SOCIETY AND ECONOMY UNDER THE OLD REGIME IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Mrs. Anita Tucker

AP European History

Victor Valley High School

MAIN POINTS

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ajor Features of Life in the Ancien Regime or Old Regime

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he Aristocracy

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he Land and its Tillers

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amily Structures and the Family Economy

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he Revolution in Agriculture

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he Industrial Revolution of the Eighteenth Century

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he Growth of Cities

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he Jewish Population: The Age of the Ghetto

ANCIEN RÉGIME

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aintenance of Tradition;

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ierarchy and Privilege

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he Aristocracy (1-5% of population)• British Nobility (400 families; eldest male of each family sat in the House of

Lords;• These families controlled many seats in the House of Commons;• Owned about 1/4th of the Arable land in Britain;

• French Nobility - Nobles of the Sword – through military service; Nobles of the Robe – through service or purchase;• Did NOT pay tax (taille or land tax); responsible for vingtieme (income tax) but rarely

paid it;• Collected fuedal dues from tenants, enjoyed exclusive hunting and fishing privileges;

ANCIEN RÉGIME

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astern European Nobilities – more complicated and repressive;

military traditions of aristocracy important;• In Poland, thousands of szlachta (nobles) were exempt from taxes

and held rights of life and death over their serfs.• Most nobles were not wealthy but those who did had immense estates

and political power; In Austria and Hungary – nobility had large judicial powers over

peasantry and had exemption from some taxation; In Prussia – after Frederick the Great in 1740, Junker noble has

stronger position due to need for officers from this class for wars; Prussian nobles had extensive judicial authority over serfs;

Russia – Peter the Great created Table of Ranks (1722) to establish a nobility; By 1785, Catherine the Great leally defined the rights and privileges, considerable power over serfs and exemption from taxes;

ARISTOCRATIC RESURGENCE

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obility’s reaction to threat to their social position and

privileges due to expanding power of the monarchies;• Exclusivity;• Reserve appoints to officer corps of military,

bureaucracies, government ministries and church to Nobles;

• Use authority of aristocratically institutions against power of monarchies;

• Improve financial position through gaining further exemptions from taxation or collecting higher rents or long forgotten feudal dues from peasantries;

OLD REGIME

Before 1789 – the Ancien Regime or “Old

Regime” - Applies generally to life and

institutions of pre-revolutionary Europe• Aristocratic elites inherited many legal

privileges;• Established churches intimately related to the

state and aristocracy;• An urban labor Force organized into guilds• A rural peasantry subject to high taxes and

feudal dues;

LAND AND ITS TILLERS

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easants and Serfs• English and most French – Free Peasants;• Serfs in Germany, Austria and Russia – legally bound to a particular plot of land and particular lord;

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lass that owned most of the land controlled the local government and courts;

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easants subject to feudal dues (banalités), payment to grind grain and bake bread; and forcd labor

(corvée), rent for lands;

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n Russia, wealth was determined by the number of “souls” a noble owned;

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andowners became more commercially-orientated, with growing cash crops such as cotton, potatoes,

and maize, to sell at market;

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scarcity of labor made peasants valuable to landowners, who regarded them as commodities rather than

give them independence or legal rights;

PEASANT REBELLIONS

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ussia – over 50 peasant revolts between 1762 – 1769, culminating wit

Pugachev’s Rebellion (1773-1775) which was brutally put down;

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ddititional peasant revolts took place in Bohemia (1775), Transylvania

(1784), Moravia (1786), Moravia (1786), and Austria (1789(.

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here were almost no revolts in Western Europe, although there were

some rural riots against unfair pricing, changes in payment or land use;

ENGLISH GAME LAWS

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unting game limited to landowners; killing a deer by non-landowners was a

capital offense.

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he poor would hunt in hard times, and poaching by city dwellers could be

profitable;

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n France, during the French Revolution, penalties increased;

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n 1831 Parliament rewrote the game laws to allow people to hunt, ending

the exclusive right of the landed gentry;

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND FAMILY ECONOMY

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ost Europeans lived in rural areas;

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he family was the basic unit of production and consumption in

preindustrial Europe;

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here are two very different basic households –• Northwestern Family Model;• Eastern European Family Model;

NORTH WESTERN FAMILIES

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rimarily consisted of a married couple, their children through early teenage years, and servants;

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ost households are small, between 5-6 members;

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o more than two generations of a family lived together;

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igh mortality and late marriage prevented families of three or more generations (grandparents

did not live with families)

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uclear family unit rather than extended family unit;

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eolacalism – men usually were over twenty-six and women over twenty-three when they

married; Many would hire themselves as servants for 8 years to save money for marriage;

EASTERN EUROPEAN FAMILIES

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oth men and women usually married before the age of twenty;

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hildren were born to much younger parents;

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ural Russian households were more than nine and sometimes more than twenty

members with three or four generations living together;

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ulti-generational households were encouraged by landowners to ensure they could

have enough to cultivate the crops; marriage between neighboring serfs or free

workers was discouraged;

FAMILY ECONOMY

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ost people worked within the family economy;

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ost people lived in a family our household – beggars and those living independently were

viewed with hostility and considered criminals;

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he death of the father could easily spell disaster for the family, especially in western

Europe.

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omen's economic contributions to the household were considered more important than

their biological reproductive capacities.

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omen and babies experienced high mortality rates during and after childbirth; and many

infants were abandoned, usually for economic reasons.

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

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opulation exploded starting in the 18th century.

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urope's population in 1850 was probably between 100 and 120 million people; by 1800

there were almost 190 million Europeans, and by 1850 there were 260 million.

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istorians have proposed, and subsequently discarded, various explanations for this

population growth.

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ne factor was the introduction, from America, of the highly productive food crop, the

potato.

Increasing population led to increasing demand, and therefore increasing prices, for wheat

and bread.

AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION

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his hurt peasants, but helped larger landowners.

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andlords began to treat crop cultivation as a commercial operation, and introduced new

techniques that increased crop yields.

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he economic and social organization of farming also changed: in England, for example, the

enclosure movement rationalized the use of land and allowed higher productivity – though

it also caused serious problems for peasants and poor villagers.

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overnments sided with landowners, however, and peasant revolts were suppressed.

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n eastern Europe, land ownership patterns and social structures were less encouraging of

agricultural innovation.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF THE 18TH CENTURY

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he Industrial Revolution was about economic growth and new patterns

of consumption, as much as it was about technological and

organizational innovations in industry.

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urope's traditional economy of scarcity was replaced by a demand-

driven cycle of growth.

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dvertising and social emulation fueled consumer demand, especially in

Great Britain, where political and economic factors were also favorable

for innovation.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION OF THE 18TH CENTURY

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he domestic system of textile production was the first area of industry to be

transformed, through the introduction of Hargreaves' spinning jenny around 1765,

Arkwright's water frame in 1769, and Cartwright's power loom in the late 1780s.

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att's 1769 steam engine, based on Newcomen's work more than 50 years earlier,

was applied to industries ranging from mining to textiles to, eventually,

transportation.

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ron became the backbone of industrial machinery.

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s work was re-organized to accommodate the new machines, labor was increasingly

segregated by gender, and women's work was systematically de-valued.

THE GROWTH OF CITIES

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ities grew substantially between 1500 and 1800, but which cities grew

and in which ways cities changed were markedly different.

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etween 1600 and 1750, capital cities and ports grew most vigorously,

while smaller cities in general actually lost population.

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fter 1750, smaller cities began to grow more rapidly than larger ones, and

entirely new cities emerged, especially around factories.

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ity-dwellers led radically different lives, depending on their social class.

THE GROWTH OF CITIES

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he upper classes lived quite comfortably, and often controlled city

government.

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he middle class was the most dynamic group, with aspirations and fears led

them to support reform, change, and economic growth.

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rtisans, who made up the largest group, were generally conservative.

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read riots were sparked by artisans who believed merchants were not

charging economically "just" prices, while other forms of riots could be

fueled by religious prejudice or political agendas.

THE JEWISH POPULATION – THE AGE OF THE GHETTO

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ews were segregated and discriminated against on

religious grounds throughout Europe. The vast majority of

Jews lived in eastern Europe, particularly Poland, Lithunia,

and the Ukraine. In most countries Jews were treated as

resident aliens, without political or civil rights and socially

inferior; only in England was it possible for Jews to mingle

with mainstream society.

THE JEWISH POPULATION – THE AGE OF THE GHETTO

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his was the age of the ghetto, or separate community, either distinct

districts within cities or separate, Jewish villages in rural areas.

Most Jews were poor; one exceptional category was the so-called

"court Jews," who helped finance royal projects (usually wars).

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ews, especially children, were sometime forcibly converted to

Christianity, and they were sometimes killed for their religious beliefs.

CONCLUSION

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urope's traditional, corporate society was transformed by several processes that began in the 18th

century.

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ncreasing population meant that wheat and bread prices rose, allowing large landowners to

accumulate capital.

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hey invested in innovations that fueled the Agricultural Revolution.

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he Industrial Revolution was driven by demand for the consumption of goods, particularly by the

middle class.

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omen's work was devalued. Commercialism and market values gained prominence.

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he monarchy, nobility, and middle class all jockeyed for power and prestige; this creative tension

fostered further innovation.