In ancien regime France almost all posts of public responsibility had to be bought or inherited. Rather than tax their richer subjects directly, French kings preferred to sell them privileged public offices, which further payments allowed them to sell or bequeath at will. By the eighteenth century there were 70,000 venal offices, comprising the entire judiciary, most of the legal profession, officers in the army, and a wide range of other professions - from financiers handling the king's revenues down to auctioneers and even wigmakers. Though now yielding diminishing returns to the king, offices were more in demand than ever for the privileges and prestige, profit and power, that they conferred; and although it was widely accepted that selling public authority was undesirable, nobody imagined that those who had invested in offices could ever be bought out. The Revolution brought an unexpected opportunity to do so, but the legacy of venality has marked French institutions down to our day. William Doyle, one of the foremost historians of early modern Europe, has written the first comprehensive history of the last century of venality. He traces the evolution and dissolution of a system which was fundamental to the workings of state and society in France for over three centuries.
威廉·多伊尔，英国国家学术院院士，布里斯托尔大学历史教授（1986—2008），并曾任教于英国、法国和美国的多所大学；写有16部有关早期近代欧洲的史学著作，其中最有名的是《法国大革命的起源》和《牛津法国大革命史》，两书均已译成汉语。高毅，北京大学历史系教授，欧美史、法国近代史学者，著有《法兰西风格：大革命的政治文化》，参著《世界文明史》（北大版）《欧洲的分与合》《中外文化交流史》等多种学术作品，并有多种译著出版。高煜，安徽安庆石油化工总厂设计院退休工程师，翻译出版过包括《论人类不平等的起源与基础》《君主论》在内的大量英法文学术著作。