How can a ruler establish fiscal capacity when territorial control is weak and the legitimacy of central taxation is disputed ? When coercion is not a feasible option, alternative strategies to build fiscal capacity include the creation of credible commitment institutions and cooptation. We analyze the case of France in the aftermath of the Hundred Years War, in a context where central authority was very weak and kings faced powerful internal rivals. We combine detailed data on the establishment of fiscal jurisdictions with information on the gradual extension of the royal domain, the creation of offices, and representative institutions. We exploit succession rules which induced quasi-random variation in the royal domain, and show that direct territorial control promoted fiscal capacity. We also find that fiscal jurisdictions are associated with the granting of prestigious offices to local elites, suggesting that cooptation was an important complementary instrument. We find no evidence that representative institutions played a major role in the development of fiscal capacity.