Bracing from post to sill has been a long or standard situation in Europe. And you'll see it here in New England also:



The reasoning behind this placement of down braces, sometimes called standing braces is that it transfers the wind load directly to the sill/foundation near the point of the load.
For standard "hanging braces" the wind load has to be transfered over to the opposing brace (that works in compression). Sometimes this opposing brace is several bays or aisles away. This means the entire frame is wrenched, wracked or shifted until the compression brace resists it.
A standing or down braces prevents this from happening by absorbing the load at the wall were it is being applied.
In a barn or outbuilding this whole frame racking won't matter that much, but a house with sheet rock could see some cracks or other evidence of the racking if it was pushed to extreme....

Jim Rogers