Généralité

Recettes générales, commonly known as généralités (French pronunciation: [ʒeneʁalite] ⓘ), were the administrative divisions of France under the Ancien Régime and are often considered to prefigure the current préfectures.

Initially fiscal, their role steadily increased to become by the late 17th century — under the authority of an intendant (reporting to the Controller-General of Finances) — the very framework of royal administration and centralisation.

Reforms in the 14th and 15th centuries saw France's royal financial administration run by two financial boards which worked in a collegial manner: the four généraux des finances (also called général conseiller or receveur général ) oversaw the collection of taxes (taille, aides, gabelle, etc.)

The four members of each board were divided by geographical circumscriptions (although the term généralité is not found before the end of the 15th century); the areas were named Languedoïl (center and southwest of the country), Languedoc (Languedoc, Lyonnais, Forez, Beaujolais), Outre-Seine-et-Yonne (Île-de-France, Champagne), and Normandy (the latter was created in 1449[citation needed]; the other three were created earlier), with the directors of the Languedoïl region typically having an honorific preeminence.

In the 16th century, the kings of France, in an effort to exert a more direct control over royal finances and to circumvent the double-board (accused of poor oversight), instituted numerous administrative reforms, including the restructuring of the financial administration and an increase in the number of généralités.