Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I will show how a particular space, namely the highways in the Lyonnais Region in the 18th, were ‘produced’ by the interaction of trade, social tensions over fiscal issues, and the operations of a state institution charged with social and territorial control, the Maréchaussée.

Paper long abstract:

The Lyonnais region in the 18th century was located at the centre of the French kingdom's main transportation routes, called les grands chemins. These pre-modern highways were populated by individuals and goods moving on and across them. The maréchaussée, the main police force of the French Monarchy, was in charge of policing such mobility, the grands chemins being its main territory of jurisdiction.

This paper will show how the grands chemins were 'produced' by a wealth of actors. Some were merchants animating the small distance trade between Lyon and the countryside. Some were travellers that were part of long distance trade that traversed the Lyonnais region but went beyond its boarders. Some were Bourgeois of Lyon interested in manipulating these highways for financial reasons (they were relevant for taxation, as I will explain).

This paper will then be able to show how these different actors and networks acted and interacted in unexpected ways with the result of shaping a space that represented an important state jurisdiction. It will also address the central role of the maréchaussée in such processes.

By proposing a methodologically innovative study of social space, this paper also challenges traditional narratives of state formation. When considered from the standpoint of my case study, the establishment of social control on the part of the state does not appear as following a well-defined national project: my study points out the influence that local and global networks of actors, by modifying social space, had on a fundamental process of state-formation.