Would it not be a great satisfaction to the king to know at a designated
moment every year the number of his subjects, in total and by region, with
all the resources, wealth & poverty of each place; [the number] of his
nobility and ecclesiastics of all kinds, of men of the robe, of Catholics
and of those of the other religion, all separated according to the place
of their residence? ... [Would it not be] a useful and necessary pleasure
for him to be able, in his own office, to review in an hour's time the
present and past condition of a great realm of which he is the head, and
be able himself to know with certitude in what consists his grandeur, his
wealth, and his strengths?