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seigneurial system
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:Seigneurial system, seigniorial system
n. — historical, Agriculture
the system of tenant farming practiced in the colony of New France.
Type: 1. Origin — The seigneurial land tenure system derived from the French feudal system. The Compagnie des Cent-Associés established tenant farming in 1627 in New France. Influential seigneurs owned large tracts of land and rented sections of it to peasants. In 1854, almost a century after France had ceded the territory to Britain, legislation formally abolished the seigneurial system (see Canadian Encyclopedia reference). Although the Canadian government legally ended the system at the time, vestiges survived into the twentieth century (see, e.g., the 1928 and 1940 quotations). The term is most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
See also COD-2, s.v. "seigneurial system", which is marked "Cdn hist."
See also COD-2, s.v. "seigneurial system", which is marked "Cdn hist."
See: seigneurial
Quotations
1837
The seigneurial system offered the poor settler easy terms for the acquisition of a permanent interest in the soil, and at the same time operated by other circumstances (independently of the character of the people, which had the same tendency,) to prevent the early dispersion [...]
1853
Mr. Badgley, moved, seconded by Mr. Dixon, and the Question being proposed, That is is expedient to provide for the immediate abolition of the Feudal and Seigniorial system in Lower Canada, with all laws, usages, and customs incidental thereto [...]
1874
[...] the Seigniorial system of Louis the Fourteenth, and many European charters which we need not just now cite, grim warnings as they have all become to a thinking people, were but small seeds when first cast upon the ground, for they dealt merelyy with unvalued expanses of waste lands [...]
1900
The petition of de Rouville for a new seigniory to establish farmers there as they would not go to the townships where the system of free and common soccage was established. Ridicules the idea that these people were afraid of gaining freedom from the shackles of the seigniorial system.
1915
And a better illustration is found in the operation of the seigneurial system upon which Canadian society was based. In France a belated feudalism still held the common man in its grip, and in Canada the forms of feudalism were at least partly established.
1928
Probably the most striking of these survivals, is the seigneurial system of land tenure, which, imported to Canada from feudal France, three centuries ago, is today causing deep worry to the representatives of several municipalities, although it was supposed to have received its death blow in 1854.
1940
The shell of the seigniorial system which still survives in Quebec will be abolished officially on Nov. 11 when the Government of the Province will pay an indemnity of $2,000,000 to the few remaining seigniors or landlords in lieu of the yearly rent which has been payable for three centuries.
1988
The British conquest brought a new chapter of history to Chateau Ramezay. It became Government House under Sir Guy Carlton who later became Lord Dorchester. He played a large role in the Quebec Act of 1774 which retained the seigneurial system, the French civil code and freedom of religion.
2008
The principal economic influence in Quebec, he said, was the feudal nature of its farms: "Agriculture in francophone Canada had its roots in the seigneurial system - that is, in 17th century French feudalism."
2014
In 17th-century New France, plots of land were divided so that every farmer had access to the St. Lawrence River.
"Everybody got a piece of riverfront," notes Graham Crawford, a local writer and activist.
What if 21st-century Hamilton took a page from the seigneurial system's playbook, and reorganized its irregularly drawn wards so they were in a neat, pie-shaped pattern?
References
- COD-2
- Canadian Encyclopedia • Seigneurial System
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