 177–8.

“Rapport et project sur l'établissement d'une Ecole Centrale de Santé à Paris”, op. cit. (ref. 100), 665.

The substitution of paper money for coins and the subsequent printing of large quantities of this paper money led to high inflation, reaching a peak in May 1796.

Marion Marcel , Histoire financière de la France depuis 1715 (6 vols, Paris, 1914–31), iii, 490–1.

Ibid.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), iv, 316, 362.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), v, 208.

The Écoles Centrales were advanced secondary schools established during the revolutionary period, one in each department. See, e.g. Barnard H. C. , Education in the French Revolution (Cambridge, 1969), chaps. 12, 13.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), vi, 579–81.

Guillaume , op. cit. (ref. 80), v, 330, 356.

The problem arose of whether a professor holding one salaried position should be denied a further salary for a second position. The law of 16 fructidor an 3 (2 September 1795) permitted “savans, gens de lettres et artistes de cumuler plusieurs traitemens pour raison d'instruction publique”.

Institut archives, 3A l, f. 59 (5 March 1796). We may note the similarity to the idea previously expressed by Grégoire, that a modicum was sufficient for savants.

The franc replaced the livre at the same value in 1794. However, the introduction of paper money (assignats) on a large scale led to serious inflation from March 1792 onwards, devaluing fixed pensions and salaries.

The Minister of the Interior had proposed 2000 francs but the Council of 500 considered that 1500 francs was sufficient. Aucoc L. , L'Institut de France (Paris, 1889), 37.

Ibid., 36.

When the Institute was founded it was tacitly appreciated that members could not live exclusively on their honoraria. Yet there was an attempt to limit the salaries from outside employment (Arrêté of 6 August 1796, Maindron , op. cit. (ref. 19), 184). However, this seems to have soon been forgotten.

Fourcy A. , Histoire de l'Ecole Polytechnique (Paris, 1828), 143–4. Fourcy does not identify the speaker.

In the nineteenth century the tenure of several teaching posts in Paris by senior scientists (often academicians) deprived the growing number of more junior scientists of positions. Also it produced an undesirable uniformity of lecture material, hardly beneficial to scientific debate.

Conseil des 500. Opinion de Jean-François Baraillon sur l'accumulation de places et de traitemens, ayant pour objet les arts, les sciences et l'instruction publique (Paris, Germinal an 5).

Crosland M. , Gay-Lussac, scientist and bourgeois (Cambridge, 1978), 230.

Dhombres N. Dhombres J. , op. cit. (ref. 59), 183.

Applied science was much better paid than pure science, Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 122), 230–1.

Dhombres N. Dhombres J. , op. cit. (ref. 59), 182.

Poirier , op. cit. (ref. 88).

Crosland , op. cit. (ref. 122), 266–7.

See, e.g., Gillispie , op. cit. (ref. 62), 444.

The only exception being part of the period of the Revolution when some extreme republicans condemned intellectual activity as an idle luxury.

Shapin Steven , “‘A scholar and gentleman’: The problematic identity of the scientific practitioner in early modern England”, History of science, xxix (1991), 279–327, pp. 294–315.

Crosland M. , “Research schools of chemistry from Lavoisier to Wurtz”, The British journal for the history of science, xxxvi (2003), 333–61, pp. 338–9, 342, 346, 360.

Hall Marie Boas , All scientists now: The Royal Society in the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1984).

Babbage Charles , Reflections on the decline of science in England and on some of its causes (London, 1830).

Brewster David , “The decline of science”, Quarterly review, xliii (1830), 305–42.

Ibid., 25–27.

MacLeod R. M. , “Science and the Civil List”, Technology and society, vi (1970), 47–55.

Such frank but undiplomatic language, although apparently reported in the Yorkshire Gazette, was tactfully removed from the official published report, Morrell Jack Thackray Arnold , Gentlemen of science (Oxford, 1981), 141.

The term ‘scientist’ was introduced in 1834 half seriously by William Whewell in a review of a book by Somerville Mary , Quarterly review, li (1834), 58–61.

MacLeod R. M. , “The Royal Society and the government grant: Notes on the administration of scientific research, 1849–1914”, The historical journal, xiv (1971), 323–58. See also Hall , op. cit. (ref. 132).

Lavoisier was guilty of a gross exaggeration. An authority on the history of Cambridge University in this period writes: “The stipend [of science professors] ranged from £99 to £300, modest sums even in 1830” ( Searby Peter , A history of the University of Cambridge, iii: 1730–1870 (Cambridge, 1997), 205). At the University of Edinburgh, where Lavoisier's correspondent Joseph Black was professor of chemistry, professors obtained most of their income from class fees. Any stipend was inevitably low ( Morrell Jack , “The University of Edinburgh in the 18th century”, Isis, lxii (1971), 1971–71).