ublished
his principal work, _Le Detail de la France; la cause de la diminution
de ses biens, et la facilite du remede_.... In it he drew a picture of
the general ruin of all classes of Frenchmen, caused by the bad economic
regime. In opposition to Colbert's views he held that the wealth of a
country consists, not in the abundance of money which it possesses but
in what it produces and exchanges. The remedy for the evils of the time
was not so much the reduction as the equalization of the imposts, which
would allow the poor to consume more, raise the production and add to
the general wealth. He demanded the reform of the _taille_, the
suppression of internal customs duties and greater freedom of trade. In
his _Factum de la France_, published in 1705 or 1706, he gave a more
concise _resume_ of his ideas. But his proposal to substitute for all
aides and customs duties a single capitation tax of a tenth of the
revenue of all property was naturally opposed by the farmers of taxes
and found little support. Indeed his work, written in a diffuse and
inelegant style, passed almost unnoticed. Saint Simon relates that he
once asked a hearing of the comte de Pontchartrain, saying that he would
at first believe him mad, then become interested, and then see he was
right. Pontchartrain bluntly told him that he did think him mad, and
turned his back on him. With Michel de Chamillart, whom he had known as
intendant of Rouen (1689-1690), he had no better success. Upon the
disgrace of Vauban, whose _Dime royale_ had much in common with
Boisguilbert's plan, Boisguilbert violently attacked the controller in a
pamphlet, _Supplement au detail de la France_. The book was seized and
condemned, and its author exiled to Auvergne, though soon allowed to
return. At last in 1710 the controller-general, Nicolas Desmarets,
established a new impost, the "tenth" (_dixieme_), which had some
analogy with the project of Boisguilbert. Instead of replacing the
former imposts, however, Desmarets simply added his _dixieme_ to them;
the experiment was naturally disastrous, and the idea was abandoned.

In 1712 appeared a _Testament politique de M. de Vauban_, which is
simply Boisguilbert's _Detail de la France_. Vauban's _Dime royale_
was formerly wrongly attributed to him. Boisguilbert's works were
collected by Daire in the first volume of the _Collection des grands
economistes_. His letters are in the _Correspondance des controleurs
generaux_, vol