48

Finance constituted one of the most visible manifestations of imperial conquest. It was essential from the time of victory, and was then inscribed in time and space by the setting up of administrations based on the French model. The departmental framework made it possible to perceive more clearly this change in the territory, its institutions and its personnel. The annexed department of Genoa is representative of the upheavals experienced by the territories placed under French authority: the former Republic, which became a “sister” in 1797, was merely the prefecture of a department from 1805 to 1814; its territory was divided up and became home to a complete series of administrative departments, in particular financial. “Old and new” Frenchmen shared around fifty positions of authority or subordinate posts; old hands at revolutionary and imperial Finance, survivors from the financial administrations of the former Republic or new recruits aspiring to a career all formed part of the Napoleonic administration in Europe.