3. Before this period we may from time to time snatch traces of the existence of communities. Thus we see, in the Polyptique d'Irminon , on the domains of the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près, an association of three families of tenantscultivating seventeen bonniers of land; but the commentators on customary law were the first to give precise details on thissubject.
4. Traité du Domaine , Préface, p. 81. See La Commune agricole , par M. Bonnemère, p. 32 et seq.
5. "Mornac treats at great length of the communities of Auvergne and the neighbourhood," says Chabrol ( Comment. sur Lacoutume d'Auvergne , vol. II. p. 499); "he considers them of great advantage to the progress of agriculture and for theassessment of public imposts."
6. For sources, we refer the reader especially to the three works already quoted of MM. Dareste de la Chavanne, Doniol,and Bonnemère, as well as the books of Troplong on Louage and the Contrat de Société . When a perpetual metayage wasgranted to the metayers, a guarantee that they would live in community was exacted. Dalloz ( Jurisprud. génér .) quotes atitle of 1625, imposing the condition that the lessees should have but "one pot, one hearth, and one morsel, and should livein perpetual community."
7. "This is a word found in many customs, and applied to village societies living together to hold of a lord some inheritance,which is said to be held in cotterie. It is particularly prevalent among the gens de main-morte " ( Dictionnaire de Trévoux ).
8. See Chopin, Paris, tit. Communautés , no 31; La coutume de La septaine de Bourges , Fornerium, art. 36;lib. iv. Quotidianorum , cap. 7, and the Glossaire du droit français , V o Le chanteau et partage divisé. LXXV. "Un parti tout estpaiti, et le chanteau part le vilain." LXXVI. "Le feu, le sel et le pain' partent l'homme mortemain."9. Guy Coquille, Nivernais: Des Bordelages . See also Vigier, Angcumois , art. 41, and passim. Cout. de La Marche , 217,etc.
10. Des Bordelages, art. 18. Des communautés et associations , art. 3.
11. Vol. I. pp. 45595. Quoted by Bonnemère, La Commune agric . p. 89.
12. Chabrol, who also speaks of the Pinous, makes them go back "to the most remote times." On Auvergne , vol. ii. p. 499.
13. "It is in communities ibid. the mainmortables grow rich," says Denis Lebrun, Traité des Communautés , p. 17. "Thelabour of several persons united together," says Dunod, "is more effective than if they were all independent. Experienceteaches us that in the province of Burgundy the peasants of mainmortable places are in much easier circumstances thanthose who live in the franchise , and that the more numerous the family, the more wealth it accumulates."14. There is a complete study of this curious phase in the economic history of France, in a note of the Belgian historianMoke on La richesse et La population de La France au quatorzème siècle . See Mémoires de l'Académie de Belgique , vol.
XXX.
15. The existence of these agricultural societies, so far from being an exceptional fact, was, on the contrary, general andconstant until the eighteenth century. The following quotations admit of no doubt on this point In La Marche there was no community between husband and wife, except by express convention; and yet G. Brodean, in hiscommentaries, tells us that "this custom is sanction and authority for communities and associations of relatives or strangers,and is for the maintenance of the family ."--" These societies are not only frequent, but general, and even necessary, selon laconstitution de la religion , inasmuch as the exercise of husbandry, which consists in tilling the ground and feeding cattle,requires a number of persons" (Guy Coquille, on Nivernais , p. 478).
"We have several of these societies in Berry and Nivernais, principally in the houses of mages , which, by the custom of thecountry, all consist of assemblages of persons living together in community" (Jean Chenu, on Arrêts de papon , 1610).
"Formerly," writes La Lande in 1774 ( Cout. d'Orléans ), "it was a general custom in this kingdom for a tacit association tobe formed between several persons living in common under the same roof for a year and a day Tacit associations are moreespecially the rule in villages, where there are large families, which live in community under the command and direction of achief, usually the oldest member of the society. We find clear instances in Berry, Nivernais, Bourbonnais, Saintonge, andother places."
"This kind of community and tacit association was formerly in general use," says Boucheul (Poitou, art. 231).
"Anciently, tacit association among persons living together, with common purse and common expenditure, was a universal custom in the kingdom, as is shewn, on the authority of Beaumanoir, by Eusèbe de Laurière in his dissertation at the end ofthe Works of Loisel, fol 12, 13" (Valin, Cout. de La Rochelle ).
"Anciently," says Valin ( La Rochelle ), "tacit association between persons other than husband and wife, living together withjoint purse. and joint expenditure was general in the kingdom.""It seems," says Denis Lebrun in his Traité de La Communauté , "that we are compelled to admit this as a general usage inrural districts, where communities are so common, even in customs which do not mention them.""The origin of these associations of inhabitants, such as we see them today," writes Dénisart in 1768, "is not well known.
