Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/276

 200 LAND mark, and the estuaries with their har-csts of wild fowl, as the common property of its subjects. Even inland game is still not individual property, and in countries where legal rights are so ancient or so modern as in the Channel Islands and the United States of America, the local law is alike liberal in allowing to every one the right of sporting over his neighbour s ground, except in so far as modified by express and recent legislation. Village But the higher races very early discovered an ampler tenure. nlQatl3 O f industrial existence than the natural produce of the earth affords. At what period in human history the artificial cultivation of plants was discovered it is impossible to say. We know that it was posterior to the division of the Aryan currents that flowed towards Hindustan and towards Europe, but before the subdivision of the latter ; for the words denoting a field, a plough, and some species of grain have a common root in the Greek, the Latin, and the Germanic dialects, but not in the Sanskrit. But so soon as agricul ture began it involved of necessity an approach to more settled habits. This change in the manner of life would combine with the fuller and more regular supply of food to promote a rapid increase of population. So long, however, as this did not exceed the resources of the territory belong ing to the tribe, it would not of itself involve any change in the idea that its use was common to all. A certain portion of ground would be devoted to tillage, a certain number of the tribe would be appointed to perform the acts of cultivation, and the produce would be stored in the general barn. We have at the present day examples of such a system in some of the allmends of the Swiss canton of Valais, where a portion of the lands of the village is culti vated by joint labour, and the produce devoted to joint feasting. But it appears that in general this stage rapidly progressed to one of apportionment of the land in separate and smaller districts. The tribe, augmenting in numbers and perhaps in extent of territory, subdivided itself into villages, and each village exercised a tolerably independent rule over its own district. Within this range it still main tained a community of the forest and pasture, but the special skill and toil demanded by husbandry in most cases soon led to the appropriation to each family of a portion of the arable land in exclusive property. Still, however, the principle of common right prevailed so far that the village rulers changed every year the lots assigned for culture, so that one year of crop, followed by a relapse into natural growth for a succession of years, was the normal rotation. It is one which modern science cannot condemn, for where space is ample and the use of manure is unknown, there is no sounder method of cultivation. It is still, according to M. Laveleye, exemplified in the Ardennes region of Belgium. Private It is at this stage that contemporary observers first de- property scr ib e the tenure of laud in ancient times, and illustrations of its survival in modern periods grow abundant. These will be hereafter pointed out. But except in special circum stances it is obvious that progress could no^, stop here. As population increased in each district, the available hunting grounds would diminish, and at the same time the necessity of more extensive and more frequent cultivation of crops would increase. By this process, in the absence of manure, the land would inevitably become less productive. But just as it demanded more labour it would become more definitely appropriated to a single family, for those who laboured most would not willingly give place to those who had been less active. A stage would then be reached in which community of possession would be limited to the pasture lands of the village, and the arable lands would be possessed in permanence by each family. There generally was, indeed, while the territory still sufficed, a recognition of the right of each individual to an allotment from the common land. But at last the period would come in which this could be no longer afforded, and when either the tribe must migrate in a body, or cast off a swarm to seek its fortunes elsewhere, or leave a certain number of its members without the privilege of landed possession, to obtain subsistence in services to the rest, or in trades. When the two former alternatives become impracticable, the third is the inevitable course. Private property in land becomes then established, and we have thenceforward a new system, involving consequences for good and evil which legislation seeks to regulate. With this general notion of the course of development Histori- it will now be convenient to trace, in some instances which cal have most affected the world s progress, the history and the sketc1 - results of the use and appropriation of land. In primitive Rome each household formed an absolute Primi- despotism, of which the father was the despot ; households tive were united into gentes by derivation from a common Rome - ancestor, and the state consisted in a combination of gentes. To each household there was originally assigned a small portion (2 jugera, 1^ acres) of land to be held in perpetuity as private property (heredium), and it may be assumed that on the death of a paterfamilias each son would be entitled to a like amount from the common lands of the gens. These common lands formed the main posses sion of the gentes, and it appears that they were to some degree cultivated in common, as well as used for pasturage. The state, however, also held common lands, partly original, partly derived from cession by each conquered neighbour, and these were let for rent (vectigal] in so far as not parti tioned out. Cicero (De Rep., ii. 9, 14) says that Numa was the first who divided the conquered lands into private shares, but it is certain that the example was only partially followed. But by the time of Servius Tullius the original private portion of many households must have been greatly but unequally enlarged, for his new military organization was based on the obligation of service imposed on the free holders (assidui) as distinguished from the mere labourers and breeders of children (proletarii). The &quot; classes &quot; of the assidui were five, those who possessed 20 jugera (12| acres), and who were specially denominated classici, and those who possessed respectively 15, 10, 5, and 2| jugera. The first class, or classici, were about the half of the whole number of assidui, the second, third, and fourth classes comprised each about one-eighth of the entire number, and the fifth class was slightly more numerous. The equites formed a separate order, based on the possession of a still larger extent of land. At the same time a register of laud was established, in which each owner was required to enter his property, and which was revised every four years, and sales were directed to be made before two witnesses. These arrangements show that even at this epoch the system of separate private property was in full operation, and that the difference of wealth which it engenders had already reached an advanced stage. The progress of conquest, which at once enlarged the territory, brought in tribute, and furnished slaves, rapidly increased such inequalities. Trade, which followed con quest, and in which capitalists made large fortunes, tended in the same direction. Very early in Roman legal history we come upon tenancy-at-will, under the name of precarium, which of itself showed that there must have been large estates capable of subdivision. But besides tenants, each extensive landowner had a household of retainers, clients, freedmen, and latterly slaves, who tilled his ground for his personal profit. Thus there would be little demand for free labour, and the petty husbandman, whose small inheritance was inadequate for a growing family, fell necessarily into debt. His land would then be seized under the strict Roman law of bankruptcy, and he himself