The condition of many peasants deteriorated markedly in the 18th century; perhaps as many as one-third of them were sporadically indigent. This cannot be explained by a decline in the peasants' share of the land. In 1789, French peasants still owned about one-third of arable land, most of it in small plots of less than 10 acres (nobles owned about one-fifth of the land, the church one-sixth,
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