342 Travels in France 



mittee of imposts ^ mention (and I doubt not their accuracy) 

 the prosperit}'^ of agriculture in the same page in which they 

 lament the depression of every other branch of the national 

 industry. Upon a moderate calculation there remained in the 

 hands of the classes depending on land, on the account of taxes 

 in the years 1789 and 1790, at least 300,000,000, livres; the 

 execution of corvees was as lax as the payment of taxes. To this 

 we are to add two years tithe, which I cannot estimate at less 

 than 300,000,000 livres more. The abolition of all feudal rents, 

 and payments of every sort during those two years, could not be 

 less than 100,000,000 livres including services. But all these 

 articles, great as they were, amounting to near 800,000,000 livres, 

 were less than the immense sums that came into the hands of the 

 farmers by the high price of corn throughout the year 1789; a 

 price arising almost entirely from Monsieur Necker's fine opera- 

 tions in the com trade, as it has been proved at large; it is true 

 there is a deduction to be made on account of the unavoidable 

 diminution of consumption in every article of land produce not 

 essentially necessary to life : every object of luxury, or tending to 

 it, is lessened greatly. But after this discount is allowed, the 

 balance in favour of the little proprietor farmers must be very 

 great. The benefit of such a sum being added, as it is to the 

 capital of husbandry, needs no explanation. Their agriculture 

 must be invigorated by such wealth — by the freedom enjoyed by 

 its professors; by the destruction of its innumerable shackles; 

 and even by the distresses of other empIo}'Tnents. occasioning new 

 and great investments of capital in land: and these leading 

 facts will appear in a clearer light, when the prodigious division 

 of landed property in France is well considered; probably half, 

 perhaps two-thirds, of the kingdom are in the possession of little 

 proprietors, who paid quit-rents and feudal duties for the spots 

 they farmed. Such men are placed at once in comparative 

 affluence; and as ease is thus acquired by at least half the 

 kingdom, it must not be set down as a point of trifling importance. 

 Should France escape a civil war, she will, in the prosperity of 

 these men, find a resource which politicians at a distance do not 

 calculate. With renters the case is certainly different ; for beyond 

 all doubt landlords will, sooner or later, avail themselves of these 

 circumstances by advancing their rents; acting in this respect, 

 as in every other country, is common; but they will find it 



* Rapport le 6 Decembre 1790, sur les moyens de pourvoir aux depenses 

 pour_ lygi, p. 4. — Author's fwte. 



