The Making of the Land. 207 



lip her policy in this respect as a model for his own nation, 

 because, he argued, tillage by State compulsion had added one 

 more source of foreign profits to England's wealth, and thereby 

 increased her influence over the foreign dynasties.^ 



The difference between our State policy with regard to agri- 

 culture and that of the French at this epoch may be summed 

 up in the few following words of this same writer. " In other 

 States," he says, " private persons pay the Government for the 

 exportation of grain ; England acts quite otherwise, and pays 

 them." His work appeared in print at a most opportune 

 moment. A complete revolution in the French agricultural 

 policy was on the verge of taking place ; and if English hus- 

 bandry had hitherto served as a model for the French farmers, 

 their efforts and energy were now about to completely reverse 

 the situation. 



Almost half-way between 1703 and 1800 there was con- 

 cluded the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which put an end to the 

 great war of the Austrian succession, after which, by a tacit 

 consent, all the nations of Europe devoted their attention to 

 agriculture. A century and a half before, while the Flemish 

 husbandmen had been acting, the French had been merely 

 writing. Les Moyens de devenir riche, and The Cosmopolite^ 

 by the potter Bernard de Palissy ; Le Theatre d"" Agriculture^ 

 by De Serres ; V Agriculture et Maison rustique^ by Etienne 

 and Liebault, even the later publication of Le Cours complet 

 (V Agriculture^ by L'Abbe Rosier, would not have produced 

 practical results had not the French discovered by means of 

 stern facts that prosperous agriculture and successful war- 

 fare were closely intermingled. The recent national peril 

 of being starved into submission by the eneni}^, seconded by 

 the prominence given to agriculture by the followers of 

 Quesnai, induced the king to publicly encourage this industry ; 

 and the nobility, male and female, followed the royal example. 

 Prizes were offered in the academies for improvements in 

 agriculture. Societies were formed for its encouragement at 

 Tours and Rouen, and professorial chairs were established at the 



' Les Inter<}fs de la France mal entendus. Comte de Boulainvilliers. 



