The constant desire of people to better control their future, the quality and dedication of their consuls are rewarded in 1696 when Molière becomes the fourteenth city Quercy to send deputies to the Provincial States. In the early eighteenth century, the growth of the city and its rich bourgeoisie become the center of an important trade network. However, this prosperity based on an agricultural economy, which is thwarted from 1785 to 1788 by major droughts followed by harsh winters. The 1789 revolution and its attendant violence causes many problems in the city and Molière pays dearly as a royal city: its walls are destroyed, the bells melted to make cannons. It is not until the arrival of the Empire that passions subside. Molière becomes the centre of six parishes (Molière, Espanel Saint Amans, Saint Arthémie, Saint Kitts and Saint Nazaire) initially in the department of Lot, it changes with the creation of the department of Tarn et Garonne in 1808 by imperial decree of Napoleon. Molière is the capital of rural townships consisting of Auty, Labarthe, and Puycornet Vazerac. With the economic and demographic expansion of the nineteenth century, the village extends along the communication path between Montauban and Cahors (the current main street Avenue de Larche ). The church is in disrepair and becomes too cramped to accommodate all the faithful, it will be completely rebuilt on the site of the cemetery (the latter will be transferred out of the village to Labarthe road). Opened in late 1898, of the original building, only the clock tower remains, now separate from the church. In 1900, a new church square is built, plus a hall for poultry and an area for unloading. From this date, the carts do not have to mount the steep road which leads to the square of the old city. It soon become useless due to loss of markets, the hall will be demolished in the 1980s while the site will be redesigned in 2009. The twentieth century will be marked by the end of the First World War, and a massive rural exodus that emptied the town of half its inhabitants. From the late 1980s, the trend finally reverses while Molière modernizes and turns to tourism with the construction of a leisure center, around a lake of 10 ha. See also Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne department References Communes of Tarn-et-Garonne