The land and the loom : rural industry in the North of France, the example of Montigny-en-Cambrésis, 1680-1800

The eighteenth century witnessed the expansion of rural industries. One of the more important was the production of linen cloth in the North of France. This study focuses on a village in southeastern Cambresis, Montigny, and examines the relationship between landownership and agricultural occupations on the one hand and artisanal and mercantile activities on the other. Weaving was introduced in the village some time in the seventeenth century but only became a major occupation in the eighteenth and the primary one in the nineteenth. This activity was controlled through numerous parallel channels, but the emergence of rural middlemen constitutes a dynamic breakthrough. They flourished despite constraints until the Revolution which re-channeled some of their energies. Although dependent on a supplementary income, the peasant-weavers did not sever their roots with the land. They continued to work as seasonal agricultural labourers, and were fully integrated within the agrarian community