These theories immediately received legal sanction in the edicts of 1763 and 1766 establishing free trade in corn, first within the country and then without, but some very serious restrictions were still retained. Unfortunately Nature proved very ungrateful to her friends. For four or five years she ran riot with a series of bad harvests, for which, as we may well imagine, the Physiocratic _régime_ and its inspirers were held responsible. Despite the protests of the Physiocrats, this liberal act was repealed in 1770. It was re-established by Turgot in 1774, and again repealed by Necker in 1777—a variety of fortune that betokens a fickleness of public opinion. This new piece of legislation, and, indeed, the whole Physiocratic theory, was subjected to severe criticism by an abbot of the name of Galiani. Galiani was a Neapolitan monsignor residing at the French court. At the age of twenty-four he had written a remarkable work in Italian dealing with money, and in 1770, written in splendid French, appeared his _Dialogues sur le Commerce des Blés_. It was an immediate success, and it won the unqualified approval of Voltaire, who was possibly attracted more by the style than by the profundity of thought. Galiani was not exactly opposed to _laissez-faire_. “Liberty,” he wrote, “stands in no need of defence so long as it is at all possible. Whenever we can we ought to be on the side of liberty.”[74] But he is opposed to general systems and against complete self-surrender into the hands of Nature. “Nature,” says he, “is too vast to be concerned about our petty trifles.”[75] He shares the realistic or historical views of the writers of to-day, and thinks that before applying the principles of political economy some account should be taken of time, place, and circumstances. “The state of which the Physiocrats speak—what is it? Where is it to be found.”[76] Along with Galiani we must mention the great financier Necker, who in a bulky volume entitled _La Législation et le Commerce des Grains_ (1775) advocates opportunistic views almost identical in character with those of Galiani, and who, as Minister of State (1776-81 and 1788-90), put an end to free trade in corn.