The Economic Structure of a Seigniory in Beaujolais in the 17th and 18th Centuries : Saint-Lager

Abstract

Beaujolais, situated in the southeast of France, is known as a region of wine production since the 17th century. The purpose of our inquiry is to make clear the relations between the seignior and the peasantry in the economic life of a seigniory of the region. Some results are as follows. In the seigniory of Saint-Lager the seigniorial rights except for the honorary ones tended to be more or less reduced in the face of the growing royal imposition since the 16th century: the two powers were in competition for taking away the surplus of peasant product. But after the 1640's which were marked by the triumph of the monarchy, the cens (seigniorial rent) was nearly maintained on the same level, and it represented with the dime infeodee (tithe enfeoffed to the seignior by the Chapter of Saint-Paul of Lyon) about 40% of the seigniorial incomme. On the other hand, from a view point of the charges which weighed on the peasantry the seigniorial rights were extremely modest: they represented only 2〜3% of the net product while the royal imposition 29%. The viticulture under the metayage system constituted the central exploitation of the seigniorial demesne. The seignior-proprietor supplied the domaine et cellier which was composed of vineyards, wheat fields, house and agricultural equipment such as vat and wine-press, in sharing out with his vigneron (sharecropper of wine) the rest of the capital such as seeds and fodders. It was not always easy for the vigneron to furnish his part, that made him have recourse to the financing of his master. More narrow was the financial relation between the two persons concerned, more the vigneron looked like a simple farmhand engaged by the seignior-proprietor; the debt in this case resembled the advance. The majority of peasants were the mgnerons of the nobles and of the bourgeois of Lyon. Their exploitations, too small, did not pass much beyond 10ha in the maximum. At the head of the peasant proprietors called in this region habitants appeared some rural bourgeois who were the merchants as such as dealers of wine, and whose vineyards were cultivated by the vignerons and farmhands. The rural bourgeois continued with zeal to acquire the vineyards as did it the bourgeois of Lyon; we know that the vineyard produced 3〜4 times much more than the wheat field.