French Peasant
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French peasants were the largest
socio-economic group A social class or social stratum is a grouping of people into a set of hierarchical social categories, the most common being the working class and the capitalist class. Membership of a social class can for example be dependent on education, wea ...
in France until the mid-20th century. The word peasant, while having no universally accepted meaning, is used here to describe
subsistence farming Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occ ...
throughout the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, often
smallholders A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...
or those paying rent to
landlords A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord applies ...
, and rural workers in general. As
industrialization Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
developed, some peasants became wealthier than others and drove investment in agriculture. Rising inequality and financial management in France during the late 18th century eventually motivated peasants to revolt and destroy the feudal system. Today peasants could no longer be said to exist as an economic or social group in France, although many attempts have been made to honor and preserve this traditional way of life.


1500 to 1780s

By the middle of the 16th century, France's demographic growth, its increased
demand In economics, demand is the quantity of a goods, good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given time. In economics "demand" for a commodity is not the same thing as "desire" for it. It refers to both the desi ...
for consumer goods, and its rapid influx of gold and silver from Africa and the Americas led to inflation (grain became five times as expensive from 1520 to 1600), and
wage stagnation Real wages are wages adjusted for inflation, or equivalently wages in terms of the amount of goods and services that can be bought. This term is used in contrast to nominal wages or unadjusted wages. Because it has been adjusted to account for ...
. Although many richer land-owning
peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
s and enterprising merchants had been able to grow rich during the boom, the
standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available to an individual, community or society. A contributing factor to an individual's quality of life, standard of living is generally concerned with objective metrics outsid ...
fell greatly for poor rural peasants, who were forced to deal with bad
harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...
s at the same time. This led to reduced
purchasing power Purchasing power refers to the amount of products and services available for purchase with a certain currency unit. For example, if you took one unit of cash to a store in the 1950s, you could buy more products than you could now, showing that th ...
and a decline in manufacturing. The monetary crisis led France to abandon (in 1577) the ''
livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...
'' as its money of account, in favor of the
écu The term ''écu'' () may refer to one of several France, French coins. The first ''écu'' was a gold coin (the ''écu d'or'') minted during the reign of Louis IX of France, in 1266. The value of the ''écu'' varied considerably over time, and si ...
in circulation, and banning most foreign
currencies A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or currency in circulation, circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use wi ...
. Meanwhile, France's military ventures in Italy and (later) disastrous civil wars demanded huge sums of cash, which were raised with through the ''
taille The ''taille'' () was a direct land tax on the French peasantry and non-nobles in ''Ancien Régime'' France. The tax was imposed on each household and was based on how much land it held, and was paid directly to the state. History Originally ...
'' and other taxes. The taille, which was levied mainly on the peasantry, increased from 2.5 million livres in 1515 to 6 million after 1551, and by 1589 the taille had reached a record 21 million livres. Financial crises hit the royal household repeatedly, and so in 1523, Francis I established a
government bond A government bond or sovereign bond is a form of Bond (finance), bond issued by a government to support government spending, public spending. It generally includes a commitment to pay periodic interest, called Coupon (finance), coupon payments' ...
system in Paris, the "rentes sure l'HĂŽtel de Ville". In the 17th century rich peasants who had ties to the
market economy A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production, and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand. The major characteristic of a mark ...
provided much of the
capital investment Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...
necessary for agricultural growth, and frequently moved from village to village (or town).
Geographic mobility Geographic mobility is the measure of how populations and goods move over time. Geographic mobility, population mobility, or more simply mobility is also a statistic that measures migration within a population. Commonly used in demography and huma ...
, directly tied to the
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...
and the need for investment capital, was the main path to
social mobility Social mobility is the movement of individuals, families, households or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society. It is a change in social status relative to one's current social location within a given socie ...
. The "stable" core of French society, town guildspeople and village laborers, included cases of staggering social and geographic continuity, but even this core required regular renewal. Accepting the existence of these two societies, the constant tension between them, and extensive geographic and social mobility tied to a market economy holds the key to a clearer understanding of the evolution of the
social structure In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally rel ...
, economy, and even
political system In political science, a political system means the form of Political organisation, political organization that can be observed, recognised or otherwise declared by a society or state (polity), state. It defines the process for making official gov ...
of early modern France. Collins (1991) argues that the
Annales School The ''Annales'' school () is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century to stress long-term social history. It is named after its scholarly journal '' Annales. Histoire, S ...
paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm ( ) is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. The word ''paradigm'' is Ancient ...
underestimated the role of the market economy; failed to explain the nature of capital investment in the rural economy, and grossly exaggerated social stability.


1789–1945

France faced a series of major economic crises after 1770. Because of very expensive wars, and inadequate financial system, the government was virtually bankrupt. From the point of view of the peasants, rapid
population growth Population growth is the increase in the number of people in a population or dispersed group. The World population, global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 8.2 billion in 2025. Actual global human population growth amounts to aroun ...
, harvest failures,
physiocratic Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists. They believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultu ...
calls for modernization of agriculture, and rising
seigneur A seigneur () or lord is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. The seigneur owned a seigneurie, seigneury, or lordship—a form of ...
ial dues motivated peasants to destroy
feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
in France. They played a major role in starting the French Revolution in 1789. However most quickly retired from active political involvement. Karl Marx argued that the “allotment farmer” lacked political unity due to the sheer local nature of their lives. Napoleon I was widely popular. The Second Republic was widely resented for imposing high taxes, most notorious among them the 45 centime tax.


19th century modernization of peasants

France was a rural nation as late as 1940, but a major change took place after railways started arriving in the 1850s–60s. In his seminal book ''Peasants into Frenchmen'' (1976), historian
Eugen Weber Eugen Joseph Weber (April 24, 1925 – May 17, 2007) was a Romanian-born American historian with a special focus on Western civilization. Weber became a historian because of his interest in politics, an interest dating back to at least the ag ...
traced the modernization of French villages and argued that rural France went from backward and isolated to modern and possessing a sense of French nationhood during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He emphasized the roles of railroads, republican schools, and universal
military conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...
. He based his findings on school records,
migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
patterns, military service documents and
economic trend Economic trend may refer to: *all the economic indicators that are the subject of economic forecasting **see also: econometrics *general trends in the economy, see: economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodologica ...
s. Weber argued that until 1900 or so a sense of French nationhood was weak in the
provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...
. Weber then looked at how the policies of the Third Republic created a sense of French nationality in rural areas. The book was widely praised, but was criticized by some, such as Ted W. Margadant, who argued that a sense of Frenchness already existed in the provinces before 1870.


Protectionism

After a period of free trade under
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
and the early Third Republic, French national policy became more
protectionist Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
with regard to agricultural products, to protect the very large agricultural population, especially through the
Méline tariff The Méline tariff was a French protectionist measure introduced in 1892. It is noted as being the most important piece of economic legislation of the Third Republic and marked a return to earlier protectionist policies effectively ending the perio ...
of 1892. France maintained two forms of agriculture: a modern, mechanized,
capitalistic Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by a ...
system in the Northeast, and in the rest of the country a reliance on
subsistence agriculture Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow crops on smallholdings to meet the needs of themselves and their families. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements. Planting decisions occu ...
on very small farms with low income levels. In 1884 unions were legalised which in the countryside allowed for the creation of
syndicats agricoles A syndicat agricole is a French speaking farmers' union. In France The syndicats first formed after the Waldeck Rousseau law of 1884 legalised French unions. At the same time Catholic social teaching was evolving and encouraging the self help ...
representing farmers. At first this led to the setting up of gentry-led unions (called the ''syndicalisme des ducs'').


Since 1945

Modernization of the traditional/subsistence farming sector began in the 1940s, and resulted in a rapid
depopulation Population decline, also known as depopulation, is a reduction in a human population size. Throughout history, Earth's total human population has continued to grow but projections suggest this long-term trend may be coming to an end. From ant ...
of rural France, although protectionist measures remained national policy. With government support, younger, more active farmers bought out their neighbors, enlarged their properties, and used the latest in mechanization, new
seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...
s,
fertilizer A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from liming materials or other non-nutrient soil amendments. Man ...
s, and new techniques. The result was a revolution in agricultural
output Output may refer to: * The information produced by a computer, see Input/output * An output state of a system, see state (computer science) * Output (economics), the amount of goods and services produced ** Gross output in economics, the valu ...
, as well as a sharply reduced number of active farmers from 7.4 million in 1946 to only 2 million in 1975. It also resulted in millions of empty old farm houses. They were promptly purchased and upgraded by Frenchmen who wanted a rural retreat away from the frenzy of their primary work in the cities. Many did this out of
nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nĂłstos''), a Homeric word me ...
about family memories of rural living that drew the city dwellers back to the countryside. By 1978, France was the world leader in per capita ownership of second homes and ''L’Express'' reported an "irresistible infatuation of the French for the least
Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...
thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
house, Cévenol sheep barn or the most modest
Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...
farmhouse." Numerous organizations since the 1930s have emerged to preserve and enhance the position of the small farm in France, with a wide range of
ideological An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...
approaches from far left to far right. They all seek to honor the tradition and fund the surviving farmers, and mobilize their political support. The media became deeply involved, especially the
postwar A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
French film industry The cinema of France comprises the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe, with prima ...
. Film depicted the exodus from countryside to city as a threat to France's historic role as a traditional, agrarian society. Documentaries celebrated the enormous power of modern machinery and
electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...
, while fictional dramas portrayed the joy of city dwellers who returned to the wholesome atmosphere of the country.Pierre Sorlin, "‘Stop the rural exodus’: images of the country in French films of the 1950s." ''Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television'' 18.2 (1998): 183–197.


See also

*
Economic history of France The economic history of France involves major events and trends, including the elaboration and extension of the manorialism, seigneurial economic system (including the Serfdom, enserfment of peasants) in the France in the Middle Ages, medieval K ...
*
History of France The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age France, Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. Greek writers noted the presence of three main ethno-linguistic grou ...
*
Peasant A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
*
Peasants' War (1798) The Peasants' War (, , , ) was a peasant revolt in 1798 against the French occupiers of the Southern Netherlands, a region which now includes Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Germany. The French had annexed the region in 1795 and control of t ...
, revolt in 1798 against the French occupiers of the Southern Netherlands *
Siege of Malta (1798–1800) The siege of Malta, also known as the siege of Valletta or the French blockade (), was a two-year siege and blockade of the French garrison in Valletta and the Three Cities, the largest settlements and main port on the Mediterranean island of ...
. which began as a peasant uprising against French rule in 1798


Notes


Further reading


Before 1789

* Beech, George T. ''Rural Society in Medieval France'' (1964) * Bloch, Marc. ''Feudal society (Société féodale)'' (1961) classic from
Annales School The ''Annales'' school () is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century to stress long-term social history. It is named after its scholarly journal '' Annales. Histoire, S ...
* Braudel, Fernand. ''Civilization and capitalism, 15th–18th century (Civilisation matĂ©rielle, Ă©conomie et capitalisme)'' (3 vol 1992) * Farmer, Sharon A. ''Surviving poverty in medieval Paris: gender, ideology, and the daily lives of the poor'' (Cornell UP, 2002) * Goubert, Pierre. ''The French peasantry in the seventeenth century'' (1986) * Kettering, Sharon. ''French Society: 1589–1715'' (2014). * Hoffman, Philip T. ''Growth in a traditional society: the French countryside, 1450–1815'' (Princeton UP, 1996) * Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. ''
The Peasants of Languedoc Les paysans de Languedoc or The Peasants of Languedoc was an internationally influential history book by the French Annales school historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Publication In 1955 Le Roy Ladurie was teaching in the University of Montpellier ...
(Paysans de Languedoc)'' (University of Illinois Press, 1974) influential product of
Annales School The ''Annales'' school () is a group of historians associated with a style of historiography developed by French historians in the 20th century to stress long-term social history. It is named after its scholarly journal '' Annales. Histoire, S ...
* Ridolfi, Leonardo. "The French economy in the longue durĂ©e: a study on real wages, working days and economic performance from Louis IX to the Revolution (1250–1789)." ''European Review of Economic History'' 21#4 (2017): 437–438. * SĂ©e, Henri EugĂšne. ''Economic and social conditions in France during the eighteenth century'' (1927) pp 14–5
online


Since 1789

* Ardagh, John. ''France in the 1980s'' (1982) pp 206–57.
older edition
* Berger, Suzanne. ''Peasants against politics: rural organization in Brittany, 1911–1967'' (Harvard UP, 1972). * Devlin, Judith. ''The superstitious mind: French peasants and the supernatural in the nineteenth century'' (Yale UP, 1987). * Edelstein, Melvin. "Integrating the French peasants into the nation-state: The transformation of electoral participation (1789–1870)." ''History of European Ideas'' (1992) 15.1–3: 319–326. * Golob, Eugene. ''The Meline tariff: French Agriculture and Nationalist Economic Policy'' (Columbia University Press, 1944
online
* McPhee, Peter. "The French Revolution, peasants, and capitalism." ''American Historical Review'' 94.5 (1989): 1265–1280
online
* Margadant, Ted W. ''French peasants in revolt: The insurrection of 1851'' (Princeton UP, 1979). * Markoff, John. ''Abolition of Feudalism: Peasants, Lords, and Legislators in the French Revolution'' (Penn State Press, 2010). * Markoff, John. "Peasants help destroy an old regime and defy a new one: some lessons from (and for) the study of social movements." American Journal of Sociology 102.4 (1997): 1113–1142. * Pinchemel, Philippe. ''France: A Geographical, Social and Economic Survey'' (1987) * Schwartz, Robert M. "Rail transport, agrarian crisis, and the restructuring of agriculture: France and Great Britain confront globalization, 1860–1900." ''Social Science History'' 34.2 (2010): 229–255. * Sutherland, D. M. G. "Peasants, Lords, and Leviathan: Winners and Losers from the Abolition of French Feudalism, 1780–1820," ''Journal of Economic History'' (2002) 62#1 pp. 1–2
in JSTOR
* Weber, Eugen. "The Second Republic, Politics, and the Peasant", ''French Historical Studies'' 11#4 (1980), pp. 521–550 (in JSTOR). * Weber, Eugen. ''Peasants into Frenchmen: the modernization of rural France, 1870–1914'' (Stanford UP, 1976). ** Cabo, Miguel, and Fernando Molina. "The Long and Winding Road of Nationalization: Eugen Weber's Peasants into Frenchmen in Modern European History (1976—2006)." ''European History Quarterly'' 39.2 (2009): 264–286. * Wright, Gordon. ''Rural revolution in France. The peasantry in the twentieth century'' (1964)
online free toborrow
* Zeldin, Theodore. ''France 1848–1945'' (Vol I, 1973). pp 131–97


Historiography

* LĂ©vi‐Strauss, Laurent, and Henri Mendras. "Rural studies in France." ''Journal of Peasant Studies'' 1.3 (1974): 363–378. covers the scholarship in French. {{Authority control Social history of France Medieval society Early modern period History of agriculture in France Rural economics Estates (social groups) Social class in France French farmers Peasants