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1000 Livres Tournois
| Issuer | Intendance Générale des Colonies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1788 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress note printed in black on cream paper, enclosed within a continuous ornate engraved border of floral motifs and scrollwork along all four sides. The heading ISLES DE FRANCE ET DE BOURBON runs across the top in uppercase letterpress, beneath which the body text in roman and italic type invokes legal tender status under the Royal Edict of 10 June 1788; the denomination MILLE LIVRES appears in bold letterpress within a solid black rectangular panel at centre. The printed facsimile signatures of De Vaivre, Intendant général des Colonies, and Le Brasseur, Intendant général des fonds de la Marine & des Colonies, occupy the lower corners. |
|---|---|
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| Signature(s) | De Vaivre and Le Brasseur |
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| Comments |
The Intendance Générale des Colonies issued colonial livres tournois notes under royal authority to manage chronic specie shortages across France's Caribbean possessions — a problem that had plagued Saint-Domingue, Martinique, and Guadeloupe for most of the eighteenth century. Hard coin consistently drained out of the colonies through trade imbalances, leaving administrators dependent on paper instruments that local merchants accepted only under duress.
1788 was a particularly fraught moment to be issuing high-denomination colonial paper. The French crown's finances were visibly collapsing, and confidence in any royal obligation — metropolitan or colonial — was deteriorating fast. Within a year the Revolution would render the issuing authority itself extinct.
De Vaivre served as Intendant of Saint-Domingue; Le Brasseur's countersignature indicates dual administrative authorization, a safeguard against unilateral overissuance.