For the French statesman, see Antoine de Sartine

Antoine de Sartine

Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de Sartine, comte d'Alby was a French statesman who served as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris during the reign of Louis XV and as Secretary of State for the Navy under King Louis XVI.-Origins:Antoine de Sartine was born in Barcelona in 1729, the son of...

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Antoine Sartine (1681–1744), later known as Antonio de Sartine, was a French-born financier

Financier

Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...

 and Spanish administrator.

Born in Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, within a family of shopkeepers, he became acquainted with some financiers and made a fortune supplying the troops of the French-born king Philip V of Spain

Philip V of Spain

Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...

 during the War of the Spanish Succession

War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession was fought among several European powers, including a divided Spain, over the possible unification of the Kingdoms of Spain and France under one Bourbon monarch. As France and Spain were among the most powerful states of Europe, such a unification would have...

 (1701–1714). Supplying troops in time of war was often how fortunes were built in those days. Antoine Sartine was only following in the steps of other financiers enriched by supplying troops, such as the Pâris family who were related to the famous Marquise de Pompadour

Madame de Pompadour

Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...

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Antoine Sartine moved into Spain following the troops of Philip V. He was quite in favor with the king, and in 1715 he became a member of the General Revenues (Rentas Generales) administration. In 1718 he acceded to the office of councilor in the Finance Council (Consejo de Hacienda) and was ennobled, becoming Antonio de Sartine. Eventually, in 1726 he was appointed intendente

Intendente

Governors in the various Provinces of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.In addition to governors, the following list intends to give an overview of colonial units of the provincial level; therefore it also includes some offices of similar rank, especially the intendant...

(i.e. governor) of Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

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The autonomous institutions of Catalonia had been abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees

Nueva Planta decrees

The Nueva Planta decrees were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V—the first Bourbon king of Spain—during and shortly after the end of the War of the Spanish Succession which he won....

 at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, in which Catalonia had sided against Philip V, and so Catalonia was now largely ruled by the intendente sent by Madrid. Antonio de Sartine was thus the effective ruler of Catalonia for almost two decades, from 1726 until his death in 1744.

Antonio de Sartine is most remembered as the architect of the ordenanza (edict) bearing his name (December 20, 1735) which completely reformed the cadastre

Cadastre

A cadastre , using a cadastral survey or cadastral map, is a comprehensive register of the metes-and-bounds real property of a country...

 in Catalonia. With this ordenanza, Sartine launched a profound reform which updated the cadastre registers, systematized land taxation, and clarified the tax liability of members of the Church and the administrative mechanisms of the tax itself, endowing the system with a degree of quality, reliability, and equity which it had previously lacked.

Antonio de Sartine married Catherine Wilts, Countess of Alby, lady-in-waiting

Lady-in-waiting

A lady-in-waiting is a female personal assistant at a royal court, attending on a queen, a princess, or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman from a family highly thought of in good society, but was of lower rank than the woman on whom she...

 to the Queen, who was the daughter of Charles Wilts, Secretary of State for the Kingdom of Ireland. He was the father of French statesman Antoine de Sartine

Antoine de Sartine

Antoine Raymond Jean Gualbert Gabriel de Sartine, comte d'Alby was a French statesman who served as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris during the reign of Louis XV and as Secretary of State for the Navy under King Louis XVI.-Origins:Antoine de Sartine was born in Barcelona in 1729, the son of...

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