Indeed he thought that the Europeans could learn from the Chinese in building more gracious cities (because of the latter's elegant roofs) and embanking rivers for agricultural purposes (ibid., 113, 146). Gaining access to China's huge internal market, "which will be sufficient to guarantee the wealth and the grandeur of the nation skillful enough to penetrate it first" (and here Garnier referred to Russia and England as rivals) was enough reason for France to persist in its empire-building project in Indochina (ibid., 297). The French had an advantage in that through treaties previously signed with the court of Hue, they exercised influence over the neighboring Tonkin region. These geopolitical coi1siderations were not lost on Gamier, whose argument is worth quoting at length: