Hi I'd say it refers to the currency unit, in both cases. dix sous par livre pour tous droits de sorties du Royaume à l'étranger" : 10 "sous" per £ for all export duties from Kingdom to foreign countries. We'd now have a 10 % duty.
Le Havre expédie annuellement pour 630 000 livres de dentelles d'or et d'argent et pour 70 000 livres de dentelles de soie noire". Le havre ships annually for £630 000 of gold & silver lace, and for £70 000 of black silk lace. It does not make much sense to estimate the silk shipped out in weight. The livre had many different values over the centuries, also depending on the areas of France. Hope this helps Dominique in Paris Date: Sat, 01 Jul 2006 10:42:46 -0700 From: Adele Shaak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [lace] French help needed Hi everybody: I'm reading the book "Dentelles Normandes: La Blonde de Caen" and I keep running into one problem. Like the English, the French historically used the same word, "livre" to refer to a pound in weight and to refer to a unit of currency (which I think is the same as what is now called the franc). So, when I read things like "à l'avenir toutes les Dentelles indistinctement, ne payeront que dix sous par livre pour tous droits de sorties du Royaume à l'étranger" does it mean the charge was ten sous for each pound (weight) of lace or ten sous for each franc the lace cost? Another sentence is "Le Havre expédie annuellement pour 630 000 livres de dentelles d'or et d'argent et pour 70 000 livres de dentelles de soie noire". Does that mean lace with a value of 630,000 francs or lace that weighs 630 000 pounds? Even if it is made of gold or silver, 630,000 pounds of lace sounds to me like an awful lot even for 22,000 lacemakers. I'm confused. Can any of our French members help? - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
