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Abstract – This article presents some bilingual texts analyzed in the context of a research project on translation policy in Belgium during the so-called French period (1792-1814). The project focuses on official translations of administrative, legal and political texts from French into Flemish. It can be shown that the administration during the French Period in Belgium was not monolingual, as is often stated. The translations are the result of an official translation policy based on several national and regional decrees. The translational activities were organized partly on the national level (at the Ministry of Justice), partly on the level of the départements or on the local level. The overall function of the translation policy was not to give the Flemish language an official status, but to propagate the message of revolutionary France to Flemish-speaking citizens. In this paper, six of these bilingual documents, all from a local archive in Bruges, will be analyzed. They represent three text types with different functions: normative texts (e.g., laws or decrees), informative texts (e.g., public announcements) and persuasive texts (e.g., political messages). It can be shown that most of the translations are quite literal. The syntactical and textual structures and especially the typical structure of the French normative texts (one long sentence, the so-called phrase unique) have been maintained in the translations. Another typical feature of normative texts is the formula dans les deux langues ("in the two languages") which underlines the official character of this type of translation during the French period. With respect to vocabulary, no consistent translation strategy can be found. The translations show French loanwords, Flemish equivalents or hybrid constructions.Résumé – Cet article présente quelques textes bilingues analysés dans le contexte d'un projet de recherche sur la politique de traduction durant la «période française» en Belgique (1792-1814). Le projet traite des traductions officielles de textes administratifs, juridiques et politiques du français vers le flamand. On peut constater que l'administration belge durant la période française n'était pas monolingue, comme certains l'affirment. Les traductions sont le résultat d'une politique de traduction officielle, basée sur des décrets nationaux et régionaux. Les activités de traduction ont été organisées en partie à l'échelle nationale (au ministère de la Justice) et en partie à l'échelle des départements ou des communes. Cette politique de traduction n'avait pas la fonction de donner un statut officiel à la langue flamande, mais de transmettre le message de la France révolutionnaire aux citoyens de langue flamande. Dans cette contribution, on analysera six de ces documents bilingues, provenant tous d'une archive locale de Bruges. Il s'agit de trois types de texte qui remplissent différentes fonctions: textes normatifs (par exemple, loi ou décrets), textes informatifs (par exemple, avis publics) et textes persuasifs (par exemple, messages politiques). En règle générale, les traductions sont assez littérales. Les textes cibles maintiennent les structures syntaxiques et textuelles, notamment la structure classique des textes juridiques français, la «phrase unique». Une autre caractéristique des textes normatifs est la formule «dans les deux langues», qui souligne le caractère officiel de ce type de traduction durant la période française. Dans le domaine du lexique, on ne trouve pas de stratégie de traduction cohérente. Les traductions comportent des gallicismes, des équivalents flamands ainsi que des constructions hybrides.

Relatif au renouvellement des corps administratifs, municipaux & judiciaires. Caption title. "Signé Monge. Contresigné Garat"--Page 3. Imprint from colophon. "No. 60"--Top of page [1]. "Signé Foacier, secrétaire général"--Page 4. Head-piece above caption title. ; Florida Atlantic University Libraries' Marvin and Sybil Weiner Spirit of America Collection, Pamphlets: Foreign Language B18F18 ; Florida Atlantic Digital Library Collections

"The town has that sign of prosperity of new buildings, which never deceives," wrote Arthur Young of Nantes in 1788. In fact, on the eve of the Revolution, Nantes—the infamous ville des négriers (city of the slavers)—was one of the richest cities in France and one of the most important ports in the kingdom. For almost a century Nantes had been the capital of the French slave trade, and by 1789 local merchants were investing almost 10 million L (livres) annually in the trade. Yet, in spite of the general activity, Nantes traders were experiencing difficulties with their business. Although a few slavers managed to create vast fortunes almost overnight, problems in France, the colonies, and Africa meant that most traders had to struggle to obtain even modest profits, from slaving. During the last decade of the old regime investments in the slave trade were usually no more profitable than investments in offices or land, although the trade alone offered the possibility, however, remote, of quick, vast profits.

The wars which raged almost continuously from 1792 to 1815 and which are generally, but not quite properly, called in English the Napoleonic wars, are the longest period of warfare which Europe has known since the early eighteenth century, and as they took place at a crucial stage of economic development, when the Industrial Revolution had just taken off in England and when its preliminary stirrings were showing in various places of the Continent, their impact upon the growth of industry in Continental Europe was quite serious. Unlike the twentieth-century world wars, the Napoleonic wars were not marked by large-scale physical destruction; though the productive potential of some towns or districts suffered from military operations or civil disturbances, such destruction was quite limited in space and time. On the other hand, most European countries suffered during the wars from bouts of paper-money inflation, which had undoubtedly serious consequences—especially in France during the Revolution, when the working capital of many merchants and manufacturers was destroyed through the combination of a sharp rise in their costs, of price control under the maximum, and of payment of government orders in depreciated assignats. Also, the diversion of resources to military purposes and the heavy burden of taxation and exactions must not be underestimated.