02-19-2024, 11:54 PM
OOC note: I had some thoughts about land and social structure as it's changed in Laeral throughout history, and I typed it up in a rush one night last November and then haven't done much with it since. This is the first installment of perhaps three or four; don't expect a consistent release schedule for updates here, as this will very much be expanded on when I have the inspiration to do so.
History of Land Use in Laeral: Part 1
During the colonial era, determining possession of agricultural land, particularly in the fertile Eastern Riverlands, Althea, and the Beuvron River Valley, was a central function of government. After the 1807 DeBarre Line was created, marking off the initial bounds of Arrivée settlement, land west of the line was declared property of the ducal government to apportion as it saw fit. Mass land auctions throughout the early 1800s saw gentlemen speculators as the chief beneficiaries. The most fertile land, often irrigated by centuries-old channels and the site of continuous farming for millennia, was parceled into large plantation domains owned by individual highborn households, operated for profit through the production of wheat, tobacco, rice, indigo, tea, or other crops.
Laws against "squatting" and "vagrancy," leveled against Rén families who sought to remain on their land, carried the sentence of compulsory service as agricultural laborers on the local plantation. The penalty for taking up arms against the state was also often serfdom, often for entire villages or regions, and so by 1845, the dawn of the Laeralian War of Independence, an estimated 900,000 Rén and Metice people were enslaved on plantations. Slavery in the colonial Laeralian context, however, was not an inherited status, although it was a racialized one: those born to enslaved laborers were born free, but Arrivée were never enslaved.
Perhaps 60% of land area—primarily that which had been cleared and was suitable for large-scale agriculture—was parcelled out between plantations. Much of the remaining land, particularly that which was less hospitable for farming, was owned by small farmers, Rén, Arrivée, and Metice alike. Villages served as a site for cross-racial social interactions: marketplaces, smiths, inns, and the like fostered growing linguistic and cultural exchange. This included the emergence of Laeralian Creole, a polyglot mixture of French and Mandarin which would persist among the largely illiterate population until the standardization of language in the Republican era. The taboo against miscegenation was also transgressed more often at the village level, particularly between transient laborers who had migrated away from the growing expanse of plantation land. It was these villages which were rightfully called, if not the cradle of the war of independence, at least its nursery.
For free and enslaved Rén alike, the chief interaction with the colonial state was through corvée, forced state labor for a period of one month each year. Instituted as a means of conducting labor-intensive infrastructure upkeep and construction, corvée occurred on a rotating basis based on birth month, so as to minimize disruption to the harvest; for this reason, the colonial state's register of births are a treasure trove for modern historians and genealogists. The construction of roads was a constant preoccupation of the colonial state, seeing as they were essential for transport of goods and movement of soldiers outside of the navigable waterways (the few railroads built in Laeral during the colonial era, totaling less than 120 kilometers, were built exclusively with Arrivée labor). Typical corvée duties included excavating roads after flooding and mudslides, paving roads, and breaking ground for new roads, although in certain locales corvée labor also built government buildings and waystations. Corvée labor was widely despised: it was backbreaking, all-day work for which any rural Rén man between the ages of 15 and 35 would typically be relocated to a work camp and separated from their families for a four week period annually. Payment was nominal and conditions at work camps poor, with strict discipline enforced at the end of a whip or truncheon.
Cities, chief among them Althea, St. Clair, Marist, and Bethune, offered the greatest opportunities for social mobility. Going to sea or joining a fisherman's crew was one avenue of escape: on the open seas, few cared the complexion of a man's skin as long as his arms were suited for hauling nets or whaling. The cities saw the emergence of the Laeralian middle class, typically merchants or artisans producing goods for consumption by the nobility. The ducal court was well known for its patronage of the arts and its fondness for fine cuisine, while the seasonal migration between Althea and Marist established by Duke Armand meant that thriving artisan communities sprung up in both cities. Factories were established in limited numbers in urban centers (with the exception of Althea, where strict urban beautification regulations forestalled the erection of smokestacks), including textile mills and brick and steel foundries, typically with the patronage of an interested consortium or individual member of the nobility. Migrants from surrounding rural areas were often the only ones willing to accept factories' beastly conditions; the phenomenon of rural migration to the city spurred the creation of Rén fraternal organizations and women's support circles as well as the first labor unions, inspired by examples from abroad. Regardless, by 1848 industrialization had touched the lives of only a bare amount of the Laeralian people. The majority of the population would remain rural and impoverished, as peasant freeholders, sharecroppers, slaves, or migrant workers, until well after the War of Independence.
History of Land Use in Laeral: Part 1
During the colonial era, determining possession of agricultural land, particularly in the fertile Eastern Riverlands, Althea, and the Beuvron River Valley, was a central function of government. After the 1807 DeBarre Line was created, marking off the initial bounds of Arrivée settlement, land west of the line was declared property of the ducal government to apportion as it saw fit. Mass land auctions throughout the early 1800s saw gentlemen speculators as the chief beneficiaries. The most fertile land, often irrigated by centuries-old channels and the site of continuous farming for millennia, was parceled into large plantation domains owned by individual highborn households, operated for profit through the production of wheat, tobacco, rice, indigo, tea, or other crops.
Laws against "squatting" and "vagrancy," leveled against Rén families who sought to remain on their land, carried the sentence of compulsory service as agricultural laborers on the local plantation. The penalty for taking up arms against the state was also often serfdom, often for entire villages or regions, and so by 1845, the dawn of the Laeralian War of Independence, an estimated 900,000 Rén and Metice people were enslaved on plantations. Slavery in the colonial Laeralian context, however, was not an inherited status, although it was a racialized one: those born to enslaved laborers were born free, but Arrivée were never enslaved.
Perhaps 60% of land area—primarily that which had been cleared and was suitable for large-scale agriculture—was parcelled out between plantations. Much of the remaining land, particularly that which was less hospitable for farming, was owned by small farmers, Rén, Arrivée, and Metice alike. Villages served as a site for cross-racial social interactions: marketplaces, smiths, inns, and the like fostered growing linguistic and cultural exchange. This included the emergence of Laeralian Creole, a polyglot mixture of French and Mandarin which would persist among the largely illiterate population until the standardization of language in the Republican era. The taboo against miscegenation was also transgressed more often at the village level, particularly between transient laborers who had migrated away from the growing expanse of plantation land. It was these villages which were rightfully called, if not the cradle of the war of independence, at least its nursery.
For free and enslaved Rén alike, the chief interaction with the colonial state was through corvée, forced state labor for a period of one month each year. Instituted as a means of conducting labor-intensive infrastructure upkeep and construction, corvée occurred on a rotating basis based on birth month, so as to minimize disruption to the harvest; for this reason, the colonial state's register of births are a treasure trove for modern historians and genealogists. The construction of roads was a constant preoccupation of the colonial state, seeing as they were essential for transport of goods and movement of soldiers outside of the navigable waterways (the few railroads built in Laeral during the colonial era, totaling less than 120 kilometers, were built exclusively with Arrivée labor). Typical corvée duties included excavating roads after flooding and mudslides, paving roads, and breaking ground for new roads, although in certain locales corvée labor also built government buildings and waystations. Corvée labor was widely despised: it was backbreaking, all-day work for which any rural Rén man between the ages of 15 and 35 would typically be relocated to a work camp and separated from their families for a four week period annually. Payment was nominal and conditions at work camps poor, with strict discipline enforced at the end of a whip or truncheon.
Cities, chief among them Althea, St. Clair, Marist, and Bethune, offered the greatest opportunities for social mobility. Going to sea or joining a fisherman's crew was one avenue of escape: on the open seas, few cared the complexion of a man's skin as long as his arms were suited for hauling nets or whaling. The cities saw the emergence of the Laeralian middle class, typically merchants or artisans producing goods for consumption by the nobility. The ducal court was well known for its patronage of the arts and its fondness for fine cuisine, while the seasonal migration between Althea and Marist established by Duke Armand meant that thriving artisan communities sprung up in both cities. Factories were established in limited numbers in urban centers (with the exception of Althea, where strict urban beautification regulations forestalled the erection of smokestacks), including textile mills and brick and steel foundries, typically with the patronage of an interested consortium or individual member of the nobility. Migrants from surrounding rural areas were often the only ones willing to accept factories' beastly conditions; the phenomenon of rural migration to the city spurred the creation of Rén fraternal organizations and women's support circles as well as the first labor unions, inspired by examples from abroad. Regardless, by 1848 industrialization had touched the lives of only a bare amount of the Laeralian people. The majority of the population would remain rural and impoverished, as peasant freeholders, sharecroppers, slaves, or migrant workers, until well after the War of Independence.