Book IV: Chapter 9

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS, OR OF THOSE SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL
ECONOMY WHICH REPRESENT THE PRODUCE OF LAND, AS EITHER THE SOLE
OR THE PRINCIPAL SOURCE OF THE REVENUE AND WEALTH OF EVERY
COUNTRY.

The agricultural systems of political economy will not require so
long an explanation as that which I have thought it necessary to
bestow upon the mercantile or commercial system.

That system which represents the produce of land as the sole
source of the revenue and wealth of every country, has so far as
I know, never been adopted by any nation, and it at present
exists only in the speculations of a few men of great learning
and ingenuity in France. It would not, surely, be worth while to
examine at great length the errors of a system which never has
done, and probably never will do, any harm in any part of the
world. I shall endeavour to explain, however, as distinctly as I
can, the great outlines of this very ingenious system.

Mr. Colbert, the famous minister of Lewis XIV. was a man of
probity, of great industry, and knowledge of detail ; of great
experience and acuteness in the examination of public accounts;
and of abilities, in short, every way fitted for introducing
method and good order into the collection and expendture of the
public revenue. That minister had unfortunately embraced all the
prejudices of the mercantile system, in its nature and essence a
system of restraint and regulation, and such as could scarce fail
to be agreeable to a laborious and plodding man of business, who
had been accustomed to regulate the different departments of
public offices, and to establish the necessary checks and
controlls for confining each to its proper sphere. The industry
and commerce of a great country, he endeavoured to regulate upon
the same model as the departments of a public office ; and
instead of allowing every man to pursue his own interest his own
way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty, and justice, he
bestowed upon certain branches of industry extraordinary
privileges, while he laid others under as extraordinary
restraints. He was not only disposed, like other European
ministers, to encourage more the industry of the towns than that
of the country; but, in order to support the industry of the
towns, he was willing even to depress and keep down that of the
country. In order to render provisions cheap to the inhabitants
of the towns, and thereby to encourage manufactures and foreign
commerce, he prohibited altogether the exportation of corn, and
thus excluded the inhabitants of the country from every foreign
market, for by far the most important part of the produce of
their industry. This prohibition, joined to the restraints
imposed by the