“There is no representing to your Excellency the present distress of this province; the land yields little or nothing; most of the farmers, unable to live by the produce of their farms, have quitted them; some are gone a begging, others have lifted in the army, and not a few have escaped into foreign countries; the gentry and nobility are little better off, being put to the utmost difficulty to answer the taxes and impositions on them.
“Of fifteen hundred thousand acres of arable land, which used to support this people, at present six hundred lie fallow; what a diminution this must be to the general subsistence, your Excellency readily sees. A village which, before the war, supported fifteen hundred inhabitants, can now scarce support six hundred; and a particular family, which was able to feed six children, and as many labourers, can now provide food only for five. The cattle are diminished no less than the men, so as not to be sufficient for tillage; and in most of the villages men do the work of oxen.
“I have traced this calamity to its source, and I find the evil proceeds from the general want of cash: to prevent the consequences of this diminution, I could wish that the court would be pleased to advance to this province, by way of loan, the sum of fifteen hundred thousand livres, to be geometrically distributed among the industrious poor. This, in my opinion, is the only remedy left to avert greater evils.”
The third of these memoirs was from another intendant, who paints the depopulation in these sad colours.
“My Lord,
“The king’s subjects are daily decreasing in this province; it will soon be without inhabitants. Having directed the parish-priests to bring in lists of the christenings and burials, I find that the number of the dead exceeds that of the living; so that, should this depopulation go on twenty years longer, and God continues my life during that time, by my calculation, I shall be the only living creature, of the human species, in this province. Fifteen years before the last revolution of the finances, this district contained fifteen hundred thousand souls, and now if there are nine hundred thousand, it is the most. Yet how, my Lord, can it be otherwise? Of fifty of the king’s subjects, scarce two have any thing of a subsistence; the others must necessarily perish. A marriage is seldom heard of; so that all the new-born children are the fruits of debauchery.
“I cannot point out any remedy to these distresses. In the present crisis of the monarchy, it is God alone who can rescue it out of the abyss into which the misfortunes of the times have cast it.”
The fourth was from a sea-port, whose deputy thus delivered himself before the ministry.
“Trade, which had been declining for several years, is now fallen into a total stagnation. Our ships lie in the harbours, useless both to the state and their owners. We have little or nothing for exportation; the produce of the country scarce affords a very scanty subsistence; and our manufactures are at the lowest ebb. All our trade is in the hands of the English and Dutch.
“Most of our monied men, who fitted out privateers, have been ruined by the war; others so reduced, that instead of ten ships, which they used to have at sea, they find it difficult to have one: both seas are covered with foreign fleets, so that the white flag begins to be forgotten.