Daily Life During the French Revolution (36 page)

AGRICULTURE

About 35 percent of the total area of France is arable, and
some 7 percent of the labor force is engaged in agricultural pursuits today. In
the 1780s, however, the vast majority of the population was thus engaged, and
agriculture was the country’s economic mainstay.

Land cultivation was practiced in all sorts of climate and
soils, from the high Pyrenees Mountains and Alpine homesteads to the flat
marches of the Landes, from the open field farms of the Paris basin to the
small enclosures of hedgerows in Normandy, and along the misty shores of the
Atlantic Ocean and the sun-parched coasts of the Mediterranean.

Grain surpluses even in the most fertile regions were
always rather small because of the outdated methods of farming, and production
barely sufficed to feed the townsmen or the inhabitants of less productive
regions. A number of areas were designated to provision Paris and its nearly
600,000 inhabitants, but, in years of poor harvests and shortage, riots erupted
in the streets of the city.

The nobility, relatively few in number in comparison with
the rest of the population, owned some 25 percent of the land, and the church
owned around 10 percent. Much of the church’s wealth came from urban property
holdings, but the
dîme
made up a considerable sum. According to Young,
who made inquiries in various parts of the country, the amount payable to the
church was never 10 percent but always more—up to 20 percent of the peasants’
income. The church did not collect on some new items of cultivation that did
not date back to medieval times; these included potatoes, turnips, silk worms,
olives (in some places but not in others), and cabbages. The peasant who owned
cows paid nothing to the church, but, if he had lambs, the church took some of
them in dues.

There were swaths of common, uncultivated, or so-called
waste land where the peasants used to graze their animals. Such land made up
two-fifths of Brittany and much of the Alpine regions and the Massif Central
but amounted to very little in more populated places such as the Ile de France.

The Vendée (at the time part of Poitou) had only one road
from Nantes to La Rochelle, and the land consisted primarily of waste,
brushwood, heath, and morass, with patches here and there of cultivated rye and
buckwheat. It was a region of large tenant farms that a family might occupy for
generations. On some farms, mules were reared for export to Spain; on others,
horses, cows, oxen, sheep, pigs, and poultry were raised to sell. In Languedoc,
agriculture was very different, with vines, mulberries, and olive trees
completely covering the hills.

Since wheat does not grow well on the same land two years
in a row, it was rotated, the patch used for one year’s crop remaining fallow
the following year. The land was often divided into three sections—wheat, oats,
and fallow—with the three uses applied in rotation so that the soil had a
chance to replenish itself. In regions of poor soil, the land might be left
fallow for far longer. Before planting, it was fertilized with manure; when
that was not available, ashes, dead leaves, or whatever organic materials were
available were applied. Then the plowing would begin. The land was tilled
several times, depending on the crop. Wheat, for best results, might require
four tillings. The plowing was generally accomplished by means of harnessed
oxen or mules, and, sometimes, horses. It was not unknown for family members to
pull the plow, itself often a primitive instrument of wood slanting down from a
cross bar connected to two wheels. The pattern of everyday life in peasant
communities revolved around tilling, planting, harvesting, threshing, and
grazing the animals that supplied the manure to ensure a rich harvest. Since
this kind of work was done by hand, seasonal laborers were an added requirement
during harvest and threshing time. Most of the wheat grown in France was
cultivated north of the Loire River.

The grass that grew on uncultivated land, such as in the
foothills of the mountains, on rocky outcroppings, along the windswept coasts
of the Atlantic, and on marshy terrain, was productive for livestock. In these
regions, animals were raised not only for food to feed the peasant population
and to sell in the markets but also to serve as beasts of burden for the army,
which always required horses and mules.

Maize (corn) was first introduced into Europe from the
Americas in the sixteenth century. The first place in France to cultivate maize
was the region of Béarn, in the southwest, where it was used as fodder for the
animals long before the poorest of the peasants began to eat it in the form of
cornmeal cakes in place of more expensive bread. By the eighteenth century, a
large portion of the peasant diet was corn, but the wealthy seldom ate it. Soon
it became evident that land planted with potatoes could feed twice the number
of people as the same amount of land used to produce cereal crops. In addition,
dried potatoes could be stored for a long time.

BASTIONS OF FEUDALISM

In many out-of-the-way places such as Normandy, Burgundy,
Brittany, and the Franche-Comté, peasants experienced brutal, arbitrary tyranny
from aristocratic authority. There was no justice in the manorial courts in
disputes between peasants and their lord, since the judges in such courts were
dependent on the lord of the manor for position, power, and pay. The peasant
paid fines or charges around every corner. Peasants had to pay the
banalité
,
or rent for the use of the flour-grinding mills, which belonged to the lord but
which the peasant farmer needed to process his wheat; he also had to press his
grapes, as well as apples for cider, on the seigneur’s press; bread could be
baked only in the lord’s ovens. For all of these activities, a fee was charged.
In Brittany, the peasants were sometimes ordered to beat the waters of the
marshes all night to keep the bullfrogs silent so that the lady of the manor
could sleep peacefully.

The lord had the exclusive right, or banvin, to sell his
wine at his price in his parish; there were many other rights particular to
certain locations that weighed on the peasant—the
bardage
, or transport
duty; the
fouage
, seigneurial taxes on fires; the
vingtaine
, or
the seigneurial right to one-twentieth of the peasants’ produce; a tax on
fishing in the rivers and streams—all this in addition payments to the lord of
the manor for every change of property.

Most peasants were never full owners of land in the modern
sense, but, nevertheless, the land they occupied may be regarded as their land,
since it could be willed to the peasant’s children or transferred to other
occupants, usually for a fee.

A farmer could make various arrangements; the owner might
hand over the land for an agreed amount of rent, for example, or the farmer
could own outbuildings if they had been built at his expense, along with stock
and crops. Both parties could separate under certain conditions, one being
reimbursement of outlay.

TERMS OF A LEASE

On August 1, 1779, in the town of Villefranche de
Lauragais, a little southeast of Toulouse, Pierre and Mathieu Reynes, father
and son, appeared before a notary and agreed to lease a farm called La Grave
for one year commencing November 1. They were leasing it from Jacques Maurel,
who was acting as agent on behalf of the owner, the powerful marquis
d’Hautpoul. It was a large farm of about 35 hectares that seemed to offer a
secure living. The lease was written in the form known as half-fruits—a kind of
sharecropping contract. The stipulations were set out in detail.

For the use of the land, the two farmers were required to
give to the agent in rent 36 chickens at Christmas and the same on St. John the
Baptist’s day, June 24, and a further 36 capons on All Saints’ Day, when the
lease expired. Besides the chickens, they were obliged to hand over 600 eggs
during the course of the year and were expected to buy and raise pigs, geese,
ducks, and turkeys, of which Maurel would take the half of his choosing when
they were ready for sale. The rest of the livestock on the farm would be divided
in the same way. The tenants were committed to keeping the property in good
condition, providing their own tools and implements for their work, and they
would pay for plows ordered from the village blacksmith. They were responsible
for the hay and straw for the animals and would pay half the costs of any extra
that was needed and could not be grown.

The three-field system applied. One-third of the land was
for wheat, one-third was for beans or other vegetables and grains, and
one-third was to lie fallow. If the tenants failed to utilize all the land, the
agent could lease the unused portion to someone else. The father and son had to
provide seed grain and pay the costs of cutting and threshing, which they could
do by handing over part of the harvest, that is, paying in kind. While they
provided the means necessary for farming and all the upkeep on the land, the
owner took the lion’s share of the result. Out of the little left over after
paying the landlord, the father and son had to pay rents, as well as taxes to
the crown and the dîme for the church. The half of the livestock that remained
in the tenant’s possession by the terms of the agreement could be sold to pay
these and other obligations. It has been calculated that the Reynes would have
a profit of about 15 percent of the total yield at the end of the year. This
did not produce enough money to buy bread sufficient to feed a family of five.
There was no guarantee that the lease would be renewed, and the tenants were
subject to the law if they broke any of the agreements. None of the parties was
literate enough to write his name on the contract.

Another kind of farming,
métayage
, was based on a
50-50 split. It was in use primarily south of the Loire. In such a case, the
owner supplied land, stock, and implements, and the manual laborer supplied his
muscle. All produce was generally shared equally or according to the contract.
Such farms were usually from 50 to 150 acres in size. The
métayer
(laborer)
himself may have owned a small parcel of land.

MIGRANT WORKERS AND DAY LABORERS

Peasants who held some land but not enough for their family
needs (about four hectares) often had to find jobs on larger farms or perform
nonagricultural work in factories, mills, or mines in order to subsist. They
could find such work in the months that did not require planting and
harvesting. For agricultural day laborers who possessed nothing more than a
vegetable patch and a shanty, life was exceptionally difficult. They had to be
mobile and travel where the work was to be found, and many hours of work (and
pay) could be lost if bad weather ruined the harvest. Day workers could also
seek employment as weavers and spinners in industry when there was no
fieldwork, but such jobs paid a pittance.

Migrant workers from neighboring regions or countries who
worked in the vineyards, olive groves, orchards, and wheat fields were
particularly hard hit in bad times, with not enough money to feed their
families or even to travel home again. Starving to death was a distinct
possibility.

If a peasant farmer required help, he had to find someone
to work for him, although it was not easy to produce the cash to pay him, and
it sometimes turned out that the laborer had to work for credit. A male servant
in Normandy was paid 60 livres per year, or roughly 100 sous per month. Female
servants on a farmstead were paid about a third of what a man earned. Typical
daily salaries for short-term labor were 9 sous and dinner for an ordinary day
worker, 12 sous for a thatcher, 13 sous for a plowman, and up to 15 sous for a
reaper or a carpenter. Grain crops were taken in dues and rents, and surplus
vegetables sold in the market brought in only trivial amounts of money. Stock
rearing for urban markets brought in more. For instance, a single cow could fetch
60 or 70 livres, a sow 30 to 45. Lambs were worth 7 to 7 livres and a sheep
about 15. The premature death of a peasant’s cow or pig could bring on
financial problems that might force him to sell off a little of his land to
replace the animal.

RURAL LIVES

Peasants engaged in agriculture dwelt in isolated
farmhouses or in hamlets, villages, or, sometimes, substantial small towns.
Often the fields were some distance from their dwellings, and much time was
spent going to and fro. Their households included a servant or two (if they
were well off), unmarried children, elderly parents, or other relatives.
Several families might share the same dwelling and work the same land. The
majority, however, lived in stark, harsh, conditions very remote from those
imagined by Marie-Antoinette in her little fairyland peasant village at the
Petit Trianon. Most peasant families had to make do with a one- or two-room
house with dirt floors, which they also had to share with any livestock. The
houses, or hovels, were often dark, windowless, and poorly ventilated places
where disease could easily breed, particularly when the walls were of dung and
mud, as was often the case. If windows existed, they were without glass.
Throughout the departments of Maine and Loire, many people lived in caves or
troglodyte villages hollowed out of tufa rock.