RELATIONS OF THE RURAL COMMUNITY 739 



south, bottoms, valleys of rivers, plateaux, are intermingled, because 

 climatic and other natural conditions of the production of goods 

 are very noticeably differentiated within narrow districts, the eco- 

 nomic inducement to trade, to the development of a relatively in- 

 tensive communication were so much stronger than on the large 

 plains of the east where the neighboring towns have much more 

 frequently nothing to exchange with each other (as even to-day), 

 because all of them produce the same goods in consequence of the 

 greater uniformity of production caused by their geographical situ- 

 ation. Historical and natural conditions of an intensive local trade 

 were (and still are), for these reasons, more favorable in the west. 

 It is Professor von Below's merit to have pointed to the fact that, 

 in the Middle Ages, the knighthood of the west was not only not 

 exclusively but not even predominantly founded upon territorial 

 possession. Taxes, toll traverse, rents, and imposts which depend 

 upon a certain amount of local traffic played a role. This was 

 undoubtedly much less possible in those days (as at present) in the 

 east. Whoever wanted to live there as a knight must found his 

 existence rather upon the income from his own operation of agricul- 

 ture. Large organizations for the production of goods and for exter- 

 nal commerce, as those of the " German Order," are only a different 

 phase of the same fact; the monotony of Eastern production directed 

 transportation into more distant regions, and the local money 

 economy remained considerably inferior to that of the east, ac- 

 cording to all symptoms. If the very uncertain possible estima- 

 tions are only approximately correct, also the conditions of the 

 peasants' existence in the east and west must have been very 

 different. It is scarcely probable that the lord would have taken up 

 the operation of agriculture with its toil, risk, and the little gentle- 

 manly contact with the mercantile world, if he could have lived as 

 well in the east as in the west on the peasants' taxes, tolls, tithes, 

 and rents. But we may conjecture why it was not equally possible 

 in the east as in the west; for to make it possible, the peasants 

 must be economically able to pay taxes of considerable amount, 

 sufficient for the wants of the landlord; it is by no means evident 

 that the peasants could afford to do this. This would presup- 

 pose that the peasant's self-interest in the productivity of his 

 land had reached a certain degree, that he himself had attained a 

 certain amount of economic education. But nothing could and 

 can be substituted for that educating influence which is exerted 

 upon the peasant by an intensive formation of urban communities, 

 by well-developed local communication, by opportunity and induce- 

 ment to sell rural products in the nearest possible local markets; 

 this great difference may still be seen by comparing the peasant of 

 the plain of Baden with the peasant of the east. 



