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Réflexions historiques et politiques, sur les revolutions qu’a essuyé l’agriculture sous différens gouvernemens, principalement dans le Languedoc, sur son état actuel dans cette province, & sur les moyens de l’améliorer.

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Very rare essay on the state of agriculture in France, and in particular in the Languedoc, examining the ways in which the policies of various governments (from the Romans and Visigoths onwards) have affected agricultural production, the current situation, and the ways in which matters could be improved. Throughout, the author’s concerns, although concentrated on agricultural production, are broader: he constantly reminds the reader of the extent to which the rural people of the Languedoc, although blessed with a clement climate and fertile land, are nonetheless at the mercy of the whims of their rulers, whether through the imposition of taxation or arbitrary and ill-informed decisions made de haut en bas about the crops to be produced and the methods to be employed. A lengthy set of notes, taking up the second half of the book, quote Montesquieu and Hume, describe agricultural practice in England, and present a number of statistical tables. We have found no information about the author, but it would be reasonable to assume that he was not unsympathetic to the events of the end of the decade.

The ownership signature on the title may be that of the French general and politican Joseph Etienne d’Hargenvilliers (1767–1841), sometime mayor of Toulouse.

OCLC records only one copy, at Columbia; not in Library Hub.

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