Les marchands du temple. Les boutiques du Palais de justice de Paris aux XVIe-XVIIIe siècles

[n° 674, 2015/2]Under the Old regime, the Palais de Justice, located in the island of la Cité, in the heart of Paris, is the most antique royal house, even if the king no longer lives there. It strongly symbolizes the kings’ power of justice and hosts many royal courts. However, it is also a real shopping center with hundreds of shops (nearly 600 in 1700). There are luxury items (jewelry, laces, gloves), books, but also small catering trades. Using the archives of the royal domain, this article points out that the monarchy has deliberately arranged his palace to allow this trade development. She has changed the status of property (with aliénation process), has increased the number of stores and authorized new constructions. She associates merchants to manage this space, while judges have little interest in this business. The town planning of the monarchy is not limited to the construction of prestige or embellishment. But the king can not fundamentally alter the operating of this places of trade. The property values, that we can know through many aliénations, sales and rental shops, indicate two trends. The first trend is a strong differentiation between the different parts of the palace: the old galleries (mainly the salle des merciers) are worth a lot more expensive than the inner court-yards or than the streets around. The second trend is a strong change over time: property values increase during the 17th century, until about 1680. They then declined throughout the 18th century. The definitive transfer of the shops to the merchants during the 1670s – measure to promote trade and integration between the parts of the palace – does not counterbalance that the upper class, and above all the nobility who form the bulk of the clientele, are moving away from the Cité during the reign of Louis XV, and are going to the west of Paris or to Versailles. The changes in the social life of the capital are stronger than the royal decisions and they determine the evolution of the Palace.Sous l’Ancien régime, le Palais de justice de Paris est la demeure du roi qui matérialise le mieux son pouvoir judiciaire. Mais il s’agit également d’un véritable centre commercial composé de centaines de boutiques, proposant nombre d’articles de luxe. Fondé sur le dépouillement des archives du Domaine, cet article décrit la densification commerciale des bâtiments au cours des XVIe-XVIIIe siècles. En exploitant cette fraction singulière de son patrimoine, la monarchie met en effet en œuvre une véritable politique d’aménagement en favorisant l’emprise marchande. Les boutiquiers acquièrent ainsi des droits sur le Palais qu’ils cogèrent au quotidien. L’urbanisme royal ne saurait donc se limiter aux constructions de prestige et d’embellissement. Reste que les nombreuses créations de boutiques que la royauté encourage au cours du XVIIe siècle ne parviennent pas à modifier sérieusement les usages et lo­giques économiques des lieux. Les valeurs foncières que les aliénations, les ventes et les locations permettent de reconstituer indiquent le maintien d’une hiérarchie ancienne entre les différents secteurs du Palais. Elles indiquent en outre un déclin inexorable de cet espace au cours du XVIIIe siècle, sous l’effet de l’éloignement des élites sociales. - URL : www.cairn.info/revue-historique-2015-2-page-323.htm. DOI : 10.3917/rhis.152.0323