Canton System (Prussia)

The Canton System (German: Kantonsystem or Kantonssystem) or Canton Regulation (Kantonreglement) was a system of recruitment used by the Prussian army between 1733 and 1813. The country was divided into recruiting districts called cantons (Kantone), and each canton was the responsibility of a regiment. The system was a Prussian distinctive. Every male was from the youngest possible age enrolled in the army, and by 1740 the Prussian army, with a strength of 3.6% of the total population, was proportionately the largest in Europe. The new system replaced coercive recruiting, which in turn replaced the hiring of undependable and expensive mercenary forces. It allowed the army to double from 38,000 to 76,000, making it the fourth largest in Europe, and it linked the local population more closely to the royal government.

Upon his accession in 1713, King Frederick William I abolished the provincial militias, obligated his soldiers to lifelong service and transferred all responsibility for recruitment from civilian authorities to regimental officers. This system, which remained in place until the introduction of the cantons, occasioned much abuse and even bloodshed. In February and March 1721 the king prohibited coercive recruiting, which only increased the competition between recruiters. On 14 September 1722 he published a "Sharpened Edict against the Flight of Subjects and their Children in Western and Eastern Pomerania" and on 11 November a "Patent, that the Property of those Subjects and Native Children who flee from Fear of Recruitment shall be Confiscated", but the solution to the conflict between the army—which required peasant recruits—and the royal finances—which required the peasants' agrarian labour—was only solved by the self-interest of the regimental commanders. In order to meet their recruitment obligations while following the king's strictures on domestic recruiting, they were forced to seek more recruits abroad. To cover the higher expenses of foreign recruitment, they gradually extended the furloughs of those recruits taken from their own estates (commanders were invariably either estate owners—Junkers—or close relatives of owners) so that the latter were only obligated to undertake basic training in peacetime. The practice of regular furloughs was gradually extended to all recruits. The commanders also introduced enrollment (Enrollierung): male children too young to serve were added to the enlistment rolls and given furlough passes to prevent them from being recruited by other regiments when they were old enough.

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