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Did Capitalism Lead to the Decline of the Peasantry? The Case of the French Combraille

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Anne C. Meyering
Anne C. Meyering
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824
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Abstract

The growth of French cities made possible the growth of population in the Combraille that lasted from about 1730 until about 1830. After 1830 the growth of cities and the rise of industrial capitalism explain the decline in population in the Combraille. Permanent out-migration accelerated. Temporary seasonal migration and the rate of natural increase declined. But the economic situation of the peasants in the Combraille improved. By 1950 the size of the population of the Combraille had returned to its pre-1730 level, but the majority of the inhabitants were much better off than they had been 200 years earlier.

Type
Papers Presented at the Forty-Second Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 121 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1983

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