ABSTRACT
Economic life in early modern Europe, as today, consisted of a variety of types of activities. Land ownership remained a significant source of wealth - in some parts of Europe, the most significant - so that men and women who held property sought to retain or expand their holdings and pass them on to their heirs. Land owners included everyone from members of royal families down the social scale to free peasant property holders, which made their experiences quite diverse. Most inheritance systems favored sons over daughters, especially in terms of landed property, and in some places women were forbidden to own land at all; in other areas daughters could inherit, and women, especially widows, played a very active role in managing their estates.
