《旧制度与大革命·卷二·第二十章·革命自然从既有事实中产生》第11节
In Languedoc many public works were executed at the expense of the King and his agents. There were other public works, for which the Central Government provided the funds and partly directed the execution, but the greater part of them were executed at the expense of the province alone. When the King had approved the plan and authorised the estimates for these last-mentioned works, they were executed by officers chosen by the Estates, and under the inspection of commissioners taken from this Assembly. Lastly, the province had the right of levying itself, and in the manner it preferred, a part of the royal taxes and all the rates which were imposed by its own authority for its own wants. Let us see the results which Languedoc continued to extract from these privileges: they deserve a minute attention. Nothing is more striking in the other parts of France--the pays d’élection--than the almost complete absence of local charges. The general imposts were frequently oppressive, but a province spent nothing on itself. In Languedoc, on the contrary, the annual expenditure of the province on public works was enormous; in 1780 it exceeded two millions of livres. The Central Government was sometimes alarmed at witnessing so vast an outlay. It feared that the province, exhausted by such an effort, would be unable to acquit the share of the taxes due to the State; it blamed the Estates for not moderating this expenditure. I have read a document, framed by the Assembly, in answer to these animadversions: the passages I am about to transcribe from it will depict, better than all I could say, the spirit which animated this small Government.
注释摘要
托克维尔在这一段里拿朗格多克省作为一面镜子，照出旧制度下两种截然不同的行政逻辑。他把朗格多克这个等级会议省份跟王国的财政区做对比，焦点落在“谁来决定把钱花在哪里、由谁来花”这个根本权力上。在普通财政区，省几乎不为自己支出分文，所有税收无论多么沉重都是流向中央，地方公共生活因此枯萎。翻过来看朗格多克，省里每年有巨额的公程开支，1780年就超过两百万里弗，这本…