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On the Pays d’état and Languedoc
9
condition, even in winter, and stood in stark contrast to the hard, rough,
and poorly maintained roads in most of the nearby provinces, including
Dauphiné, Quercy, and the généralité of Bordeaux (a pays d’élection, as
the report noted). On this point it cited the opinions of businessmen
and travelers, and the judgment it offered was accurate, as evidenced by
a comment made by Arthur Young when he traveled through the region
ten years later: “Languedoc, pays d’états; good roads, built without forced
labor.”
The report continued: If the king did not object, the estates would
go further still. They would undertake to improve the secondary roads,
which were no less important than the others, “for if the farmer’s pro-
duce cannot be moved from his storehouse to the market, what does it
matter that it can be transported to more distant places?” Furthermore,
“the doctrine of the estates concerning public works has always been that
what should count is not the grandeur of the project but rather its utility.”
Rivers, canals, and roads that enhance the value of all the products of the
soil and of industry by allowing them to be transported at low cost in all
seasons to wherever there is a need for them, and by means of which com-
merce can insinuate itself into every corner of the province, enriches the
region regardless of the cost. What is more, such projects, if judiciously
undertaken at a roughly equal level in all parts of the province simulta-
neously, support the wage level everywhere and help the poor. “The king
has not needed to bear the cost of charity workshops in Languedoc, as he
has had to do in the rest of France,” the report concluded with a note of
pride. “We do not ask for such favor. The useful works that we ourselves
undertake year after year make it unnecessary and provide everyone with
productive employment.”
The more I study the measures that the estates of Languedoc took,
with the king’s permission but not usually at his behest, in those areas of
public administration that were left to their discretion, the more I admire
the wisdom, fairness, and mildness that they demonstrated, and the
more I nd that the methods of local government were superior to those
employed in the regions directly administered by the king.
The province was divided into communities (towns and villages),
administrative districts called “dioceses,” and, nally, into three large
sectors known as sénéchaussées. Each of these parts had a distinct repre-
sentation and a small government of its own, which operated under the
guidance of either the estates or the king. Where public works touching
on the interests of one of these small political bodies were concerned,