Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Métayage
(909 words)

1. System

Métayage (French; also Italian mezzadria, Spanish aparcería) was a form of contract by which a lessee (métayeur, mezzadro, aparcero) would work a piece of land for the owner, with the partners dividing between them the necessary equipment and the yields. This form of sharecropping was very widespread in a number of European countries from the late Middle Ages on, and it assumed radically different forms [4]. In Italy [10], it was particularly common in Tuscany, Umbria, the Marche, and Emilia Romagna,…

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Sanz Lafuente, Gloria, “Métayage”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 26 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_020587>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20190801



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