, the
Tuileries and Chambord, with their parks and hunting-grounds, their
governors, inspectors, comptrollers, concierges, fountain tenders,
gardeners, sweepers, scrubbers, mole-catchers, wood-rangers, mounted
and foot-guards, in all more than a thousand persons. Naturally he
entertains, plans and builds, and, in this way expends 3 or 4 millions
per annum.[2122] Naturally, also, he repairs and renews his furniture;
in 1778, which is an average year, this costs him 1,936,853 livres.
Naturally, also, he takes his guests along with him and defrays their
expenses, they and their attendants; at Choisy, in 1780, there are
sixteen tables with 345 seats besides the distributions; at Saint-Cloud,
in 1785, there are twenty-six tables; "an excursion to Marly of
twenty-one days is a matter of 120,000 livres extra expense;" the
excursion to Fontainebleau has cost as much as 400,000 and 500,000
livres. His removals, on the average, cost half a million and more per
annum.[2123]--To complete our idea of this immense paraphernalia it
must be borne in mind that the artisans and merchants belonging to these
various official bodies are obliged; through the privileges they enjoy,
to follow the court "on its journeys that it may be provided on the spot
with apothecaries, armorers, gunsmiths, sellers of silken and
woollen hosiery, butchers, bakers, embroiderers, publicans, cobblers,
belt-makers, candle-makers, hatters, pork-dealers, surgeons, shoemakers,
curriers, cooks, pinkers, gilders and engravers, spur-makers,
sweetmeat-dealers, furbishers, old-clothes brokers, glove-perfumers,
watchmakers, booksellers, linen-drapers, wholesale and retail
wine-dealers, carpenters, coarse-jewelry haberdashers, jewellers,
parchment-makers, dealers in trimmings, chicken-roasters, fish-dealers,
purveyors of hay, straw and oats, hardware-sellers, saddlers, tailors,
gingerbread and starch-dealers, fruiterers, dealers in glass and in
violins."[2124] One might call it an oriental court which, to be set
in motion, moves an entire world: "when it is to move one must, if one
wants to travel anywhere, take the post in well in advance." The total
is near 4,000 persons for the king's civil household, 9,000 to 10,000
for his military household, at least 2,000 for those of his relatives,
in all 15,000 individuals, at a cost of between forty and fifty million
livres, which would be equal to double the amount to day, and which, at
that time, constituted one-tenth of the pu