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During the last years of the Old Regime, the naturalist Faujas de Saint-Fond managed to accumulate comfortable pensions. But with the “end of the privileges”, his wages accorded by the Crown of France were jeopardized. Thus began a series of epistolary battles between the naturalist and the public authorities. At first, Faujas struggled to maintain his retributions despite a procedure of liquidation that would last seven years. Then, once his status as professor of Geology at the National Museum of Natural History was confirmed by the law, he again took up his pen to obtain financing for his geological travels. Through this case study, the whole apparatus of the French administration is illuminated, especially the financial management of the scholarly staff between Revolution and Empire.