I'm trying to forcibly press a character (a German national, if it's relevant) into indentured labour, in a way that's a sort of hybrid of penal transportation and conscription. Google and Wiki have so far given me that true conscription didn't take place until the French Revolution, and naval impressment seems to have only taken place in England and America. For plot reasons, I would rather have the character press-ganged than arrested for a putative crime, although I'm aware of that as a possibility.
Did either France or the countries in the current Netherlands have impressment-like practices pre-revolution?
