256 The supply of labour 



to believe that there were no instances of landlords either wholly non- 

 resident or who so seldom visited their estates that they could not 

 possibly keep an eye on the doings of stewards. In such cases there 

 would be strong inducement to adopt the plan by which they could 

 simply draw rents and have no stewards to look after. ^That stewards 

 needed to be carefully watched was as clear to Columella as to Cato 

 or Varro. True, letting to tenants was a policy liable to bring troubles 

 of its own. We shall see in the case of the younger Pliny what they 

 were and how he met them. Meanwhile he may serve as an example 

 of the system. It is also plain that a large continuous property could 

 be divided 1 into smaller parcels for convenience of letting to tenants. 

 Whether the later plan of keeping a considerable Home Farm in hand 

 under a steward, and letting off the outer parcels of the same estate to 

 tenants, was in vogue already and contemplated by Columella, is not 

 easy to say. In connexion with this question it is to be noted that he 

 hardly refers at all to free hired labour 2 as generally available. The 

 migratory gangs of wage-earners, still known to Varro, do not appear, 

 nor do the itinerant medici. When he speaks of hiring hands at any 

 price, or of times when labour is cheap, he may mean hiring somebody's 

 slaves, and probably does.^lave labour is undoubtedly the basis of 

 his farm-system, and its elaborate organization fills an important part 

 of his book. Yet two marked consequences of the Roman Peace had 

 to be taken into account. Fewer wars meant fewer slaves in the market, 

 and a rise of prices: peace and law in Italy meant that big landowners 

 could add field to field more securely than ever, while great numbers 

 of citizens were settling in the Provinces, taking advantage of better 

 openings 3 there. To keep some free labour within call as an occasional 

 resource was an undeniable convenience for a large owner with a farm 

 in hand. Small tenants 4 under obligation to render stipulated service 

 at certain seasons would obviously supply the labour needed. And, if 

 we picture to ourselves a Home Farm round the lord's mansion, worked 

 by steward and slave staff, with outlying 'soccage' tenants on holdings 

 near, we are already in presence of a rudimentary Manor. As time 

 went by, and the system got into regular working order, the landlord 

 had an opportunity of strengthening his hold on the tenants. By not 

 pressing them too severely for arrears of rent, and occasionally granting 

 abatements, he could gradually increase their services. What he thus 



1 See case referred to by Paulus in Digest xxxi 86 1 . 



2 I praef$ 12 ex mercennariis aliquem. In II 2 12 operarum vilitas, and IV 6 3 ope- 

 rarum pacnuria, III 21 10 plures operas quantocumqm pretio conducere, the hands hired 

 may be slaves. 



* Of course not necessarily agricultural, in fact generally not. See my article in Journal 

 of Roman Studies 1918, and Index under Emigration. 



4 Very different from the small farmers of old time, who were owners. 



