Book IV: Chapter 9 - Page 2

ancient provincial laws of France upon the
transportation of corn from one province to another, and to the
arbitrary and degading taxes which are levied upon the
cultivators in almost all the provinces, discouraged and kept
down the agriculture of that country very much below the state to
which it would naturally have risen in so very fertile a soil,
and so very happy a climate. This state of discouragement and
depression was felt more or less in every different part of the
country, and many different inquiries were set on foot concerning
the causes of it. One of those causes appeared to be the
preference given, by the institutions of Mr. Colbert, to the
industry of the towns above that of the country.

If the rod be bent too much one way, says the proverb, in order
to make it straight, you must bend it as much the other. The
French philosophers, who have proposed the system which
represents agriculture as the sole source of the revenue and
wealth of every country, seem to have adopted this proverbial
maxim; and, as in the plan of Mr. Colbert, the industry of the
towns was certainly overvalued in comparison with that of the
country, so in their system it seems to be as certainly
under-valued.

The different orders of people, who have ever been supposed to
contribute in any respect towards the annual produce of the land
and labour of the country, they divide into three classes. The
first is the class of the proprietors of land. The second is the
class of the cultivators, of farmers and country labourers, whom
they honour with the peculiar appellation of the productive
class. The third is the class of artificers, manufacturers, and
merchants, whom they endeavour to degrade by the humiliating
appellation of the barren or unproductive class.

The class of proprietors contributes to the annual produce, by
the expense which they may occasionally lay out upon the
improvement of the land, upon the buildings, drains, inclosures,
and other ameliorations, which they may either make or maintain
upon it, and by means of which the cultivators are enabled, with
the same capital, to raise a greater produce, and consequently to
pay a greater rent. This advanced rent may be considered as the
interest or profit due to the proprietor, upon the expense or
capital which be thus employs in the improvement of his land.
Such expenses are in this system called ground expenses (depenses
foncieres).

The cultivators or farmers contribute to the annual produce, by
what are in this system called the original and annual expenses
(depenses primitives, et depenses annuelles), which they lay out
upon the cultivation of the land. The original expenses consist
in the instruments of husbandry, in the