Corvée is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option. It differs from
chattel slavery in that the worker is not owned outright – being free in various respects other than in the dispensation of his or her labour – and the work is usually intermittent; typically only a certain number of days' or months' work is required each year. It is a form of
unfree labour when the worker is not compensated. It is not technically a
tax as there is no actual obligation to pay cash or a physical good such as wheat, but – particularly with a commutation option – it operates very much like a
tax for all intents and purposes, usually a
poll tax.
The term is most typically used in reference to Medieval or early modern Europe, where work might be demanded by a feudal lord of his vassal or by a monarch of his subject; however the application of the term is not strictly limited to that time or place the practice is widespread, of great antiquity, and not extinct. Corvée has existed in modern and ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, China and Japan, France in the 1600s and 1700s, Incan civilization, and Portugal's African colonies until the mid 1960s.
The actual word "corvée" has its origins in Rome, and reached the English via France. In the Late Roman Empire the citizens performed operae publicae in lieu of paying taxes; often it consisted of road and bridge work. Roman landlords could also demand a number of days' labour from their tenants, and also from the freedmen; in the latter case the work was called operae officiales. In Medieval Europe, the tasks that serfs or villeins were required to perform on a yearly basis for their lords were called operae rigae. Plowing and harvesting were principal activities to which this work was applied. In times of need, the lord could demand additional work called opera corrogatae (Latin corrogare, "to requisition"). This term evolved into coroatae, then corveiae, and finally corvée, and the meaning broadened to encompass both the regular and exceptional tasks. This Medieval agricultural corvée was not entirely unpaid by custom the workers could expect small payments, often in the form of food and drink consumed on the spot. Corvée sometimes included military conscription, and the term is also occasionally used in a slightly divergent sense to mean forced requisition of military supplies; this most often took the form of cartage, a lord's right to demand wagons for military transport.
Because corvée labour for agriculture tended to be demanded by the lord at exactly the same times that the peasants needed to attend to their own plots -- eg. planting and harvest -- the corvée was an object of serious resentment. By the 1500s the use of corvée in the agricultural setting was on the wane; it became increasingly replaced by money payments for labour.
