Society and Economy Under the Old Regime

1. Society and Economy Under the Old Regime Social History in the 18th Century

2. Characteristics of The Old Regime • Absolutism • Large Bureaucracy • Large Armies lead by Aristocracy • Urban Labor Force: Guilds • Rural Peasantry: Taxed heavily • Pay for Aristocratic Privilege • Desire to maintain status quo

3. Challenges to the Old Regime • Increase population • Increased Consumer Demand • Increase of Food Costs • Peasants on the Verge of Famine • Changing Social Classes • Growth of Cities and Urban Population • Greater Demand on Crop Production

4. Western Aristocracy • British Nobility • Most Responsible of Aristocrats • Balanced Interest in Parliament • House of Lords and House of Commons • Smallest and Wealthiest Nobles in Europe • Noble and Common Man Pay Taxes • Dominated Local Government (Counties)

6. Western Aristocracy • French Nobility Split into Two Groups • Nobility of the Sword and Nobility of the Robe • Those with Favor of the Royal Court at Versailles and Those Who Did Not • Exempt From Taxes and Corvées • Hunting and Fishing Privileges • Expensive to maintain prominent status in government • Monarchy is growing weaker, financial struggles • Aristocracy are resurgent, Parlements reassert • Louis the XV and XVI are incompetent

7. Louis XV Louis XVI

8. Eastern Aristocracy • Polish Nobility • Right of Life and Death Over Serfs • Entirely Exempt From Taxes • Relatively Poor but the Few With Immense Estates had Political Power • Austria and Hungary • Broad Judicial Powers by Manorial Courts • Local Nobility Wield Significant Power • Various Degrees of Tax Exemption

9. Eastern Aristocracy • Prussia • Junker Nobles Stronger • Nobles Made up Bureaucracy and Army Officers • Extensive Judicial Authority • Russia • Table of Ranks Determined Noble Influence on Monarch (Catherine the Great) • Widows Inherited Rank (Title) of Husband • Harshest Repression on Serfs • Exempt from Personal Taxes

10. Aristocratic Resurgence • More Difficult to Become a Noble • Reserved Army, Clergy, Bureaucratic Posts • Aristocratic Institutions Against Monarchies • Parliaments and Parlements • Further Exemptions from Taxation • Collecting Higher Rents/Taxes from Peasants

11. Agricultural Revolution New Crops and New Methods Population Growth Enclosure Acts Peasants Migrate to Cities Age of Great Consumption Urbanization Emerging modern class system Upper class rule cities Poor artisans and shopkeepers organize into guilds Early Industrial Revolution Begins in Great Britain New Methods of Textile production The Steam Engine Iron Production Coal Consumption Poor prone to rioting! This will be covered in much more detail later! Family and Economy in the 18th Century

14. Cottage Industries (West) Family means of production and consumption That will begin to change Women support family business East vs West Western Families Grow Smaller, nuclear (Pre-industrialized) Eastern Families remain large and extended (Agrarian) Urbanization Cities serve as Industrial centers Market towns Financial centers Capital cities (National and Regional) Growth overwhelms city governments Conditions for poor are atrocious. Private philanthropy assist poor Impact on Family

15. Women-a mixed result Increased role in household economy Decreased role in textiles (temporary) Displaced peasant women become servants Increased promiscuity and unwanted children Children Participated in Family economy Son would carry on family business Extras would become servants as teens or join the work force Increase in orphans Infanticide Impact of Women and Children

18. East (Poland Russia) Political Economic Social Be specific West (England, France) Political Economic Social Be specific Organizing this Chapter

19. East

20. West