Editing Serfdom (section)

===France===

Serfdom in France started to diminish after the [[Black Death in France]], when the lack of work force made [[manumission]] more common from that point onward, and by the 18th-century, serfdom had become relatively rare in most of France. 

In 1779, the reforms of [[Jacques Necker]] abolished serfdom in all Crown lands in France. On the outbreak of the [[French Revolution]] of 1789, between 140,000<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=by82CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA3 The French Revolution, Napoleon, and the Republic: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite]''</ref> and 1,500,000<ref>L.C.A. Knowles: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ_8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century: France, Germany, Russia and ...]'', s. 47</ref> serfs remained in France, most of them on clerical lands<ref>Jean Brissaud: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jkkP1k1vIyYC&pg=PA327 A History of French Public Law]'', s. 327</ref> in [[Franche-Comté]], Berry, [[Burgundy]] and Marche.<ref>L.C.A. Knowles: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ_8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century: France, Germany, Russia and ...]'', s. 47</ref><ref>Amy S. Wyngaard, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=90sND9EpHx8C&pg=PA159  From Savage to Citizen: The Invention of the Peasant in the French Enlightenment]'', s. 159</ref>
However, although formal serfdom no longer existed in most of France, the feudal seigneurial laws still granted noble landlords many of the rights previously exercised over serfs, and the peasants of Auvergne, Nivernais and Champagne, though formally not serfs, could still not move freely.<ref>L.C.A. Knowles: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ_8AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century: France, Germany, Russia and ...]'', s. 47</ref><ref>Amy S. Wyngaard, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=90sND9EpHx8C&pg=PA159  From Savage to Citizen: The Invention of the Peasant in the French Enlightenment]'', p. 159</ref> 

Serfdom was formally abolished in France on 4 August 1789,<ref>Jean Brissaud: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=jkkP1k1vIyYC&pg=PA327 A History of French Public Law]'', p. 327</ref> and the remaining feudal rights that gave landlords control rights over peasants were abolished in 1789-93.<ref>Christopher Thornhill, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OzQTEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 Democratic Crisis and Global Constitutional Law]'', p. 93</ref>