Felicia Gottmann: Archival Research in Paris 21 Jan – 10 Feb 2013
Most of this trip was dedicated to studying the immense collection of documents emanating from
the old-regime French ministry of finance, in particular those relating to the administration of trade
and commerce as presided over by the Bureau and Council of commerce contained in the series F12,
now largely housed in the newly opened section of the French National Archives in Pierrefite sur
Seine, north of Paris.
I focussed on several areas relating to Indian imported textiles and their European imitations:
political economy; the management and functioning of the prohibition; and finally understanding,
encouraging, and managing cotton printing and weaving technology.
For the first, the minutes and judgements of the council of commerce were the most important, but
I also found some further tracts, letters, and pamphlets by the French textile lobby opposed to the
import and production of printed cottons which complement those I already gathered during my
stay in Lyon. Together with journal articles and other printed materials which are available digitally
online, these should now make the necessary primary evidence for the third chapter of my
envisaged monograph complete.
The second is another area on which I had already gathered a lot of evidence, contained in the draft
of my second chapter. The material I found in the series F12, should now make this sufficiently wideranging. There is further evidence in the minutes of the council meetings which I have not managed
to look at in the time I had, but which, thanks to a very detailed inventory of that sub-series, I will at
least be able to reference.
The third area is one on which I had so far the thinnest collection of archival materials and it was
thus what occupied me most. I focussed on two areas in particular, the supervision, control, and
encouragement of the nascent post-prohibition cotton industry conducted by the council of
commerce through both its inspecteurs de manufactures and direct interventions by workshop
owners; and the testing, evaluation, and eventual placet for application of new procedures,
particularly of printing and dyeing, by members of the Academy of Sciences employed by the Council
of Commerce.
To do so, I focussed on three actors: State administrators, Scientists, and manufacturers. For the
latter, my interest particularly lay in the attempts to arrive at ‘oriental’ standards of cotton spinning,
weaving, and dyeing and the different methods used: experimentation, spying on other European
manufactures, applying codified knowledge from the east, or employing foreign workers, both
European and Ottoman, and Indian. In terms of State administration, I investigated the granting of
patents and gratifications, which were usually dependent on a favourable report by the third group,
those members of the Academy of Sciences who worked for and with the Council of Commerce to
advise them on textile technologies, in particular Du Fay, Hellot, Macquer, and Berthollet.
This last group also led me to broaden my research and include looking at the papers left by these
scientists, held partly at the National Archives, but also in Academy of Sciences, the National Library
(BNF) and, in the case of Hellot, in the municipal library of Caen, to which I took a day trip towards
the end of my stay. There I was very happy to find evidence that Hellot had indeed used some of the
treatises sent by one of the my case studies whom I had found material on in the Aix archives, a
French East India Company surgeon in India who had sent copious information back on indigenous
dyeing techniques.
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Finally, I also used some of my time in Paris to visit some museums and exhibitions housing
collections relevant to early-modern textile production and usage, as well as Asian export art (for
details see below).
Mon 21 Jan
Arrival
Tue 22 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Wed 23 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Thurs 24 Jan
Gobelins workshop and enclosure visit and guided tour
(http://www.mobiliernational.culture.gouv.fr/fr/histoire/histoire)
Fri 25 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Sat 26 Jan
Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12) ; meeting with Florence de Souza (possible coorganisation of a conference panel on knowledge gathering in early-modern India)
Sun 27 Jan
-
Mon 28 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Tue 29 Jan
Sorbonne University Research library: consultation of a PhD thesis on the French
trade in Indian chintzes
Wed 30 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Thurs 31 Jan
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12)
Fri 1 Feb
Sorting materials already found
Sat 2 Feb
Sun 3 Feb
-
Mon 4 Feb
National Archives, central Paris (microfilms of Series F12 not available as originals)
Tue 5 Feb
National Archives, central Paris (microfilms of Series F12 not available as originals)
Wed 6 Feb
Academy of Sciences Archives and National Library (BNF) for papers of chemists
working for the council of commerce
Thurs 7 Feb
National Archives, Pierrefite sur Seine (Series F12) ;
visit of the Musée Guimet (Asian Art and Applied Arts)
(http://www.guimet.fr/fr/);
visit of the LACMA exhibition ‘Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail 17001915) at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs
(http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/english-439/accueil-710/une-715/english439/exhibitions/current-events#fashioning)
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Fri 8 Feb
Trip to Caen to examine the papers by the Chemist and Academician Hellot held
there
Sat 9 Feb
BNF consultation of the remaining papers of Macquer
Sun 10 Feb
Departure
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