Claude Carlier

Claude Carlier (7 September 1725 – 25 April 1787), called the Abbé Carlier, was a French religious, historian and agronomist. He was the prior of Andrésy and prévôt royal (royal provost) of the châtellenie (castellany) of Verberie, where he was born and died.

Carlier came to public notice when he participated in a contest held by the and sponsored by the intendant of finances Daniel-Charles Trudaine between 1752 and 1754. The contest asked whether France could do without foreign wool, and how French wool production could be improved in both quality and quantity. Carlier had a deep knowledge of sheep breeding, the fleece trade and the different kinds of wool produced by different sheep breeds. He won the contest with an essay arguing that Spanish and English breeds produced better wool. A few years later, the controller-general of finances, Henri Bertin, hired Carlier as a consultant-propagandist tasked with promoting new breeds of sheep and new shepherding practices.

In 1762, Carlier published Considerations on the Means of Re-establishing in France Good Species of Wool Sheep and Bertin distributed copies to agricultural societies throughout France. In 1763, when Bertin turned his attention to Flemish sheep, Carlier produced a book on the subject, Instruction in the Manner of Raising and Perfecting the Good Species of Wool Sheep in Flanders. This book was highly influential in the subsequent adoption of Flemish breeds throughout France. Carlier was then tasked with producing a questionnaire to be sent to all the regions of France on breeding practices. This elicited over 300 responses. Carlier himself synthesised the data in a two-volume publication in 1770, Treaty on Wool Sheep, or a Method of Raising and Perfecting the Herds in the Fields and the Sheepfold, a Practical Work.

Carlier wrote an important history of the County and Duchy of Valois.