Abstract
The paper clarifies aspects of the development of the granting of privileges, patents and financial incentives in France in the last decade of the 18th century. The granting of these benefits was organized institutionally.
The second part of the thesis shows how the patent institutions worked, what financial resources they had and what their membership was, because in several cases their social structure prevented the full functioning of companies. The final part outlines the circumstances of the announcement, course and closing of the first industrial exhibition, which was to seal several years of efforts by French officials to simplify patent filing, make invention accessible to the lowest social groups and ensure France a strong position among the continually industrialized countries.
A case study of one of the supported inventors then demonstrates how effective the patent system was and how science was linked to the military component of the regime in the Napoleonic era.