TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL 

 SOCIETY OF SCOTLAND. 



ON THE HISTORY OF LEASES OF LANDS FROM THE 

 EARLIEST TIMES. 



By John M'Culloch, Denbie Mains, Lockerbie. 



[Premiuvi — Twenty-Five Sovereic/ns.] 



Among the first steps in the civilisation of almost every country 

 — sometimes succeeding, sometimes contemporaneous with no- 

 madic life — has heen the recognition of property in land. Con- 

 stituting — as it does at this stage— almost the only form of 

 wealth and power, it can in this relation be traced to a very 

 remote origin. The monarch, the state, or the commune, as each 

 possessed the power, instead of realising directly the revenues 

 obtainable from the cultivation of the soil, gave it out in grants 

 to those who had rendered some service, and who in turn, either 

 as vassals through feudal rights, or independent allodial pro- 

 prietors, exercised the rights of property. They again, cultivat- 

 ing by native or captive slaves and stewards often slothful or 

 unjust, found that the land gave a meagre return, and thus 

 they began to encourage free or partially free farmers, who 

 increased greatly in numbers as agriculture advanced. 



Lord Kames maintains that free cultivators were altogether 

 unknown on the Continent during the Middle Ages; but there is 

 abundant evidence that leases, and consequently free farmers, 

 existed even long before this epoch. Location under labour or 

 serf rents, by which one portion was given for the cultivation of 

 another portion, seems in a number of countries to have been the 

 first form. Next to this followed the system by which the pro- 

 duce was allotted in specific proportions — to the landlord for the 



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