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Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction 3
PART ONE
Malthusian Renaissance
1. The Low-Water Mark of a Society 11
2. Population, Subsistence, Income: The "Scissors" of the Sixteenth Century 51
I. the population explosion 51
II. towards austerity 73
3. Land Subdivision, Land Concentration, Pauperization 84
4. Wages, Rents, Profits: The Impoverishment of the Rural Wageworker 98
I. the deterioration of real wages 98
II. the persistent stagnation of real rent 114
III. the triumph of profit 119
5. General Perspectives 132
PART TWO
New States of Consciousness and Social Struggles
1. The Paths of Scripture 149
2. The Huguenot Offensive and the Lands of the Priests 172
3. The Tithe: Reform or Revolution? 181
4. Struggle and Action of the "Lower Classes" 191
5. Witches' Sabbaths and Revolts 203
PART THREE
The Rent Offensive
PART FOUR
The Depression
Prices and Chronology 219
1. The Vicissitudes of the Gross Product 223
2. The New Demographic Depression 239
3. From Land Subdivision to Land Concentration 246
4. The Land Is No Longer Profitable 251
5. The Savage Rebellions 265
Conclusion
A Great Agrarian Cycle 289
Tables and Graphs 313
Principal Manuscript Sources 323
Bibliography 335
Index 365