In seventeenth-century France, many remunerative government positions in the provinces were sold by the king and then passed from father to son. Historians have concluded that this system was more effective than a purely meritocratic system in ensuring not only that most of the officials were competent, but that they were more sympathetic to the local people than to the king.
To raise revenues, new offices were often created and sold by the king is an exception to the historians' conclusion.