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- Title
"Entrepreneurial Nobles" or "Aristocratic Serfs"? Reconsidering Feudalism in Old Regime Central France.
- Authors
FITCH, NANCY
- Abstract
This article examines the changing nature of aristocratic land acquisitions in central France in the centuries before the outbreak of revolution in 1789. It shows how nobles bought up or confiscated peasant land to engross large estates. Since their acquisition rarely altered the legal status of such lands, aristocrats surprisingly were among those responsible for paying the bulk of the feudal dues at the end of the Old Regime (and were probably the major beneficiaries when the French Revolution abolished them). These "entrepreneurial" nobles often blended new kinds of industry with traditional forms of agriculture; they also increasingly deprived peasants of land and grazing rights. By exploring changing patterns in aristocratic landholding, this article shows how the nobility in central France contributed both to the development of capitalism and industrialization in France and to rising peasant anger at the beginning of the French Revolution.
- Subjects
FRANCE; NOBILITY (Social class); FEUDALISM; BOURBON dynasty, France, 1589-1789; PEASANTS; CAPITALISM; REAL property acquisition; HISTORY; PEASANTS -- History
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2016, Vol 39, Issue 1, p105
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-3323457