Farmers-General, a name given in France prior to the Revolution to a privileged syndicate which farmed certain branches of the public revenue, that is, obtained the right of collecting certain taxes on payment of an annual sum into the public treasury; the system gave rise to corruption and illegal extortion, and was at best an unproductive method of raising the national revenue; it was swept away at the Revolution.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Farmer George * Farne