
The Seigneurial System

The Seigneurial System was a way of dividing land that was established in
New France in 1627. This system imitated the feudal system used in France,
but modified for North American needs. Its purpose was to encourage
settlement in an orderly fashion. The majority of the people living in New
France at that time were farmers leading simple lives along the St.
Lawrence River. Their farms were divided into long rectangular strips along
a major waterway. Rivers greatly affected the pattern of land development
because they were the main route for transportation. Until 1663 the St.
Lawrence River was the main location of the farms. After this date, many
more were established along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River, and
the Richelieu River.When an entire shoreline was completely settled, a
second row of farms, or seigneuries was built behind the first.

This system of land use had both advantages and disadvantages. The close
proximity to one another facilitated communication among the people, and
provided numerous access points along the river for transportation. The
disadvantage was that their defense was very limited. With the population
stretched out very long and thin, defending the land was extremely
difficult.

All the land on the seigneurie was controlled by the Crown. Since the Crown
could not continuously monitor all the land, he appointed an official, a
seigneur. The seigneur, in modern day terms, would be considered a
landlord. In a ceremony held at the Castle St. Louis in Quebec, he swore
his loyalty to the King, and was given a  large piece of land by the Crown.
With the ownership of this land came many responsibilities. The seigneur's
main responsibility was to populate, and cultivate the land,but his duties
did not end there. Other responsibilities included defending the seigneurie
in case of an attack, collecting

minor taxes and loyalties from the tenants, conserving the forest's oak
trees, informing the Crown of any mineral wealth that might be discovered,
and to establish a personal residence on the land.

Once the seigneur had obtained his land, he could begin to rent out
portions of it. The tennants living on his land were known as the
habitants. The habitants also had their share of duties and
responsibilities in exchange for their land. They had the right to
construct a house, and to cultivate and live on the land. Their
responsibilities included paying minor taxes, three or four days of free
labour on the seigneur's land, sharing a portion of the grain ground at the
community mill and a portion of all the fish caught in the river. These
obligations were not too severe, so most of the habitants abided by them.

The goal of the feudal system in France was to create well-defined social
classes. A large economic and social gap existed between the seigneur and
the habitants. This, however, was not the case in New France. Most people
noticed that the seigneurs did not have a standard of living that was much
greater than that of the habitants, but the habitants did enjoy a better
life than their equivalent in France. The seigneurs routinely overlooked
lapses in obligations and payments, because they knew that if the habitants
felt that they were being treated unfairly, they could very easily abandon
their land, escape into the wilderness, and get involved in the profits of
the fur trade.

The seigneurial system was only marginally successful in achieving its goal
of being an instrument of colonization. It did encourage a large-scale
immigration to New France, but the colony never reached the population of
that of the British's 13 Colonies. After New France was taken over by the
British, they had to decide what to do with the habitants. They could have
taken these people from their homes and assimilated them onto the British
way of life. They soon realised that if they did this, it would have
disrupted a lifestyle so deeply rooted in their culture, that turmoil would
be the result.  So they respected their rights, and left them alone. It was
not until 1854 that a law was passed that allowed the habitants to claim
their own land. Soon after this development, the township system became
more popular, and the seigneurial system became more of an inconvenience,
hampering economic development. Even through this adversity, many relics of
this communial way of life endured until the 1940's when all signs of the
seigneurial system were finally eradicated.


