Family Structure & Family Economy AP European History

Life under the Ancien Régime “Absolute” monarchies exceptions are British and Dutch Rights are corporate people are entitled to rights privileges or exempt from duties based on their membership in a social class Both peasants and nobles want to maintain traditional structure to protect their perceived rights. Noble exemption from taxation Ex.: French nobility’s exemption from the corvée and taille Peasant access to manorial lands English peasants have more “rights” but upper classes pull all the strings English Game Laws

Eastern European serfdom Peasants tied legally to the land Exploited and abused Landowners exercise judicial rights over serfs Basically slavery

La Nain Brothers Peasant Family in an Interior (c. 1642)

Family Structure Family = basic unit of production/consumption All goods/income to the benefit of household People lived within a household because It was virtually impossible for ordinary people to support themselves independently Most Europeans lived in rural areas Family Economy and Structure Differed between Western and Eastern Europe

Western Europe Household consisted of a married couple, their children thru early teen years and servants usually not more than 5-6 members people married relatively late “neolocalism” Men were over 26, Women were over 23, Why? difficult to support themselves, need time to acquire assets results in lower birth rates Wealthier classes marry earlier Nuclear rather than extended family Due to high mortality rates AND late marriages more than two generations of a family rarely lived under the same roof Often second-families (widows/half/steps)

Women & Children Women Children Marriage = economic necessity Maintain parents’ household and then work outside the home to save money for a dowry Money necessary to start a household upon marriage Once married, worked to make money or engaged in subsistence farming to provide for the household. Bearing and rearing children usually subordinate Only aristocratic women and those in religious orders could live outside this pattern (20% never marry) Children Childbirth is dangerous, IMR is high More children not always wanted infanticide many abandoned children (unwanted, illegitimate) “foundling” hospitals Upper-classes educate their children for new economy Most children remain uneducated/illiterate

Western Europe Subsistence farming Growing food or other products that could be exchanged for food Usually not enough land Family members might labor outside for wages Often, women and children left behind to maintain household while father migrated for work. Urban artisans Relied on family as apprentices, shopkeepers Death of father could devastate Western European family Not so much in the East because of multigenerational and extended nature of the family there. Western Europe

Subsistence Farming

Did you say servants? Children lived with their parents until early teens leave home, usually to enter the workforce Children of skilled artisans might stay longer to learn valuable skills Children earned more money working outside the home Worked for room, board, wages and training

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe Both men and women usually married before the age of twenty (lower avg. age) near universal rates of marriage marriage involved expanding on an already established family, rather than starting a new household high birthrates coupled with high death rates large, multi-generational households Households were generally larger than West Extended family due to early marriage, it was possible to have three or more generations of family living together

“Western European Marriage Pattern” Hajnal Line