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RESEARCH PRODUCT

La vaine pâture en France sous l'Ancien Régime. Essai de géographie coutumière

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The question of fences in the France of the Ancien Régime is often analyzed in the perspective of an agricultural revolution promoted by the political power in which physiocrats were reported to have occupied a predominant position after the middle of the eighteenth century. Without in the least denying the political impetus manifested under Louis XV, it seems, firstly, that common grazing land has always been subject to more restrictions than most historians would generally admit and above all, secondly, that grass -or the common grazing land on the meadows- has always occupied a special place and that well before the famous fencing edicts, it was already possible for the owner to keep cattle from eating the grass on his property.