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{{short description|Cultivation of land for a proprietor by one who receives a proportion of the produce}}
[[Image:Louvres-antiquites-egyptiennes-img 2713.jpg|thumb|260px|Contract for metayage, papyrus, 35th year of [[Amasis II]] (533 BC, [[Demotic (Egyptian)|26th Dynasty]])]]
The '''metayage'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|UK|ˌ|m|eɪ|t|eɪ|ˈ|(|j|)|ɑː|ʒ|,_|ˌ|m|ɛ|t|-}}, {{IPAc-en|US|-|t|ə|ˈ|j|-}};<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/amp/english/metayage|title=Metayage|work=[[Collins English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|accessdate=March 23, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite
==Origin and function==
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The system was once universal in certain provinces of [[Italy]] and [[France]], and survived there in places until the end of the nineteenth century. Similar systems formerly existed in [[Portugal]], [[Old Castile|Castile]],<ref>[http://libro.uca.edu/vassberg/land5.htm D. Vassberg "Land and Society in Golden Age Castile"]</ref> and in [[Greece]],<ref>Moreau-Christophe, Louis-Mathurin (1849) ''Du Droit a l'Oisiveté et de l'Organisation du Travail Servile Dans les Républiques Grecques et Romaine'' Chez Guillaumin et Ce, Libraires: Paris, pp. 258-261.</ref> and in the countries bordering on the [[Danube]]. It is tracked to this day in statistics of the [[European Commission]].<ref>[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:329:0001:0028:FR:PDF eur-lex.eu: "RÈGLEMENT (CE) No 1200/2009 DE LA COMMISSION" 30 Nov 2009]</ref><ref>[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2001:255:0001:0051:FR:PDF eur-lex.eu: "REGLEMENT (CE) No 1837/2001 DE LA COMMISSION" 10 Sep 2001]</ref><ref>[http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:216:0001:0041:FR:PDF eur-lex.eu: "RÈGLEMENT (CE) No 1444/2002 DE LA COMMISSION" 24 Jul 2002]</ref> Métayage was used in French colonies, particularly after the demise of slavery. Also, because of its utility métayage spread to nearby British colonies such as Nevis, St. Lucia and Tobago.<ref>Richardson, Bonham C. (1992) ''The Caribbean in the Wider World, 1492-1992: A Regional Geography'' Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, p. 74. {{ISBN|0-521-35186-3}}</ref><ref>Marshall, W.K. (1965) “Métayage in the Sugar Industry of the British Windward Islands, 1838-1865" ''The Jamaican Historical Review'' 5:28-55.</ref> It still occurs in former French possessions, particularly in [[Madagascar]].<ref>[http://www.ilo.cornell.edu/ilo/briefs.html ''Dynamics in Social Service Delivery and the Rural Economy of Madagascar: Descriptive Results of the 2004 Commune Survey'' International Labour organization (ILO), (April 2005)]</ref> In the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]] the system is used in the vicinity of [[Kahuzi-Biéga National Park]] as a means to protect the natural environment.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.irec.net/index.jsp?p=28&f=227 |title=irec.net: "Le metayage agricole comme l'un des moyens de la protection des ressources naturelles de kahuzi biega" (Ntamwira Kasigwa: thesis, 2000) |access-date=2014-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413142443/http://www.irec.net/index.jsp?p=28&f=227 |archive-date=2014-04-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In Mexico the system is used in animal husbandry.<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/45515239_Le_mtayage_d%27levage_au_Mexique__colonisations_foncires_et_dynamiques_d%27une_institution_agraire_dans_l%27histoire_contemporaine "Le métayage d'élevage au Mexique : colonisations foncières et dynamiques d'une institution agraire dans l'histoire contemporaine" (H. Cochet, Eric Léonard, Bernard Tallet)]</ref>
The term ''métayage'' is also applied to modern-day flexible cash leases at least in the nominally common law Canadian province of [[Ontario]],<ref>''Flexible Cash Lease Agreements/Contrats de métayage portant sur les cultures'', Factsheet 812 (2001) Ministry of Agriculture, Government of Ontario accessed at [http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/french/busdev/facts/01-068.htm][https://web.archive.org/web/20070802143042/http://omafra.gov.on.ca/french/busdev/facts/01-068.htm] with English version at [http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/facts/01-069.htm][https://web.archive.org/web/20090328025503/http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/busdev/facts/01-069.htm] June 20, 2006</ref> and in 2006 in all of Canada, 13,030 farms occupying 2,316,566ha were counted by Statistics Canada.<ref name=statscan>[http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-629-x/4/4124092-fra.htm statcan.gc.ca: "Mode d'occupation, 2006: Tableau 4.5-5 - Mode d'occupation déclaré des terres possédées, louées, en métayage ou utilisées sous d'autres arrangements - Superficie en métayage, année de recensement 2006"]</ref> The same study of metayage found 2,489 farms covering 130,873ha in Ontario.<ref name=statscan/> The system was useful in Quebec for most agricultural properties at least as far back as the year 1800,<ref>[http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/antrobus_john_5E.html biographi.ca: "DCB entry for ANTROBUS, JOHN"]</ref> and is still tracked statistically by value in Quebec as "
==Criticism==
British writers were unanimous in condemning the métayage system, until [[John Stuart Mill]] adopted a different tone. They judged it by its appearance in France, where under the ''[[ancien régime]]'' all direct [[tax]]es were paid by the métayer with the noble landowner being exempt. With the taxes being assessed according to the visible produce of the soil, they operated as penalties upon productiveness. Under this system, a métayer could fancy that his interest lay less in exerting himself to augment the total share to be divided between himself and his landlord and instead be encouraged to defraud the latter part of his rightful share. This was partly due to the métayer's relative state of destitution and with the fixed duration of his tenure - without which the metayage could not prosper. French metayers, in [[Arthur Young (writer)|Arthur Young]]'s time, were "removable at pleasure, and obliged to conform in all things to the will of their landlords," and so in general they so remained.<ref name="Cruveilhier, J. 1894">Cruveilhier, J. (1894) ''Étude sur le métayage'' Paris.</ref>
In 1600, the landlord [[Olivier de Serres]] wrote 'Le théâtre de l'agriculture' which recommends Métayage as cash tenants took all the risks so would demand lower rent while hired labour was expensive to manage.<ref>The Economic Theory of Sharecropping in Early Modern France, Philip Hoffman, The Journal of Economic History 1984, page 312</ref> [[Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi|Simonde de Sismondi]] expressed dissatisfaction in 1819 with the institution of métayage because it reinforced the poverty of the peasants and prevented any social or cultural development.<ref>[[Jean Charles Leonard de Sismondi|de Sismondi, Simonde]] (1819) ''Nouveaux principes d'economie politique, ou de la Richesse dans ses rapports avec la population'' translated as ''New Principles of Political Economy of Wealth in Its Relation to Population '' by Richard Hyse, Transaction Publishers: London (1991). {{ISBN|0-88738-336-X}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2017}}
==See also==
*[[Sharecropping]]
*[[Sharefarming]]
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