Note 16 — Treatise on Agriculture.

The effects of the revolution of 1789 on agriculture are no longer doubtful. The suppression of tythes—of the exclusive privilege—of the chase—of every species of corvee (labour performed by tenants for landlords)—of taxes or rents, and of rights of commonage—was among these effects; and if to these we add the division of the great landed estates of the nobility and clergy, there can no longer be any scepticism on this point. No truth is better established than the advantage of small farms over great, as far as the public is concerned. The Roman latifundia (military grants) destroyed Roman agriculture.