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Sel et société

 | 
Christine Hoët-van Cauwenberghe
, 
Armelle Masse
, 
Gilles Prilaux

3. 2. Sel, richesse et sociétés : études régionales de l’époque médiévale à l’époque contemporaine

23. Des sauniers et leurs propriétaires en Saintonge au XVIIIe siècle

Thierry Sauzeau

Abstract

In the 18th century, the salt farmers (sauniers) of Saintonge (marshes of Brouage, Seudre and Oléron) constituted an original population. Saltworks of Charente moved back because of the mud which filled them little by little. The job was in crisis at the end of the 18th century. These rural workers were not owners of the ground whom they exploited. They did not master either their production: the sea salt, obtained by evaporation in marshes. They were dependent on their owners, who decided on sales. They also underwent the consequences of the international crises, which stopped the trade and managed it towards their Portuguese competitors. The life in saintongeais marches was rough. Sauniers were poor, their houses and the objects of the everyday life were low values. They were vulnerable in front of epidemics of fever of marshes and their children would die from it, in large numbers. That is why they developed strategies of survival. The rural and maritime occupational pluralism brought them complementary income. The closeness with the sailors gave to their children the access to the jobs by the navigation.

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Excerpt

Avec 2 800 heures annuelles d’ensoleillement, des côtes basses et une exposition aux vents dominants d’ouest, le Centre-Ouest atlantique possède toutes les qualités requises pour la production du sel marin par évaporation. Les aménagements de salines y ont été précoces. Les premières traces documentaires datent de la domination des Wisigoths. Réorganisée sous le roi Alaric II (484-507), l’Aquitaine a alors expérimenté une législation connue sous le nom de Bréviaire d’Alaric. Ses dispositions ouvrirent les terres alluviales et les marais du domaine public à l’exploitation privée, en franchise des droits de la couronne. En 507, Clovis triompha des Wisigoths à la première bataille de Poitiers et les Mérovingiens étendirent leur emprise sur le pays. La politique de franchises initiée sous les Wisigoths avait connu suffisamment de succès pour qu’en 634, le bon Roi Dagobert Ier confisque au duc d’Aquitaine des « salines qui sont sur la mer ». En quelques décennies, la production de sel ba...

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