[Sidenote: Survival of Serfdom]
[Sidenote: Sorry Condition of the Peasantry]
Primitive methods were not the only survivals of manorial life. Actual serfdom still prevailed in most of the countries of Europe except France [Footnote: Even in France, some serfdom still survived.] and England, and even in these countries nominal freedom lifted the peasantry but little above the common lot. It is true, indeed, that countless differences in the degree and conditions of servitude existed between Russians and Frenchmen, and even between peasants in the same country or village. The English or French plowman, perhaps, might not be sold to fight for other countries like the Hessians, nor could he be commanded to marry an undesired bride, as were of the tenants of a Russian nobleman. But in a general way we may say that all the peasants of Europe suffered from much the same causes. With no voice in making the laws, they were liable to heavy fines or capital punishment for breaking the laws. Their advice was not asked when taxes were levied or apportioned, but upon them fell the heaviest burdens of the state.
It was vexatious to pay outrageous fees for the use of a lord's mill, bridge, oven, or wine-press, to be haled to court for an imaginary offense, or to be called from one's fields to war, or to work on the roads without pay. It was hard for the hungry serf to see the fat deer venturing into his very dooryard, and to remember that the master of the mansion house was so fond of the chase that he would not allow his game to be killed for food for vulgar plowmen.
But these and similar vexations sank into insignificance in comparison with the burdens of the taxes paid to lord, to church, and to king. In every country of Europe the peasants were taxed, directly or indirectly, for the support of the three pillars of the "old regime." The form of such taxation in England differed widely from that in Hungary; in Sweden, from that in Spain. But beneath discrepancies of form, the system was essentially the same. Some idea of the triple taxation that everywhere bore so heavily upon the peasantry may be obtained from a brief resume of the financial obligations of an ordinary French peasant to his king, his Church, and his lord.
[Sidenote: Peasant Obligations to Landlord]
To the lord the serf owed often three days' labor a week, in addition to stated portions of grain and poultry. In place of servile work the freeman paid a "quit-rent," that is, a sum of money instead of the services which were considered to accompany the occupation of land. Double rent was paid on the death of the peasant, and, if the farm was sold, one-fifth of the price went to the lord. Sometimes, however, a freeman held his land without quit-rent, but still had numerous obligations which had survived from medieval times, such as the annual sum paid for a "military protection" which he neither demanded nor received.
[Sidenote: Peasant Obligation to Church]
The second obligation was to the church—the tithe or tenth, which usually amounted every year to a twelfth or a fifteenth of the gross produce of the peasant's land.
[Sidenote: Peasant Obligations to King and State]
Heaviest of all were the taxes levied by the king. The taille, or land tax, was the most important. The amount was not fixed, but was supposed to be proportional to the value of the peasant's land and dwelling. In practice the tax-collectors often took as much as they could get. and a shrewd peasant would let his house go to pieces and pretend to be utterly destitute in order that the assessors might not increase the valuation of his property.