Attempts to drain marshes or build irrigation canals are recurring themes in the agricultural history of most French regions. These attempts were subject to the scrutiny of a number of organizations. Indeed, under the Old Regime, royal administrators had authority over changes in water use, while local authorities controlled changes in customary practices or eminent domain, and finally, judicial authorities resolved conflicts between projectors and property rights owners. In the nineteenth century, oversight was concentrated in the agents of the Ministry of the Interior, but these agents lavished at least as much attention on water control projects as had Old Regime administrators. The important role played by government officials in water control both before and after 1789 accounts for the abundant archival record covering this branch of agriculture. This record reveals the fate of many French drainage and irrigation projects between 1700 and 1860. In the case of drainage, the archival evidence is supplemented by a large number of local studies – many of which were written in the first half of the twentieth century. These studies were generally concerned with the institutional causes of the Revolution, and they investigated in great detail the legal aspects of property rights to common land and marshes. They thus contain a wealth of useful information about the scope and fate of water control projects under the Old Regime.

This material suggests that until the seventeenth century land reclamation through drainage and irrigation followed relative price movements. In other words, when land was relatively scarce, marshes were drained and irrigation canals were built. Between 1650 and 1789, however, little was accomplished.