What is the translation of agriculteur - peasant or peasant farmer?

“Also were the majority of rural peasants really land owners, surely they were mostly agricultural laborers, besides which prior evidence suggests a far higher education level among urban population than rural. The shift from urban to rural base for soldiers suggests a decrease in literacy not an increase.”

Not landowners in the main, but leaseholders and tenants. Peasants could only buy land from peasants, the majority of land was held by non peasants – but much was leased or rented to peasants. Leaseholds could be passed down as capital. The extraction of surplus by landlords was via: rents, appropriation of a percentage of yield, taxes (direct and indirect – for example use of the local mill or press) or seignural duties. Was the majority of land seized after 1789 or did appropriation, in the majority of cases, change in name only?

I have not seen a detailed study of the demographics of the displaced population – but it is a fair bet that those who moved from rural settlements to urban communities were less likely to have the funds or other resources necessary to lease or rent land etc. Can we also assume they had lower levels of education?

The following study provides a detailed investigation of one such rural community – albeit atypical in many ways (for example the immediacy of a major extractive and manufacturing centre and the combination of agricultural and textile related incomes).

http://books.google.com/books?id=zsR0UHij0L8C

The juxtaposition of “artisans et agriculteurs” in the list, who comprise some 25% of officers within the hierarchy (above the unskilled “ouvriers et journaliers” who comprise less than 1%), suggests a similarity not only in skills levels but also socio economic status prior to enlistment and then promotion. And by extension levels of literacy - more “artisans et agriculteurs” could become officers because a greater proportion were literate. However, this is not the same as saying they comprised a greater proportion of all recruits – it is likely, but not obvious from the data, that illiterate, “ouvriers et journaliers” comprised a good proportion if not the majority of recruits. Also the position of personal servant or household employee, as in England, should not necessarily be equated with low socio-economic status – even if poorly paid (they were more often than not relatively well fed and well housed).

Some thoughts which I hope are useful

Best wishes

Ant