fermage

…In the 16th century, the urban bourgeoisie (townspeople) who had made their fortunes in commerce, industry, and finance, in search of safe investment opportunities, bought large amounts of farmland and rented it out to tenants, and the feudal lords themselves expanded their territories and rented them out to tenants. As a result of this transformation of the bourgeoisie into landlords and the feudal lords themselves into landlords, the tenancy system developed rapidly. In 16th and 17th century France, it was common for landlords to divide their large land holdings into several lots and rent them out to small tenant farmers. The form of rent collection was either a fixed amount of money or a fixed amount of produce, or a fixed percentage of the harvest (usually split between the landlord and the tenant) between the landlord and the tenant. The former was called fermage, and the latter was called métayage. Tenancy contracts lasted from three to nine years, but in the 18th century, nine-year contracts became more common. …

*Some of the terminology that mentions "fermage" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…16世紀には商工業や金融業で産をなした都市のブルジョア(町人)が安全な投資先を求めて大量に農地を購入してこれを小作せしめ，また領主自身も直領地を拡大してこれを小作せしめるようになったから，こうしたブルジョアの地主化と領主自身の地主化とによって，小作制度は急速に進展した。16,17世紀のフランスでは，地主はその大土地所有をいくつかに区分して小規模な小作農民に小作させるのが通例で，小作料徴収の形態としては，一定額の貨幣または一定量の生産物を徴収する場合と，収穫物を一定の割合(主として折半)で地主と小作人とで分け合う場合とがあり，前者は定額小作fermage，後者は分益小作métayageと呼ばれる。小作契約期間は3年ないし9年であったが，18世紀には9年契約が増加した。…

※「fermage」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報