This is the book I mentioned previously and I’m almost 3/4 of the way done. The title of the book comes from George Puttenham who in 1589 said, "Peace makes plentie, plentie makes pride, pride breeds quarrel, and quarrel breeds warre: Warre brings spoile, and spoile povertie, povertie pacience, and pacience peace: So peace brings warre and warre brings peace."

So Puttenham wouldn’t win any modern spelling bee contests, but I love the expression. It explains history very nicely which is how I like it to be explained. But the excerpt I wanted to share today is the one below about the population increase in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.

One of the most striking historical trends in France during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was massive population growth. In 1100, about six million people inhabited the territory within the modern national borders of France. By 1300, the population more than tripled and reached a level between 20 and 22 million. The rest of Western Europe experienced a similar population buildup. We are on firm ground when it comes to tracing the dynamics of the population of England. In 1086, William the Conqueror, who wanted to know just how many new subjects he had acquired by his conquest of England, conducted a massive census whose results were preserved in the Domesday Book. Using this information, modern historians estimate that there were around two million people in England at the end of the eleventh century. Two centuries later, there were close to six million

The population increase put the productive means of the medieval society under a collossal strain. All land that could be cultivated was turned into fields. In the process, more than 30 million acres of forests - one quarter of the modern area of France - were destroyed to make room for agriculture. Land was worked more intensively by shifting from the two-field to the three-field system. Instead of letting land rest every other year, each field was cultivated every two years out of three. As a result of increases in cultivated area and the switch to the three-field system, the amount of food produced in France probably doubled during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. But the number of mouths to be fed increased threefold, with the inevitable result that the per-capita food consumption declined.  

Today, according to Wikipedia, 64,473,140 people live in the French Republic. Also per wikipedia, "large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer and exporter in Europe. Wheat, poultry, dairy, beef, and pork, as well as an internationally recognised foodstuff and wine industry are primary French agricultural exports. EU agriculture subsidies to France total almost $14 billion." According to this table based on data from 2004, this appears to be almost 29 billion USD.