82 LAND OWNERSHIP 



One of the results of the most recent research 

 is to discredit the theory that any general 

 system of communal land-owning prevailed 

 in Europe in post-Roman times, and to 

 suggest that from the earliest historical 

 period much land was individually owned. 

 According to this view peasant proprietorship 

 developed under the manor system, and its 

 history on the Continent may be said to be, 

 broadly, one of gradual growth and emanci- 

 pation. Professor Ashley shows that a peas- 

 ant proprietary was not created either in 

 France by the legislation of the Revolution 

 or in German}^ by that of Stein and Harden- 

 berg at the beginning of the 19th century. 

 In both cases the peasants were there, and 

 the effect of legislation was to make them 

 more independent and to increase their 

 number. In England, where the medieval 

 conditions had been very much the same, 

 they had already to a great extent disap- 

 peared during the i8th century. Professor 

 Ashley attributes this to Parliamentary 

 government established in 1689 and the 

 triumph of Whig principles, which put an end 

 to the policy of peasant protection by the 

 Crown and enabled the landed gentry, with 

 the aid of money gained in trade, to arrange 

 matters to suit themselves, including the 

 formation of large estates and the develop- 

 ment of tenant farming. 



