310 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



Before the introduction of servile labor, the freemen who were 

 obliged to engage in agriculture capitalized certain amounts of the 

 land by the application to it of their ploughs, their plough-oxen, and 

 their seed. Just as soon, however, as men were obliged to resort to 

 agriculture as a means of subsistence, they began to look about them 

 for laborers to do the hard work which agriculture, especially primi- 

 tive agriculture, necessitates. They began to appropriate laborers 

 wherever they could lay hands upon them. Then we have property 

 in laborers as Avell as in animals. 



After the introduction of property in laborers, the amount of land 

 which the freeman occupied, beyond his place of residence, depended, 

 not only upon the number of his domesticated animals, but also upon 

 the number of his enslaved laborers. If he had five laborers, he occu- 

 pied as much land as the five laborers could cultivate ; if he had ten 

 laborers, he occupied as much land as the ten could cultivate. Thus 

 the freemen began to capitalize shares of arable land according to the 

 number of their laborers. 



Of course, the amount of land which the laborer was able to culti- 

 vate depended upon the capital he had to work with. He could not 

 do much work unless he was equipped with a plough, plough-oxen, 

 and seed. The amount of land, therefore, which the freeman culti- 

 vated depended upon the number of his laborers who were equipped 

 for service with ploughs, plough-oxen, and seed. 



The capitalists continued, in most cases, to live together in compa- 

 nies ; though it was not unusual for a large capitalist, the owner of 

 many animals and many laborers, to settle by himself. The amount 

 of land which a company of capitalists occupied depended upon the 

 number of animals and equipped laborers owned by all the members 

 together. Each company occupied a pasture sufficient for all the 

 animals belonging to its members, and, in addition to that, as many 

 lots of arable land as all the laborers belonging to the members could 

 cultivate. Then each member of the company capitalized as many 

 shares of the pasture land as he had animals, and as many lots of 

 the arable land as he had laborers equipped for service with ploughs, 

 plough-oxen, and seed. Suppose, for example, we have a company 

 of four capitalists, — A, B, C, and D. Suppose A has five equipped 

 laborers, B three, C eight, and D four. All together they have twenty 

 equipped laborers. They occupy, as a company, twenty lots of arable 

 land. Of these, A capitalizes five lots, B three, C eight, and D four. 

 Again we have a holding of land in capitalized shares. It is arable 

 land which is in this case capitalized. 



