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Text File  |  1992-09-02  |  553b  |  14 lines
  1. A country-dweller engaged in small-scale
  2. farming. A peasant mormally owns or rents a
  3. small amount of land, aiming to be
  4. self-sufficent and to sell surplus supplies
  5. locally. In the UK, the move towards larger
  6. farms in the 18th century resulted in the
  7. disappearance of the independent peasantry,
  8. although the custom survives in smallholdings
  9. and Scottish crofts. Landowners in countries
  10. such as France, Spain, and Italy showed less
  11. direct interest in agriculture, so the
  12. tradition of small independent landholding
  13. remains a distinctive way of life today.
  14.