The towns of Picardy were confronted in a markedly direct way by the demands of the state and its military administration in the sixteenth century. The high levels of direct royal taxation which prevailed later in the reign of Louis XI were relaxed under his successors, but began to rise again in the semipermanent war conditions after 1521, though not steeply until the 1550s. In the course of this, the balance of taxation shifted from direct to indirect, and the exemptions of the towns were gradually abridged by new sorts of taxes and special loans. Picardy, though it had no estates to protect its interests, was relatively lightly burdened by direct taxes as a result first, of the need to conciliate interests, and then to offset the effects of war. The newer urban levies of the 1540s and 1550s, however, contributed to debts which aggravated the economic effects of war in the form of demands for military supplies. To explain the complex nature of these developments, it will be useful to examine the framework within which they were shaped.

The administrative structures

Though there has been much debate about the extent to which administrative frontiers in early modern France were clearly defined, there is no doubt about the massive complexity of the layers of administration which existed by the middle of the sixteenth century. Above all, this is the case in financial districts, which were bedevilled by arcane procedures and bewildering enclaves.