Under the Old Regime, land was the core of nobiliary identity and nobles should not lose rank by making profit out of industry or money handling. Thus, noble families had to possess a domain and get a sufficient income out of their estate. But property brings prestige as well as ...
(Show more)Under the Old Regime, land was the core of nobiliary identity and nobles should not lose rank by making profit out of industry or money handling. Thus, noble families had to possess a domain and get a sufficient income out of their estate. But property brings prestige as well as a living ideal. New-rich commoners, even ennobled by letter or office, bought domains on which they could spend several months keeping an eye on the agricultural production.
All along early modern times, many country gentlemen managed the development of their land by themselves. Most customs allowed them to graft fruit trees and even, if necessary, to plough. They hired labourers, dispatched work and controlled it during harvest. The diaries show their attention to the domain’s budget balance, even when the improvement of agricultural techniques was not their care. There were still few experiments such as Olivier de Serre’s on his land of Le Pradel at the end of the XVIth Century.
Agronomy, improving in England by the beginning of the XVIIth century, spread slowly and tardily among French nobility. During the Enlightenment, noble agronomists were still scarce but knew how to spread their knowledge by publishing the results of their experiments. The marquis de Turbilly in Anjou, along with the baron de Lapeyrouse in the Toulousain or the marquis de Costa in Savoy tested processes that had been proven before in England, and also experimented new ones. However, this thought process, linked with physiocracy and the expansion of agricultural societies, did not aim at increasing their income. They thought their mission was to enlighten the nation by sharing knowledge and know-how. As in international trade, or in textile industry, these men wanted to embody the vanguard of progress. To them, agronomy was a new field where nobles had a decisive part to play, both for philanthropic concerns and as a way to reassert their social domination.
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