Everyone hoped to be the sole tenant, producing most of what he required in order to live. The land of the habitant was a kind of economic unit essential for survival. This method of land settlement left its mark on both the countryside and the Québec mentality. Other institutional organizations such as parishes, municipalities and the militia held land bordering on these seigneuries. Seigneuries were granted to the nobility, to religious institutions (in return for education and hospital services), to military officers and to civil administrators. Lawrence River between Montréal and Québec City and the Chaudière and Richelieu Valleys and extended to the Gaspé Peninsula. They covered virtually all the inhabited areas (36,500 km²) on both banks of the St. Roughly 220 seigneuries were granted during the French regime. Despite the attractions of city life and the fur trade, 75 to 80 per cent of the population lived on seigneurial land until the mid-19th century. The seigneurial system was central to France's colonization policy and came to play a major role in traditional Québec society. ![]() Furthermore, seigneurs who were too demanding, who were absentee landowners, or who neglected to develop their lands were less likely to attract settlers. The availability of land in the 17th and 18th centuries allowed habitants to choose where to settle. However, this is not to suggest that the seigneur oppressed the censitaire. According to some historians, it represents “the essence of the social hierarchy and inequality that characterized pre-revolutionary France.” Whether they were of noble or common descent, the seigneurs were a privileged class, and their relationships with the censitaires were affected by the perception of the cens. As an institution, the seigneurial system played a leading role in building and maintaining social relations in New France. However, recent studies have called for a re-evaluation of this traditional interpretation and have highlighted an aspect of the seigneurial system that is often neglected. The seigneurial system is often presented as a basic form of land distribution and occupation. In the early 18th century, seigneurs began to insist that their tenants work for them a certain number of days annually ( see Corvée). He also usually granted hunting, fishing and woodcutting licences. He received from the habitants various forms of rent: the cens, a small tithe dating from the feudal period, which reaffirmed the tenant's theoretical subjection to the seigneur the rente in cash or kind and the banalités, taxes levied on grain, which the tenant had to grind at his seigneur's mill. He could establish a court of law, operate a mill and organize a commune. The seigneur had both onerous and honorary rights. These acts of concession set out the rights and obligations of each party. Portions of the seigneur's land were usually leased on the basis of a duly notarized contract. The principal regulation granted a person, who thus became seigneur, a parcel of land that was to put into production, either directly or through concession to habitants who requested land. ![]() The state established regulations to govern the system and the relationship between seigneurs and their tenants. Individual holdings were large enough (usually about 3 x 30 arpents) to provide a reasonable living to farmers. The long, rectangular strips were particularly well adapted to the local terrain, since they facilitated interaction between neighbours and provided multiple points of access to the river, the principal communication route. Seigneuries, which were usually 1 x 3 leagues (5 x 15 km) in size, were generally divided into river lots ( rangs), a survey system based on the French experience in Normandy. Its purpose was to promote settlement in a systematic way. This politically determined system of land distribution was regulated by law and had many advantages. The land was therefore granted as fiefs and seigneuries to the most influential colonists who, in turn, granted tenancies. The Compagnie des Cent-Associés, which was granted ownership and legal and seigneurial rights over New France, from the Arctic to Florida, also obtained the right to allocate the land to its best advantage. The tenant was normally referred to as a habitant. In New France the similarities ended with occupation of land and payment of certain dues. ![]() The seigneurial system was based on the feudal system, which involved the personal dependency of censitaires (tenants) on the seigneur. ![]() The family would engage in subsistence farming to meet most of their food, heating, and shelter needs. In principle, the seigneur granted a piece of land to a family under a royalty system. In New France, 80 per cent of the population lived in rural areas governed by this system of land distribution and occupation. The seigneurial system was an institutional form of land distribution established in New France in 1627 and officially abolished in 1854.
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