Metayage: Difference between revisions

 

==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>