Agrarian Individualism,Collective Practices and the French Revolution: The Law of 10 June 1793 and the Partition of Common Land in the Department of the Gard

This article examines a key piece of social legislation during the French Revolution: the Jacobin decree of 10 June 1793, which authorized the partition of village common land throughout France. After a thorough review of the historiography to date, a case study of the department of the Gard in southern France is presented. Only a small number of villages in the Gard successfully partitioned their commons under this legislation, but the spirit of the Jacobin measure seems to have had a more profound effect. By extending the investigation into the Empire and examining the Napoleonic law of 9 Ventôse XII, the general effects of common land privatization become clear. At least a quarter of all communes in the Gard experienced a change to the tenure of the commons during the period 1793-1804. This shift in land use strengthened both traditional subsistence-based grain cultivation and more commercialized viticulture in the region.