1. Social and Family Structure of the Old Regime (18th century)
Unit 4 – Chap. 15 (Kagan)

2. Nobility across Europe
1-5% of total population
Sources of Power:
Economic Wealth = LAND, PROPERTY
Social Influence
Political Power (esp. on a local level BUT ALSO on a national level)
PROPERTY = right / ticket to participate in politics

3. Commonalties among Nobility
Political Influence
Land owners
Interested in protecting their property
Interested in increasing wealth
Almost all nobility across Europe exempt from taxes (exp. English)
Aristocratic Resurgence
Protecting their class from members of upper-middle & middle class who are climbing the social ladder

4. Nobility in England Smallest and wealthiest of nobility (400 families)
Control the House of Peers (peerage)
Weak control in the House of Commons
Own ¼ of all arable land!
Primogeniture = younger sons expanding into other economic areas
Involved in commerce, building canals, urban real estate, mine and other industry
Country Estates = local centers of society (exclusive)
Paid SOME TAXES – helps to keep a somewhat stable balance of power

5. Nobility in France 400,000 Nobles
Nobles of the sword; nobles of the robe
Nobles with royal favor (18th century) = incredible political, military, clerical influence as well as economic wealth
Rural / Provincial Nobles (hobereaux): more like wealthy peasants
Most nobles exempt from most taxes (i.e. taille and corvees)
Supposed to pay vingtieme but generally didi not
Nobility has right to collect feudal dues from peasants

6. Nobility in Eastern Europe
Poland
Power of life and death over serfs
Exempt for all taxes after 1741, although most nobles relatively poor
Austria / Hungary
Judicial power of serfs
Exempt from taxes
Prussia
Incredible amount of control over serfs: personal & judicial
Nobility = high ranking military officers & bureaucrats
Russia
By 1762 exempted from military conscription
1785 Charter of Nobles defines legal rights of nobility in exchange for loyalty to the Tsarina, Catherine the Great

7. Taxation and Feudal Dues
France
Taille – property tax
Vingtieme – tax on income before the French Revolution
Banalites – feudal dues, can also include days of labor
Corvee – labor tax requiring peasants to work on roads, bridges and canals
Prussia and Austria
Robot – required service to the lord
Russia
Barschchina – labor “tax” = could demand up to six days a week labor

8. Lives of Peasants / Serfs
In what way were peasants’ / serfs’ lives similar in the West, the East and the Ottoman Empire?
Level of personal freedom
Level of taxation / feudal dues
In what way(s) could peasants /serfs try to improve their situations?
Pugachev Rebellion, Russia,

9. European Families of 18th Century
Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Nuclear Family
Father (26), Mother (23), Children (until teens), Servants
5-6 members = 2 generations
Married later – earn money and learn skills before developing a family
SERVANT – hired under contract to work for household in exchange for room, board, and wages
Extended Family
Lg. fam. = cultivation of land to support landowner
9+ people = 3-4 generations
Married before 20
Often forced in arranged marriages by landlord

10. Family /Household Economy
Describe the idea “household /family economy”
Why did everyone in the household work (either in the home or outside)?
Describe the role of the father, mother and child within this economy.
Hufton’s “economy of expedients”
Paris and London Foundling Hospitals
Commercial Revolution