Between Oléron and Colbert: The Evolution of French Maritime Law until the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

When approaching the history of maritime laws and seamen’s legislation in France, most authors refer automatically, on the one hand, to the twelfth-century Rôles d’Oléron and, on the other, to Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s 1681 Ordonnance de la Marine. However, it is hard to conceive that merchant-shipping actors and port cities could work without accurate and evolving laws when their inland-city colleagues already had legislation. In fact, in the five centuries between these two texts legislation did not remain static, particularly in a maritime world in constant change.

I would like to thank Maria Fusaro, Richard Blakemore and Tijl Vanneste; Brad Loewen for the translation, and the Archives départementales des Bouches du Rhône in Marseille for assistance with research.