80 LAND AND LABOR. 



Adam Smith describes, as follows, a condition of 

 agriculture that formerly existed in Europe almost 

 exactly like our present system of tenant farming : 



" In the ancient state of Europe the occupiers of land were 

 all tenants at will. They were all, or almost all, slaves ; but 

 their slavery was of a milder kind than that known among the 

 ancient Greeks and Romans, or even in our West Indian colo- 

 nies To the slave cultivators of ancient times gradu- 

 ally succeeded a species of farming known at present [1770] in 

 France by the name of Metayers. They are called in Latin Co- 

 loni Partiarii. They have been so long in disuse in England 

 that at present I know no English name for them. The pro- 

 prietors furnished them with the seed, cattle, and instruments 

 of husbandly, the whole stock [capital], in short, necessary for 

 cultivating the farm. The produce was divided equally be- 

 tween the proprietor and the farmer, after setting aside what 

 was judged necessary for keeping up the stock, which was re- 

 stored to the proprietor when the farmer either quitted or was 

 turned out of the farm." 



He further writes : 



"Land occupied by such tenants is properly cultivated at 

 the expense of the proprietor as much as that occupied by 



slaves That tenure in villanage gradually wore out 



through the greater part of Europe. The time and manner, 

 however, in which so important a revolution was brought about 

 is one of the most obscure points in modern history. The 

 church of Rome claims great merit in it; and it is certain that 

 so early as the twelfth century, Alexander III published a bull 



for the general emancipation of slaves In France live 



parts out of six of the whole kingdom are said to be still [1770] 

 occupied by this species of cultivators." Wealth of Nation*. 



II< re we have the most positive evidence that even 

 in Europe, in her darkest period, our system of tenant 



