Review: Sébastien Évrard, L’or de Napoléon. Sa stratégie patrimoniale (1806-1814). Paris: L’Harmattan, 2014. 168 pp. Maps, tables, figures, notes, bibliography, and index. 18€ (pb). ISBN 978-2-343-02568-1.
Reviewed by Gemma Betros,
"...the book’s focus is... [on] the Comité des affaires contentieuses de la Couronne, or for short, the Committee of Contentious Affairs. Founded in April 1806, its role was to cast an expert legal eye over all property transactions involving the emperor and make sure they conformed to the 1804 Civil Code, rebranded in 1807 as the Code Napoléon. For Napoleon was ostensibly as subject to the Code as any other citizen: a critical factor, argues Évrard, in sustaining the popularity and legitimacy of his rule...."