THE LAND REFORM AND ITS RESULTS UP TO THE PRESENT 121 



but we are compelled to refer very briefly to the " Organic I^aw " promul- 

 gated immediately after the peace of Adrianople (1829), as the result of 

 the joint work of the Russians and the notabiUties of the principaHty, which 

 the Turks were obliged to respect. At least a summary idea of this law, 

 with regard to the situation of the peasants, is absolutely necessary in order 

 to understand the causes of the movement of 1907 and the land reforms 

 that have folloNved it. And it is to be observed that this law several times 

 amended, formed up to 1907, the basis of the land situation of the country. 



The organic law of 1829 somewhat improved the sittiation of the peas- 

 ants : the system of taxation was to some degree rehandled so as to elim- 

 inate the incredible abuses previously existing (i) ; an improvement was 

 introduced into the condition of those peasants called scutelnici (persons 

 exempted from payment of dues to the lords) who were rendered com- 

 pletely independent of the landlords and only subject to the Crown. In addi- 

 tion to this, the law recognised the right of the landowners to take for 

 their personal service one individual out of every ten families on their estates. 

 These servants took the name of " free servants " and were exempt from all 

 taxation ; on their side, the landowners were obliged to give them as man}^ 

 days' leave as they required for the cultivation of their fanns. When there 

 were less than 200 peasants on a landed estate, the landlord had a right 

 to the services of two persons per family whom he might employ as guards, 

 gamekeepers etc. 



The same law also recognised (and tliis was a great step forw-ard), that if, 

 on the one hand, the ownership of the land was the boyar's by right, on the 

 other, the peasants had a right to their labour. The peasants were, therefore, 

 subdivided into three classes according to the number of oxen they pos- 

 sessed; the first class consisted of those who possessed four or more oxen, the 

 second of those w^ho had only two or three, the third of those who had only 

 one or none at all. To each peasant was assigned a fixed area of land, both 

 in the village, for his house and cattle stall, and in the country, the area 

 varying in extent according to the class to wliich the peasant belonged, and 

 being different in Moldavia and in Walacchia. But the law also provided 

 that the masters v/ere not obliged to transfer to the peasants more than '-/'a 

 of their land, so that it very frequently happened that the areas assigned to 

 the peasants were necessarily restricted, unless the peasants preferred to 

 remove elsewhere. In addition to this, the landlords, naturally, retained 

 for themselves the best land, only transferring such as was inferior and 

 consequently less productive. The peasants for their part, in addition 

 to paying the ordinary taxes (30 lei (2) poll tax, 3 lei communal tax and i 

 leu for the >- ational Defence), were bound to give the landlord, or the farmer 

 renting from him the land the use of which they enjoyed, a tenth part of 

 the crop, 12 da^'s'work and sixteen consecutive hours (or two periods of 

 eight consecutive hours) of service without pay. 



(i) Up to that date, taxes were levied even under the aaaie of pradare (theft, plunder). 

 (2) I leu = I fr. 



