The conditions on which the _censitaire_ held his land from the seignior were exceedingly easy during the greater part of the French regime. The _cens et rentes_ which he was expected to pay annually, on St. Martin's day, as a rule, varied from one to two _sols_ for each superficial _arpent_, with the addition of a small quantity of corn, poultry, and some other article produced on the farm, which might be commuted for cash, at current prices. The _censitaire_ was also obliged to grind his corn at the seignior's mill (_moulin banal_), and though the royal authorities at Quebec were very particular in pressing the fulfilment of this obligation, it does not appear to have been successfully carried out in the early days of the colony on account of the inability of the seigniors to purchase the machinery, or erect buildings suitable for the satisfactory performance of a service clearly most useful to the people of the rural districts. The obligation of baking bread in the seigniorial oven was not generally exacted, and soon became obsolete as the country was settled and each _habitant_ naturally built his own oven in connection with his home. The seigniors also claimed the right to a certain amount of statute labour (_corvée_) from the _habitants_ on their estates, to one fish out of every dozen caught in seigniorial waters, and to a reservation of wood and stone for the construction and repairs of the manor house, mill, and church in the parish or seigniory. In case the _censitaire_ wished to dispose of his holding during his lifetime, it was subject to the _lods et ventes_, or to a tax of one-twelfth of the purchase money, which had to be paid to the seignior, who usually as a favour remitted one-fourth on punctual payment. The most serious restriction on such sales was the _droit de retraite_, or right of the seignior to preempt the same property himself within forty days from the date of the sale.