The
causes of
emigration
to North America from Belgium in the late 18th and early 19th
centuries to North America were complex. A major factor was the
progressive impoverishment of the rural economy that started around
1810. But this had been preceded by a relative prosperity in the 18th
century while the country was ruled from Austria by a series of
benevolent despots including Maria-Theresia and Joseph II. But this
progress was halted by defeat of the Austrians by the revolutionary
French in 1794. It was during the 20-year period of French hegemony
that lasted until 1815 that the rural decline, particularly in the
Flemish-speaking of Belgium, began. Some of this had its roots in the
economic and social system that characterized the "Ancien
Régime".
During the relatively prosperity in those regions in the 1700s the rural population began to rise faster than opportunities for rural employment. This was particularly striking in the parts of Flanders where the soil was sandy and of relative poor agricultural quality. This growing population problem was accompanied by a rise in rural industry based on the age-old Flemish involvement in the flax-linen industry. For centuries the cottage-based spinning of flax and its weaving into linen during the winters had supplemented farmers' incomes. However, after about 1740 the linen industry came to occupy ever-increasing numbers of rural folk on a full-time basis. Land rental rates, usually determined by city-based absentee landlords, remained high and farming plots grew progressively smaller as the population grew, in some cases being reduced to less than a hectare (about 2.5 acres). Middle-man merchants, also city-based, took advantage of what was a buyer's market and paid very low prices for the finished linen cloth. This and poor food crop yields resulted in an impoverished rural proletariat had a high infant mortality rate, was chronically undernourished and lived under deplorable conditions. Because of their low incomes they sought summer work with more prosperous farmers who also paid low wages to these daylaborers ('dagloners'). Also some obtained work as seasonal migrants to France and Wallonia.
In
the last half of the 18th century agricultural practices improved
producing better yields in the more fertile sandy loam regions. As a
result of this there was a decline of rural industry, poverty abated,
population growth slowed and infant mortality dropped.
After 1810 the rural linen industry declined but
was temporarily replaced by rural cotton weaving, which provided
material through middle-men to the cotton-printing factories in the
cities, particularly Gent. However, by the early 1820s power looms
started to appear in the city factories and by 1850 the
non-mechanized rural cotton and the equally labor-intensive
flax and linen industry were moribund. But this was a gradual
death and some rural producers of high quality linen survived into
the late 1800s. This gradual death of the rural textile industries
slowed the migration from the countryside to the cities and perhaps,
the emigration to 'Amerika'.
1Much of the material in this section was supplied by Professor Paul Deprez <nordevco@escape.ca>.
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