He had much territory to occupy, and in the long march of on an average 85 days, he considered that they could be organized, equipped and drilled en route.
The essence of the tax denoted by these names was that the amount was fixed en bloc for a whole group of persons, and afterwards divided among them in various ways.
He had then just published his first work, an Essai sur les machines en general.
This tract, the Discours sur les causes de l'extreme cherte qui est aujourdhuy en France (1574), and the disquisition on public revenues in the sixth book of the Republique, entitle Bodin to a distinguished position among the earlier economists.
The form in which certain of the references to him are couched favours the above view; the compiler of Guiron le Cortois says in his prologue that "maistre Gautier Map qui fu clers au roi Henrydevisa cil l'estoire de monseigneur Lancelot du Lac, que d'autre chose ne parla it mie gramment en son livre"; and in another place he refers to Map, "qui fit lou pro pre livre de monsoingnour Lancelot dou Lac."