422 
In 1788, the annual income of a family of farm-laborers, by day’s work, 
amounted to about 200 francs, which was about 20 frances greater than 
in 1700, under the closing days of the splendid but destructive reign of 
Louis XIV. ‘Twenty-five years later, during which the old monarchy, 
gangrened with corruption, had been broken up by the cataclysm of the 
revolution and replaced by the empire, the wages of farm-labor had 
doubled in most of the departments. At the restoration of the Bour- 
bons, in the person of Louis X VIII, Chaptal estimates the average re- 
compense of a laborer at 1.25 franes per day, or 375 francs for a year 
of 300 working days; the income of a female laborer was estimated at 
120 frances, or 60 centimes per day, for 200 working days. M. Moreau 
de Jonnés thinks that, in 1813, families, as a whole, averaged about 400 
working days in the year, counting the engagements of different mem- 
bers, which would give an aggregate wage at least double what it was 
during the reign of Louis XIV. 
M. De Foville attributes these beneficent changes to the social re- 
forms of the revolution, which bore fruit in spite of the frantic excesses 
of the anarchical régime of the convention and of the bloody wars of 
the empire. The last remnant of feudalism was eliminated from social 
order. The peasant was emancipated and placed before the law upon 
a footing of entire equality with those who were lately his masters and 
seigneurs. He could choose his own field of labor and stipulate his own 
wages, which were no longer fixed by arbitrary enactment. The public 
sale of national and confiscated real estate gave a great impetus to the 
development of small proprietorships, a change which had begun under 
the old monarchical régime. The peasant was not only liberated, but 
enfranchised, and the means placed within his reach of acquiring an 
ownership in the soil. Whatever may be thought of the justice of the 
wholesale confiscations ordered by the revolutionary government, it is 
beyond doubt that these measures resulted in the elevation of the labor- 
ing classes, not only those whd became land-owners, but also day- 
laborers. 
The next twenty-five years, from 1813 to 1838, were a period of com- 
parative peace and prosperity. Prices remained comparatively sta- 
tionary to its close, but the development of manufacturing enterprise 
had lowered the price of its products. Meanwhile the advance of agri- 
cultural wages continued, yet about the beginning of the reign of Louis 
Philippe the price of day’s work began to oscillate from 0.75 francs to - 
1.75 francs. M. Charles Dupin estimates the average income of a labor- 
ing family at 475 franes per annum, ranging from 508 franes in 33 depart- 
ments of the north and west to 441 franes, the average of all the others. 
In 1840, according to M. Moreau de Jonnés, the average had risen to 500 
franes per annum. Since the middle of the present century the French 
government has prosecuted several enquétes agricoles, prominent among 
which are those of 1852 and 1862. These inquiries are accepted by M. 
De Foville as embracing a large proportion of truth after their errors 
have been eliminated by a critical scrutiny and by comparison with 
cantonal statistics. The differences between the results of this scrutiny 
and those of the enquétes is trifling, showing a substantial agreement 
in two independent lines of inquiry. In 1852 a day’s wages averaged 
1.42 frances; in 1854, 1.54 franes; in 1855, 1.61 franes, showing an en- 
hancement of 13 per cent. from 1849 to 1853. In 1862 the day’s wage 
averaged 1.85 frances, an increase of 30 per cent. in ten or twelve years. 
In the twenty departments paying the highest prices for farm-labor the 
daily wages in 1849 ranged from 1.47 frances in Lot-et-Garonne to 2.04 
francs in Vaucluse. In 1855 the range was from 1.76 francs in Hérault to 
