GABRIEL AUDISIO, "THE SURVEILLANCE OF ALPINE PASSES IN THE YEAR 1685"
France, the largest and most highly populated European state in the 17th century, had to face two facts under Louis XIV: growth in population and the anti-protestant policy of the King. In 1685 his policy culminated in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by means of which both the protestant religion within the realm and exile were forbidden. The two alpine border provinces, Provence and Dauphiné, had each a protestant minority. From the correspondence between the provincial administrators and the ministers we can gauge the unease that the guarding of the alpine passes caused them. Despite all measures to prevent a Huguenot exodus via the Savoyan mountains into the Swiss Confederation and German territories, one fifth of all protestants from the Provence and one third of those from the Dauphiné succeeded in fleeing. This case study illustrates the vanity of a policy with insufficient means and the hazard of frontier closure in mountainous country.
ALAIN BELMONT, "THE ARTISAN AND THE FRONTIER: THE EXAMPLE OF THE HEMP-COMBERS IN THE BRIANÇONNAIS IN THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES"
Among the numerous seasonal migrations that took place in the French Alps, that of the hemp-combers from the Briançonnais (Dauphiné, department Haute-Alpes) is undoubtedly one of the most important and, paradoxically, least known. This migration concerned a relatively narrow area, restricted to the upper valley of the River Durance. In the villages concerned, however, the majority of the men, in fact almost the whole male population, took part in it. The destinations were low-lying regions of the Dauphiné, districts round Lyons and in Burgundy, and especially neighbouring Piedmont. In the 18th century the piedmontese destinations then declined strongly in favour of nearby, but also over 400 kms distant French destinations. What were the causes of the change? The wars in Italy? The frontier fixing in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713? A new socio-cultural context in France? These hypotheses are discussed in the article. What is certain is that the
