After the Bastille was stormed in 1789, the feudal system was overthrown, and feudal taxes such as the tithe were completely abolished, replaced by a land tax. A 1790 decree required every parish to compile an inventory of the real estate within its district.
The Paris Agricultural Association had also discussed this issue. Ancient Roman cadasters came in two forms: maps and registers. Maps required surveying. Before the eighteenth century, whether private owners or lords, everyone had registers but no maps; what concerned them was the rights and obligations surrounding taxation.
With the reemergence of archaeological discoveries and records, the Kingdom of Piedmont in northern Italy was the first to restore the Ancient Roman cadastral system of maps and registers existing side by side. Ancient Roman surveying required triangular measuring instruments and sundials, as well as methods using meridians to establish horizontal lines.
This was essential common knowledge in engineering surveying, and it also placed very high demands on surveyors. During the process, the owner or a representative had to be present to ensure fairness and accuracy.
In the old days, France had also conducted cadastral surveys in three fiscal districts. This was mainly because those areas had reformed their tax systems, replacing poll taxes with land taxes.
Surveying in the Paris region had only begun in 1776. Maps of Paris from that period showed different colored blocks, each representing a different type of land and serving as a basis for taxation.
In 1783, Napoleon began surveying Corsica. He had still been a student then, but he had already employed advanced surveying techniques, making several innovations based on the triangulation method of Jean Picard Philip de La Hire.
In 1791, the Constituent Assembly issued an order to create a nationwide general cadaster. But the political situation was turbulent and finances