ABSTRACT
The enfranchisement of the commons gave birth to a new class of property owners: owners of moveable wealth. The new property owners made production their sole occupation; they worked relentlessly to improve every branch of industry; above all, they applied themselves to simplifying the administration and carrying it out as economically as possible. From the conquest (which was the original title to the ownership of the great domains, and therefore scarcely moral) to the enfranchisement of the commons, the owners of these domains were the foremost heads of productive enterprises. Since the enfranchisement of the commons, the great landowners have successively ceased to concern themselves with production. As for you, whose administrative capacity has been confirmed by the continual increase in your wealth, it is equally clear that today you would make the best administrators of the national interests.
