The Rural Economics of Rene de Girardin: Landscapes at the Service of L'Ideologie Nobiliaire

René-Louis de Girardin is remembered for having invited Rousseau at Ermenonville estate. Girardin believed it was necessary to further the debate on gardens on the basis of a principle of continuity that rejects any idea of enclosure. This made it possible to establish an agricultural model that increased production, and finally allowed the monopoly in grain sales to be broken. At the service of l’idéologie nobiliaire, his analysis shows the existence of a form of economic thinking in the second half of the 18th century that, giving primacy to agriculture, nevertheless cannot fall within the paths of physiocrats and agronomes. © 2020, University of Pennsylvania Press. All rights reserved.