Appendix No. 4: Agricultural Colonies

Abstract

Tocqueville and Beaumont give a brief defense of the bases of the system of agricultural colonies as a penal method suitable for France. They argue that agricultural colonies help society to utilize its existing resources to enable the poor to become productive farmers. Holland and Belgium’s agricultural colonies are given as examples of administrative details in funding and profiting from relocated colonists. Tocqueville and Beaumont argue that their agricultural colonies sprung from the coordination between the government and private association.

*The appendices are labeled idiosyncratically in the first edition of the text. In the original Table of Contents for the first edition, the main text was labeled “No. 1,” Appendix on Penal Colonies “No.2,” Alphabetical Notes “No.3,” which makes Agricultural Colonies “No.4,” and so forth. Neither of the first two appendices (On Penal Colonies and Alphabetical Notes) are marked by “No.” in the French edition. The numbering in the original Table of Contents suggests that Tocqueville and Beaumont considered the main text as equally weighty to the appendices, and thus elevates the importance of the appendices.