Thursday, February 5, 2015

Treating Beggers around Dijon over two centuries

When introducing the term "horizontal mobility", Braudel defers to a book on the environs of 17th century Dijon.
In the sixteenth century, a beggar would be fed and cared for before he was expelled [from the town]. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, he would have his head shaven. Later he was more likely to be whipped and by the end of the century the full weight of a repressive society set him to forced labour. -- Gaston Roupnel, La ville de la campagne au XVIIeme siecle. Etudes sur les populations du pays dijonnais, 2nd ed, 1955.
Quoted in: Braudel, The Mediterranean,  Book 2, p.704.

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