The Old Regime: A Comprehensive Analysis

The Old Regime: Society, Politics, and Economy

The Old Regime was a set of social relations that characterized the economic and political societies of central Europe.

Function of the Old Regime

Society operated as an economic system that relied on agriculture and an absolute monarchy.

Social Structure

Class Society

• Nobility: Divided into high and low nobility. The high nobility received significant income from seignorial rights, while the low nobility did not.
• Clergy: Also divided into high and low clergy. The high clergy consisted of sons of nobles, and the low clergy came from the third estate.
• Third Estate: Encompassed all other people, including farmers, bourgeois, and working classes.

Land Ownership

Land owned by the nobility was not easily divided due to systems of property linked to noble titles, which prevented the decrease of land assets. Lands owned by the clergy (amortized lands or “dead hands”) could not be sold. The remaining lands were in the hands of the monarchy, individuals, or municipalities.

Economic Activities

Agriculture

The majority of the population was dedicated to agriculture, primarily subsistence farming in unproductive, arid lands. Most farmers grew cereal products for trade, as well as vineyards and olive groves in Mediterranean areas.

Industry

Industry consisted mainly of small craft workshops controlled by guilds (professional associations of craftsmen). The function of guilds was to control the production of manufactures.

Domestic Market

The domestic market faced challenges such as controlling unions, inconsistent weights and measures, and different regional customs.

External Trade

External trade involved the exchange of products between Europe and America.

Political System: Absolutism

Absolutism aimed to control all powers of the state.

Absolutist Politics

The political system was dominant in Europe in the early eighteenth century. The King controlled executive, legislative, and judicial power.

Absolutism and Mercantilism

Absolutism was based on mercantilism, a set of political and economic practices applied by absolute monarchies in Europe between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Absolutism and Social Tax

The third estate paid taxes, providing the power to reach all corners of the territories dominated.

Enlightened Despotism and Other Political Systems

Enlightened Despotism: Absolute monarchs attempted reforms, seeking to combine royal authority with Enlightenment ideas.

Mercantilism: A policy to encourage exports and curb imports to accumulate as much gold and silver as possible.

England Monarchy: Featured a separate executive and legislative power, with an elected parliament that voted on laws and controlled government members. Citizens defended individual liberty. A minority (15%) could vote; residents of the colonies were not represented in Parliament, and slavery was commonly accepted.

The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment: An intellectual movement developed in Europe in the eighteenth century, inspiring the independence of States and the French Revolution.

Precedents: Isaac Newton and John Locke. They advocated an absolute faith in reason.

Critique of the Ancien Régime: Proposed a new model of political and social organization (freedom and equality) and criticized absolutism, leading to Liberalism.

• Montesquieu: Advocated the separation of powers.
• Rousseau: Promoted the social contract and sovereignty.
• Voltaire: Championed freedom of conscience and human relations based on tolerance.

Innovations

Norfolk Tillage System: Removed fallow periods, allowing soil fertility to recover without sowing.

New Transport: Railway, locomotive, steamship.

The End of the Old Regime

The French Revolution ended the Old Regime and opened doors to a new liberal society and new ways of thinking and living.

Causes included severe economic crisis and royal finances.