In 1338/9 the consuls of Montpellier addressed a supplication to the king of Majorca, in the hope of demonstrating that the merchants of their home town were exempt from the commercial taxes levied by royal officials at Collioure and in Mallorca. The documentation concerning this case has been examined by Guy Romestan, who had the additional advantage of notes left by another distinguished Languedoc historian, Jean Combes; but it was not apparently known to the earlier historians of Montpellier such as Germain, Thomas and Baumel, nor by Lecoy de la Marche. Moreover, the larger of the key documents in this case is no longer accessible, though other important material exists to demonstrate how the supplication was handled at court.

The interest of these documents stems from the practical problem of how Montpellier was to exercise commercial privileges within a kingdom where its own status differed significantly from the other territories such as Roussillon, Cerdagne and the Balearics themselves. It has been seen that in Montpellier the king was dominus, under the suzerainty of the king of France, who had bought out the rights of the bishop of Maguelonne in 1293 and who was also direct lord, since then, of the suburb of Montpelliéret;