Rural Change and Continuity, 1815–1845

Abstract

The census-compilers of the nineteenth century decided that rural communities were those with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants: in 1831, some 26.35 million people (81 per cent of the total). Such a measure included many people whose occupations were not agricultural (such as artisans, teachers and priests); conversely, many larger places included people who directly worked the land in the surrounding countryside. A more useful, if still arbitrary, measure of ‘rural’ would be communities of up to 10,000 people. While some small towns were essentially industrial, most were directly dependent on the rural economy. About one-tenth of the national population lived in these country towns. France was essentially a rural society.¹