Below is my translation, assisted by Google Translate (but requiring extensive corrections!) and Franco, of the last - at least for now - of a series of reports on playing card regulations and state bureaucracy in the Grand Duchy in the period after 1750, posted in Italian at https://www.naibi.net/A/FI1843.pdf. The previous one reported various control measures to "reduce fraud, searches, and trials" while at the same time bringing in tax revenue from playing cards. However, at least one of them seems to have resulted in many more, at least of fines and trials, against travelers who wanted to bring a deck or two of cards into the Grand Duchy for personal use. Officials' conscientious efforts to correct the matter, moreover, seem to have produced a bureaucratic tangle.
I have combined Franco's one
footnote and with his twelve endnotes and put them all at the bottom of
the corresponding pages of his pdf (the numbers in the left margin). My
translator's notes are in brackets. This translation also appears at https://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=26416#p26416.
Florence 1843-1845. Foreign cards and bureaucracy
Franco Pratesi
1. Introduction
Years ago, I searched various collections of the State Archives of Florence, looking for documents on playing cards in Tuscany, and especially in Florence. For the Grand Ducal and post-unification periods, I then collected the main results in two books.[note 1] I recently identified other collections with useful documents. In this study, the material under examination is No. 89 of the collection Capirotti di Finanza – Finance Accounts. In particular, I studied two files concerning the control of foreign cards in the years 1843-1845.
The interest of these documents is that they deal with difficult-to-resolve questions on alternative interpretations of the relevant law, dating back to 1816. In combating the smuggling of playing cards, the law did not differ much from those which tended to prosecute the smuggling of salt and tobacco. First, the law prescribed a penalty of 25 lire for each deck of foreign cards discovered in the luggage of a traveler within the grand duchy. This provoked considerable protests from foreigners in transit who owned their own deck of cards and used it as a pastime. Therefore, the need was emerging on the part of customs officers to distinguish cases by number of decks, and above all between new and used cards, in order to be able to adapt the punishment for smaller cases.
The problem, as usual, is that reasonable solutions to the problems of interpretation of the law require the approval of several higher bodies, up to and including the opinion and pronouncement of the Grand Duke himself. So we are witnessing an exchange of correspondence between different offices, among which it is not even easy for us to understand the hierarchical relationships, largely clouded in the written testimony by the formulas of deference that abound both up and down.
I considered it useful to transcribe the documentation preserved in this regard in the first file, precisely to provide an overview of the environment from an internal point of view.
But the matter does not end here, because there is a second file that completes the observation of the environment. Also in this case, there is an exchange of correspondence between the various directors of the offices interested in the same problem of control over foreign playing cards. However, in this case the approach is practically the opposite. In the first case, the Florentine central offices had to examine a proposal from an office in Livorno to lighten the sentences. In this second case, the proposal, again put into practice in Livorno, tended instead to aggravate the same penalties.
There was in fact a substantial difference between the penalties on playing cards and those on salt and tobacco. In other cases, the offender who did not have the necessary amount of money to deposit as security (or who, despite having the money, did not intend to deposit it) was arrested and brought to trial. This procedure was not foreseen for playing cards, and in this case it was possible for the offender not to pay, and only be deprived of the playing cards, to the detriment of the treasury. Then, in a manner deemed arbitrary by other offices, the director of the Livorno office gave instructions to the customs guards and the other employees involved to deal with cards as with salt and tobacco.
We thus witness the request for opinions from multiple offices, with the typical response that the proposal could also be accepted if, and only if, validated by a specific amendment to the law being approved by the Grand Duke. For this second case, I do not transcribe all the correspondence preserved because that of the first case is already sufficient to convey the idea of the formal system of the search for a convergence of opinions; that is, I limit myself to the selection of a few letters.
_________________
1. Card games in the Florentine republic. Ariccia 2016; Playing-Card Production in Florence. Tricase 2018.
2
2. Proposal for lesser penalties
The topic has already been indicated in the Introduction. I transcribe the correspondence directly below, inserting some comments at the end.
2. The period after the numbers was usually inserted at the time and I respect it in the transcription. [Trans. note: for the translation, the periods have been replaced with “th,” “st,” “nd,” or “rd.”]
3. This is a note added, on the fly, on the upper margin of the letter, without particular attention to spelling. The office is perhaps the Finance Secretariat, but the higher hierarchical level is evident.
4. In various subsequent comments and proposals it will be asked that travelers always be warned about this law, directly upon first entry into the Grand Duchy.
5. The proposer does not intend to commit an abuse: either his proposal is approved from above and made legally valid, or he is given instructions in this regard. In the second case, it is understood that a response of respecting the old law to the letter would be inconvenient.
6. I moved this line here. However, in all these official letters, the final formula with the signature is inserted in the lower right margin of the page, detached from the rest.
3
7. A single deck of cards, brought back to today, would suggest a nuclear warhead.
8. Agents risk making mistakes, however they behave, if they are not reassured from above.
9. A new and more useful progression is introduced. However, the jump from 20 lire for two decks to 75 for three remains high, but in other cases the possession of three decks is already considered an indication of fraud.
4
The file under review contains a dozen letters, often copies, under the common title of Transgressions of the Playing Cards Law. 7 December 1844 - 29 May 1845. This is a selection in which we can follow, with some exceptions, the chronological order, but where we find neither the initial nor the final documents in the case in question. I therefore allow myself to make a further selection
_____________________
10. This suggestion seems logical, but is only encountered here.
11. Outside the office, epicheia would be called exemption.
12. This appears to be the most solid argument. The severity is directly justifiable: long and expensive life for the Grand Duke.
5
of the letters by copying some of them here, in a sufficient number to make the exchange of correspondence between the various offices involved clear. The functioning of the administration presents an unexpected contrast between very rapid exchanges of official correspondence, right from one day to the next, alongside delays of months.
6
13. The sequence of six verbs in the sentence is a record for polite formulas.
7
4. Conclusion
On the control of foreign cards within the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, two bureaucratic problems to be resolved have been encountered, which appear not only different but with opposite deviations from the norm: in one case the penalties are lightened, in the other they are aggravated. Both cases encounter similar bureaucratic delays, even if forms of courtesy and respect, if not downright veneration, are used to the highest degree in correspondence between offices. Sooner or later a solution will have been found, but it seems clear that the Tuscan bureaucracy had not reached a level of agile functioning in those years, despite the Leopoldian reforms first and those introduced by the French afterwards.
Florence, 02.01.2024
Florence 1843-1845. Foreign cards and bureaucracy
Franco Pratesi
1. Introduction
Years ago, I searched various collections of the State Archives of Florence, looking for documents on playing cards in Tuscany, and especially in Florence. For the Grand Ducal and post-unification periods, I then collected the main results in two books.[note 1] I recently identified other collections with useful documents. In this study, the material under examination is No. 89 of the collection Capirotti di Finanza – Finance Accounts. In particular, I studied two files concerning the control of foreign cards in the years 1843-1845.
The interest of these documents is that they deal with difficult-to-resolve questions on alternative interpretations of the relevant law, dating back to 1816. In combating the smuggling of playing cards, the law did not differ much from those which tended to prosecute the smuggling of salt and tobacco. First, the law prescribed a penalty of 25 lire for each deck of foreign cards discovered in the luggage of a traveler within the grand duchy. This provoked considerable protests from foreigners in transit who owned their own deck of cards and used it as a pastime. Therefore, the need was emerging on the part of customs officers to distinguish cases by number of decks, and above all between new and used cards, in order to be able to adapt the punishment for smaller cases.
The problem, as usual, is that reasonable solutions to the problems of interpretation of the law require the approval of several higher bodies, up to and including the opinion and pronouncement of the Grand Duke himself. So we are witnessing an exchange of correspondence between different offices, among which it is not even easy for us to understand the hierarchical relationships, largely clouded in the written testimony by the formulas of deference that abound both up and down.
I considered it useful to transcribe the documentation preserved in this regard in the first file, precisely to provide an overview of the environment from an internal point of view.
But the matter does not end here, because there is a second file that completes the observation of the environment. Also in this case, there is an exchange of correspondence between the various directors of the offices interested in the same problem of control over foreign playing cards. However, in this case the approach is practically the opposite. In the first case, the Florentine central offices had to examine a proposal from an office in Livorno to lighten the sentences. In this second case, the proposal, again put into practice in Livorno, tended instead to aggravate the same penalties.
There was in fact a substantial difference between the penalties on playing cards and those on salt and tobacco. In other cases, the offender who did not have the necessary amount of money to deposit as security (or who, despite having the money, did not intend to deposit it) was arrested and brought to trial. This procedure was not foreseen for playing cards, and in this case it was possible for the offender not to pay, and only be deprived of the playing cards, to the detriment of the treasury. Then, in a manner deemed arbitrary by other offices, the director of the Livorno office gave instructions to the customs guards and the other employees involved to deal with cards as with salt and tobacco.
We thus witness the request for opinions from multiple offices, with the typical response that the proposal could also be accepted if, and only if, validated by a specific amendment to the law being approved by the Grand Duke. For this second case, I do not transcribe all the correspondence preserved because that of the first case is already sufficient to convey the idea of the formal system of the search for a convergence of opinions; that is, I limit myself to the selection of a few letters.
_________________
1. Card games in the Florentine republic. Ariccia 2016; Playing-Card Production in Florence. Tricase 2018.
2
2. Proposal for lesser penalties
The topic has already been indicated in the Introduction. I transcribe the correspondence directly below, inserting some comments at the end.
________________Commendatore Administrator General of the Royal [RR = plural] Revenues
Give your opinion The 23rd [note 2] Sept. 1843. Pelli Fabbroni [note 3]
To His Excellency Signore Cavaliere Gran Croce
Francesco Cempini
Current Intimate Advisor on State, Finance, and War
Director of the Royal Finances and the Royal General Depository
Excellency
The systematic Law for the Playing Card Enterprise issued on the 25th August 1816 subjects any Violator to a fine of Twenty-five Lire for each deck, as prescribed by the same Law in relation to the prohibition on introducing Foreign Cards into Tuscany even for simple transit.
Experience has justified that while it is important for the prosperity of the same Enterprise that the provisions of the specified Law are kept in strict observance whenever it involves a real transgression, which is aimed at causing fraud and prejudice to the Royal [R = singular] Finance, there are however cases in which the excessively rigorous application of the same Law could take on the appearance of harassment, especially in the face of foreigners who keep only one or two decks of Playing Cards, and those they introduce to use for their pastime and entertainment and to deceive, as people say, the boredom of travel. More especially, it occurs when people of some distinction, free from the suspicion of wanting to dedicate themselves to the petty trafficking of said playing cards, keep one or two decks already used without having been warned when entering Tuscany that they [note 4] cannot make any use of them. Therefore, to obviate any idea of harassment in this regard, and to moderate the penalty of the fine where there can be no doubt of malicious intent on the part of the Violator, I have taken the liberty of compiling the following detailed instructions, which I submit to the superior wisdom of Your Excellency, so that if you deem it appropriate, you may deign to invoke the eminent Sovereign approval, or be pleased to descend to me in this connection those orders which may appear most appropriate to you for this purpose. [note 5]
And with deep respect I come to confirm myself
Of Your Excellency
Most Devoted Most Obliged Servant Tommasi [note 6]
From the General Office of the Registry and United Enterprises
The 22nd September 1843.
Signore Cavaliere Commendatore
Administrator General of the Royal Revenues
Illustrious Signore Pro. [?] Most Respected Signore
I have gone through the attached Draft Instructions concerning the execution of the Law of the 25th August 1816 on foreign playing cards, which I received with the precious letter of your Excellency from day last.
In my opinion, honest Passengers can only appreciate the questioning by Employees of the Health and Customs Office as to whether or not they keep foreign playing cards and to be informed by them that their use, retention, and free transport are prohibited in Tuscany.
It is well understood that the benefit of transit is preserved with the precautions established by the Orders for those who want to take advantage of it and that the denunciation for those who have refused only subjects them to the abandonment which I would believe could convert into demotion.
It also seems to me to be wise advice to promise a different treatment to passengers who, when questioned, do not report their playing cards to Customs, and who are found by the Guards to retain one or two used decks (probably to divert the boredom of the journey), from those who would have more abundance, and much more if the decks were new.
Having left it to your superior determinations, I have the honor of signing myself with the greatest respect
Of Your Most Illustrious Lordship
Most Devoted Most Obliged Servant
Giuseppe Casanuova Director
Livorno, from the Directorate of Customs
The 25 September 1843
Instructions
concerning the execution of the Law of 25 August 1816 on Playing Cards.
Article 1. The Ministers of Health at the Office of the Mouth for the Port of Livorno, and the Customs Agents and Ministers at each State Border, upon the arrival of any Vessel, and respectively of any
2. The period after the numbers was usually inserted at the time and I respect it in the transcription. [Trans. note: for the translation, the periods have been replaced with “th,” “st,” “nd,” or “rd.”]
3. This is a note added, on the fly, on the upper margin of the letter, without particular attention to spelling. The office is perhaps the Finance Secretariat, but the higher hierarchical level is evident.
4. In various subsequent comments and proposals it will be asked that travelers always be warned about this law, directly upon first entry into the Grand Duchy.
5. The proposer does not intend to commit an abuse: either his proposal is approved from above and made legally valid, or he is given instructions in this regard. In the second case, it is understood that a response of respecting the old law to the letter would be inconvenient.
6. I moved this line here. However, in all these official letters, the final formula with the signature is inserted in the lower right margin of the page, detached from the rest.
3
_____________________________Vehicle, Coach, and Carriage that serves for the transport of Passengers or Goods, will question the Owners or Captains of the Vessel, and in the case of Vehicles, the Drivers or Owners thereof, whether or not they, as well as the travelers, Crewmen, or Foreign Passengers, have Playing Cards, warning them of their introduction into Tuscany being prohibited even for simple transit. If the answer is affirmative, they will be asked either to carry out the exact declaration in Art. VIII of the aforementioned Law of the 25 August 1816, if they wish to pass the aforementioned Playing Cards through the Tuscan Territory, or to deliver and release the same Playing Cards which, as above, are found among them.
2nd. In case they choose to make the aforementioned declaration, in consequence the Games or Decks of Cards will be directed, with the precautions and systems indicated by the Law, to that Border Customs by which they will have to exit from the Territory of the State.[note 7]
3rd. If the Foreign Playing Cards are then delivered and released, after having been wrapped and after said bundle has been well sealed and provided with the Stamp of the Office, the aforementioned Cards will be returned, if in Livorno to the Extraordinary Stamp Office existing there, if elsewhere, to the nearest Registry Office, accompanied in any case with a relevant report that makes known their origin and anything else that affects their delivery and release. The aforementioned offices to which the parcels mentioned have been sent, together with the related reports, will have to send both to the General Directorate of the Registry and Joint Enterprises in Florence through the respective Departmental Registry Directorates on which the offices themselves immediately depend.
4th. Verifying that despite the diligence to be carried out as above at the Office of the Mouth of the Port of Livorno and at the Customs Offices of the Borders, there were found by the Royal Guards of Finance or by Customs Agents and Ministers at the City Gates or elsewhere within the State, Decks or Games of Foreign Cards, provided that it involves no more than one or two Decks or Games of said Cards, and especially if they are used ones, so that there is reason to believe that they are transported by the Carriers or Passengers solely to make use of them during the journey rather than with the idea of becoming an object of smuggling and trafficking, in this case subject to the arrest and confiscation of said Cards which with a similar report will be submitted to the Head of the nearby Customs Office, and from this to the General Directorate of the Registry and United Enterprises, it will be up to the Director General of the Administration of the Registry and United Enterprises to propose, according to the character and nature of the circumstances that have accompanied the Transgressions, regarding the fines incurred for the same Transgressions to His Excellency the Counselor Director of the Imperial and Royal Secretariat of Finance, or the plenary condonation of the same fines, or those reductions which according to the circumstances of the cases appear appropriate, always considering that for the aforementioned cases [note 8] the Customs Agents or Ministers are very discreetly mollified, and also considering that to ensure the payment of what may be due for these securities by the aforementioned Violators, they must deposit at the Customs Office to which the Agents and Ministers are assigned, or the Royal Finance Guards who carried out the procurement in question, Ten Lire if there is only one Deck or Game, and Twenty Lire if two are the Games or Decks of Foreign Cards that have been found. [note 9] According to what has been approved by His Excellency the Counselor Director of the Imperial and Royal Secretariat of Finance in relation to the proposed condonations, or the aforementioned reductions, the relevant pending matters will remain settled and adjusted long before said transgressions have been brought to the knowledge of the competent Courts, as well as after the relevant Judgment has been entered on the same; and by said Courts, once the approval of the aforementioned Excellency has occurred, and the conditions prescribed by the defendant have been fulfilled, the case will not be further proceeded with, thus giving rise to the restitution of the Ten or Twenty Lire as deposited above, deducting what is necessary to satisfy the conditions on which the aforementioned Superior Resolution is based; and without prejudice to the provisions of the Supervisory Laws regarding the allocation of how much with the Resolution itself was ordered to be collected as a Fine.
5th. When the Foreign Games or Decks of Cards found at the City Gates or elsewhere within the State are such in quantity and quality as to lead one to believe that those in the same State were intended to be trafficked in fraud of the now valid Law, and generally whenever said Games or Decks of Foreign Cards are found within the State in quantities greater than two Decks or Games, especially if they are Games that do not appear obviously used, in this case it will be the responsibility of the Royal Finance Guards and Customs Agents and Ministers to proceed in this regard with all rigor against Violators, in the usual ways and by the Supervisory Laws prescribed.
Signore Cavaliere Commendatore
Giovanni Baldasseroni
Administrator General of the Royal Revenues
Most Illustrious Signore Pro. [?] Most Respected Signore
The aim that motivated the General Directorate of the Registry certainly deserves applause in having formed the Draft Instructions forwarded to me by your Most Illustrious Lordship with your Revered Letter of the 26th of this month and which, together with the other papers, I have the honor of returning to You.
Reading that Draft would have called me to make the following observations.
To Art. 1. The task that you want to give to the Ministers of the Livorno Health Office alone. Could it not perhaps be extended with advantage to those of the other Offices on the coast?
7. A single deck of cards, brought back to today, would suggest a nuclear warhead.
8. Agents risk making mistakes, however they behave, if they are not reassured from above.
9. A new and more useful progression is introduced. However, the jump from 20 lire for two decks to 75 for three remains high, but in other cases the possession of three decks is already considered an indication of fraud.
4
3. Proposal for greater penaltiesI would believe that the Owners of the Playing Cards could not be denied the right to release them on board the Ship, or to send them back in the foreign State. [note 10]
Art. 2. If the playing cards are wished to be destined for transit, the Ministers of the Border Customs through which they would be introduced must not accompany them with a Manifesto to another similar one from which it is preferred to export them, but rather to a Principal Customs, in which alone the Expediting Pass can be created.
Art. 3. It would seem just as simple, equally as regular, that the documents delivered to the Border Customs Employees be sent by them to the respective Directorates on which they depend and from these to the General Directorate of the Registry.
Art. 4 and 5. The Ministers of Customs attend the inspections but do not inspect or make complaints. Therefore the name of Customs Ministers should be eliminated from the proposed Articles.
Art. 4. I would doubt that the Resolution of His Excellency the Counselor Director of the Royal Finances to withhold the procedure once the complaint was filed was valid, unless a similar Sovereign Disposition was published, or with Special Motu Proprio [Latin for “own initiative”], as was practiced in the year 1768. when the Administrators General of the Royal Revenues were created, or in similarity to what was ordered by the Royal Council with the Circular of 8 April 1839.
Your Most Illustrious Lordship will give to these observations the weight of which in his wisdom he deems them worthy.
I have the honor to declare myself with the most distinguished respect
Of Your Illustrious Lordship
Most Devoted Most Obliged Servant
G. O. Forni
From the Customs Directorate of Florence
The 28 September 1843
His Excellency Signore Cavaliere Gran Croce
Counselor of State & &
Director of the Imperial and Royal Department of Finance
Excellency
I have the honor of returning to Your Excellency the Draft Instructions concerning the execution of the Law on Playing Cards, dated the 25th August 1816, drawn up by Sig. Cav. Director General of the Administrative Office of the Registry, regarding which I have been ordered to express what my feelings may be.
The aforementioned Law, by prohibiting the introduction of Foreign Cards into Tuscany, even for simple transit, imposed a fine of L. 25 for each deck on the Violator.
This precise and exhaustive provision excludes in its application any exemption: [note 11] at once, even the introduction of a single deck is, by express will of the law, subject to a fine. I do not deny that the prescription is rather severe, as indeed are all the laws that protect royal property rights, [note 12] but I only highlight it to deduce that in the state and terms resulting from the Law of 1816, arrests, from even a single Deck of Cards, were sometimes carried out by Customs Agents, a regular and not vexatious activity.
The Draft Instructions compiled by Sig. Cav. Tommasi essentially modifies that rigor, nor would I be able to make any objection to it, as it deals with something extraneous to this Administrative Office, but which only concerns the one which is deservedly presided over by the aforecommended Director.
No less for the relationships that in their practical execution the same Instructions could have with the Customs Service, I took it upon myself to have them examined by the Signori Directors of the Customs of Florence and Livorno.
The latter has fully agreed upon them, while Cav. Forni, also agreeing with them in principle, has suggested in the Letter attached, here in the Copy, some few interesting warnings regarding the ways and forms of the [Instructional] Draft imagined. These warnings seeming to me to have made all the wise and appropriate connections, I would be of the reverent opinion that the few additions that result from them be inserted into the Draft in question, which I also would consider in need of Sovereign Rectification, so that in its practical application it does not encounter difficulties in the Courts.
I have the honor of recalling with respectful consideration
Of Your Excellency
Most Humble Most Devoted Servant
G. Baldasseroni
From the General Department of the Royal Revenues
The 2nd October 1843
The file under review contains a dozen letters, often copies, under the common title of Transgressions of the Playing Cards Law. 7 December 1844 - 29 May 1845. This is a selection in which we can follow, with some exceptions, the chronological order, but where we find neither the initial nor the final documents in the case in question. I therefore allow myself to make a further selection
_____________________
10. This suggestion seems logical, but is only encountered here.
11. Outside the office, epicheia would be called exemption.
12. This appears to be the most solid argument. The severity is directly justifiable: long and expensive life for the Grand Duke.
5
of the letters by copying some of them here, in a sufficient number to make the exchange of correspondence between the various offices involved clear. The functioning of the administration presents an unexpected contrast between very rapid exchanges of official correspondence, right from one day to the next, alongside delays of months.
With this opinion of the members of the Royal Council, it would seem that the bureaucratic process had come to an end. Instead, the practice restarted the year, because evidently the right solution to the problem had not been found.Signore Cavaliere Royal Prosecutor-General
Florence
Most Illustrious Signore Po. [?] Most Respected Signore
The Law of the 25 August 1816 on Playing Cards does not order the deposit against unknown offenders, and in the absence of which their arrest, as it is prescribed with regard to offenders of Salt and Tobacco. Now I am informed that the Director General of the Registry has circulated an instructional letter of 8 August, 1843, which contains the following paragraph.
“That whenever it is impossible to obtain from the aforementioned Violators (of Playing Cards) the aforementioned deposit, either due to the alleged lack of means, or because they do not want to lend themselves to carrying it out, in this case the Royal Guard of Finance will be ordered to translate said Violators before the competent local Authority, which will be responsible for issuing the appropriate orders and measures to be adopted in order to guarantee as much as possible the interest of the Royal Finance, and of those who are justified in relation to the fines incurred."
This order aggravates the condition of the Violators beyond what is prescribed by the Law and compromises the responsibility of the Royal Guards of Finance, who by carrying it out would be exposed either to having to answer for abuse of power, or to compromising the dignity of the Law and of the Authority by alleging their own exemption from their Superior's command.
It is therefore of the utmost interest that this inconvenience and danger be remedied.
And to this effect, I believed it was my duty to engage your authority so that the order is either revoked or converted into law.
And with the most distinct respect I have the honor of recalling myself
Of Your Most Illustrious Lordship
Most Devoted Most Obliged Servant
Signature
Livorno, from the Office of the Prosecutor
The 7th October 1844
Imperial and Royal Highness
As Your Imperial and Royal Highness may deign to observe from the attached official communication from the Cavaliere Royal Prosecutor General, the Cavaliere Director General of the Registry has circulated to his Employees an instructional letter, which, with a view to guaranteeing the Royal Finance, and depending on the transgressions of the Laws on Playing Cards, would lead to the liability of Violators who are not indeed unknown, as the Royal Prosecutor of Livorno has perhaps not exactly expressed, but rather of unknown solvency, for those rigorous and serious precautions that Art. 46 of the Law of 2 Sept. 1819 on transgressions in matters of salt prescribes, and which are not commanded by the Law of the 25th August 1816 on Playing Cards.
With this the same Cavaliere Director General of the Registry having certainly transcended the limits of his mission, in order to avoid the possible inconveniences feared by the same Royal Prosecutor of Livorno, we would implore that the previously praised public Functionary be invited to withdraw the Instructional Letter of which he is the author.
With profound veneration we have the glory of being
Of Your Imperial and Royal Highness
Most humble Servants and Subjects
Giovanni Battista Burchi
Vincenzio Giacomini
Cosimo Buonarruoti
Primo Magini
From the Royal Council
The 23rd December 1844
Report of the Brigade Chief of the Royal Finance Guards
For the Most Illustrious
Sig. Cav. Director of the Royal Customs of Livorno
Most Illustrious Signore
6
_________________________The Law on Playing Cards does not authorize the arrest of the foreign Violator, and much less the collection of the deposit for the amount of the penalty incurred, as has been pointed out on another occasion. It follows that since it is not possible to prosecute said Foreign Violators who have not wanted to leave the aforementioned deposit, the Procedures remain fruitless, and the related Expenses are borne by the Tax Fund. So the undersigned would propose to avoid said Procedures in this case, and to deliver the apprehended cards to the Registry Office, especially when it concerns a Transgression of one or two decks of them, and when it does not please to provide for the aforementioned void in said Law.
This is all
Livorno, the 27th May 1845
Betti
Signore Cavaliere Commendatore
Administrator General
of the Royal Revenues
Florence
Most Illustrious Signore
On 10 December last year following a first report from the Brigade Chief Signore Botti, I had to point out to Your Most Illustrious Lordship the need to fill the gap in the Law of the 25 August 1816 on foreign cards not prescribing the 'Arrest of the holder of the same, when he is without the means to pay, or guarantee the fine incurred, or even refuses to pay it, even if he wanted to ensure the fulfillment of the requirements of the General Directorate of the Registry articulated in the Revered [Communication] of Your Most Illustrious Lordship of the 9 August 1843.
Now with a 2nd specific Report attached here, the same aforementioned Brigade Chief returns to demonstrate that either it is better to fill the void in the Law, or to abstain from initiating useless Procedures, the results of which can only be borne by the Tax Fund, if one is limited to delivery of the apprehended cards to the Registry Office.
And while waiting for the Superior Determinations, I pass to the honor of recalling myself with the most distinct respect
Of Your Most Illustrious Lordship
Most Devoted Most Obliged Servant
Giuseppe Casanuova
Livorno Customs Directorate
The 27th May 1845.
Signore Cavaliere Director
of the Administration of the Registry and United Enterprises
Florence
Most Illustrious Signore Pro. [?] Most Respected Signore
The attached documents, sent to me by the Customs Directorate of Livorno, tend to highlight the need to fill the void found in the Law of the 25th August 1816 on foreign playing cards, since it does not prescribe the arrest of their Holder in the event that he is without the means to guarantee satisfaction of the penalties that may be owed by him,
I take them to the revered hands of Your Excellency, but since the knowledge of the relevant Affair is within the competence of the Department over which you deservedly preside, only permitting me to ask you to favor me to provide me with any response that can appear appropriate to you [note 13] according to my rule, in the Instructions to be given to the Financial Force for the contingencies spoken of in the documents themselves.
I have the honor to sign myself with the most distinguished esteem and respect.
Of your Most Illustrious Lordship
G. Baldasseroni
From the General Department of the Royal Revenues, the 28 May 1845
His Excellency Signore Gran Croce
Francesco Cempini
Counselor of State, Finance, and War
Director of the Imperial and Royal Secretariat
of Finance, and of the Royal General Depository
Excellency
With my respectful participation on the 12th December 1844, I took the liberty of pointing out to Your Excellency the need to bring about a Sovereign Resolution regarding the arrest of transgressors of the current Law on Playing Cards, which by the Chancellor of the Court of Livorno and by that Royal Prosecutor was considered to be arbitrary, when the same violators did not want or were unable to deposit the relevant fines imposed by the aforementioned law.
13. The sequence of six verbs in the sentence is a record for polite formulas.
7
After two years of exchanges of correspondence between the offices concerned, the necessary provisions have still not arrived. For now, an official change to the law is missing, and even the exhortation from the higher offices not to follow up on the Instructions to the Livorno customs employees is missing.And since the Commendatore Administrator General of the Royal Revenues forwards me the attached documents with which the Royal Finance Guard and the Director of the Royal Customs of Livorno are once again making every effort to take the appropriate measures in this regard, I cannot help but urgently pray to Your Excellency to deign to solicit, as far as it can depend on you, that Sovereign Resolution which will be considered the most suitable to repress the transgressions of this type and to protect the interests of the Royal Finance.
In the meantime, it would appear to my tenuity useful and appropriate that the aforementioned Commendatore Administrator General of the Royal Revenues be exhorted to send down the appropriate orders to the Royal Finance Guard so that they refrain from proceeding with any arrest or coercive action against the holders of Playing Cards of foreign manufacture until the aforementioned Sovereign Resolution is issued, limiting themselves only to the relevant reports, even when it is not possible to persuade the Violators to deposit the Fines they have incurred. Since it is in the expectation of those Orders that it could please the Imperial and Royal Government in this regard to issue on this report I have made it lawful to exhort the aforementioned Signore Commendatore Administrator General to communicate to the Royal Finance Guard that they wish to abstain from carrying out the abovementioned arrests to avoid any related inconvenience.
And with the highest consideration and respect, I have the honor to confirm myself
Of Your Excellency
Most Devoted Most Obedient Servant
Tommasi
From the General Registry Office and United Enterprises
The 29th May 1845
4. Conclusion
On the control of foreign cards within the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, two bureaucratic problems to be resolved have been encountered, which appear not only different but with opposite deviations from the norm: in one case the penalties are lightened, in the other they are aggravated. Both cases encounter similar bureaucratic delays, even if forms of courtesy and respect, if not downright veneration, are used to the highest degree in correspondence between offices. Sooner or later a solution will have been found, but it seems clear that the Tuscan bureaucracy had not reached a level of agile functioning in those years, despite the Leopoldian reforms first and those introduced by the French afterwards.
Florence, 02.01.2024
