By looking at list-making and comparative assessments of trade, this article on central administrative practices of record management aims at discussing the mobilization of archives in French colonial supervision in the eighteenth century. A Bureau des Colonies was created in the French Secretariat of the Marine in 1710: from the very outset, its main mission was to deal with the colonial records, mostly correspondence, through which the colonies were administered. Archives had been collected and classified in the Bureau des archives from 1699 onwards. But this implied an effort in the organization of papers: throughout the eighteenth century, the imperial administration created several other documentary tools that produced a simplified and ideal vision of the empire and of its place in the global order. Looking at the kinds of papers produced by the colonial administration and where these records were kept provides insight into how the central authorities understood the colonial empire. The paperwork shaped the way administrators understood empire, through operations carried out by the clerks on the records. Records were collected from all the colonies and actors, with a growing sense of being a unique agency possessing relevant records that were reduced to similar storage units by agents without field experience. In fact, archives became crucial in strengthening the empire as a political unity, under a centralized metropolitan direction, mainly after the Seven Years’ War.

中文翻译：

---

通过列表和图表看帝国：18 世纪法国殖民记录

这篇关于档案管理的中央行政实践的文章通过对贸易的清单制定和比较评估，旨在讨论十八世纪法国殖民监督中档案的动员。1710 年，法国海军秘书处成立了殖民地局：从一开始，其主要任务就是处理殖民记录，主要是通信，通过这些记录管理殖民地。从 1699 年起，档案局就开始收集和分类档案。但这意味着对文件组织的努力：在整个 18 世纪，帝国政府创造了其他几种文献工具，以简化和理想化帝国及其在全球秩序中的地位。查看殖民政府制作的各种文件以及这些记录的保存位置，可以深入了解中央当局如何理解殖民帝国。通过文员对记录进行的操作，文书工作塑造了管理员理解帝国的方式。记录是从所有殖民地和参与者那里收集的，越来越多的人认为自己是一个拥有相关记录的独特机构，这些记录被没有实地经验的特工减少到类似的存储单元。事实上，档案在加强帝国作为一个政治统一体方面变得至关重要，主要是在七年战争之后。通过文员对记录进行的操作，文书工作塑造了管理员理解帝国的方式。记录是从所有殖民地和参与者那里收集的，越来越多的人认为自己是一个拥有相关记录的独特机构，这些记录被没有实地经验的特工减少到类似的存储单元。事实上，档案在加强帝国作为一个政治统一体方面变得至关重要，主要是在七年战争之后。通过文员对记录进行的操作，文书工作塑造了管理员理解帝国的方式。记录是从所有殖民地和参与者那里收集的，越来越多的人认为自己是一个拥有相关记录的独特机构，这些记录被没有实地经验的特工减少到类似的存储单元。事实上，档案在加强帝国作为一个政治统一体方面变得至关重要，主要是在七年战争之后。