CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. Introduction

II. The Population of Europe in the Old Regime

III. The Economic Structures of the Rural World

IV. Corporative Society and the Ständestaat

A. The Aristocracy: Varieties of the Privileged

Elite

B. The Privileged Status of the Aristocracy

C. Variations within the Peasantry: Serfdom

D. Variations within the Peasantry: Free

Peasants

E. The Urban Population of the Old Regime

V. The Social and Economic Structure of Urban

Europe

VI. National Economies: The Doctrine of

Mercantilism

VII. Global Economies: Slavery and the Triangular

Trade

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CHAPTER 17

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE

OF THE OLD REGIME

E

uropean society before the political and indus-

trial revolutions of the late eighteenth century

is known as the Old Regime. For most people

in the eighteenth century, life was little

changed from the Middle Ages and closer in its essen-

tials to that of ancient Rome than to the early twenty-

first century. Though global commerce was growing

and signs were seen of increased capital accumulation

and preindustrial development, the vast majority of Eu-

ropeans were still engaged in agriculture. Society re-

flected this by remaining hierarchical. A majority of the

population worked the land but owned little or none of

it, while most of the wealth continued to be held by a

small landowning elite.

Chapter 17 examines the social and economic

structure of the Old Regime. The chapter starts by

looking at the population of Europe, then considers the

social categories, called estates, into which people were

divided. (The term social classis a product of nineteenth-

century analysis.) The majority of Europeans lived in

rural villages, so the chapter next surveys the rural

economy, including preindustrial manufacturing. This

leads to a detailed examination of three major social

categories: the aristocracy, the peasantry, and town

dwellers. The urban economy leads to a discussion of

national economies, covering mercantilism, the

dominant economic philosophy of the Old Regime,

and the global economy.

The Population of Europe

in the Old Regime

Historians do not know with certainty how many

people lived in Europe in 1680, or even in 1780.

Governments did not yet record births and deaths

(churches usually documented them), and they did not

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