298 Landlord and tenant 



(instrumentum) of the farm, or at least most of it, including slaves. 

 Thus he was in a sense partner of his tenant, finding most of the 

 working capital. Whether he had a claim to a money rent only, or to 

 a share of crops also, depended on the terms of letting. It seems that 

 rents were often in arrear, and that attempts to recover sums due by 

 selling up tenants' goods did not always cover the debts. 



The typical tenant-farmer was certainly a 'small man.' To let the 

 whole of a large estate to a * big man ' with plenty of capital was not 

 the practice in Italy. Why? I think the main reason was that a big 

 capitalist who wanted to get the highest return on his money could at 

 this time do better for himself in other ventures: if set upon a land- 

 enterprise, he could find far more attractive openings in some of the 

 Provinces. Anyhow, as Mommsen says, ' Grosspacht ' never became 

 acclimatized in Italy, though we find it on Imperial domains, for in- 

 stance in Africa. In connexion with this matter I am led to remark 

 that small tenancy ' Kleinpacht ' seems to have existed in two forms, 

 perhaps indistinguishable in law, but different in their practical effect. 

 When a landlord, letting parcels of a big estate to tenants, kept in 

 hand the chief villa and its appurtenances as a sort of Manor Farm, 

 and tenants fell into arrear with their rent, he had a ready means of 

 indemnifying himself without ' selling up ' his old tenants and having 

 possibly much difficulty in finding better new ones. He could com- 

 mute arrears of rent into obligations of service 1 on the Manor Farm. 

 Most tenants would probably be only too glad to get rid of the im- 

 mediate burden of .debt. It would seem a better course than to borrow 

 for that purpose money on which interest would have to be paid, even 

 supposing that anyone would be willing to lend to a poor tenant con- 

 fessedly in difficulties. And such an arrangement would furnish the 

 landlord with a fixed amount of labour (and labour was becoming 

 scarcer) on very favourable terms he or his agent would see to that. 

 But it was not really necessary to reserve a ' Manor Farm ' at all, and 

 a man owning land in several districts would hardly do so in every 

 estate, if in any. Such a landlord could not readily solve the arrears- 

 problem by commutation. He was almost compelled 2 to 'sell up' a 

 hopeless defaulter: and, since most of the stock had probably been 

 supplied by himself, there would not be much for him to sell. That 

 such cases did occur, we know for certain; the old tenant went, being 

 free to move, and to find a good new one was no easy matter, particu- 

 larly as the land was sure to have been left in a bad state. Arrears of 

 farm-rents had a regular phrase (reliqua colonorum) assigned to them, 



1 Whether we have in Columella a direct reference to this method is a question I have 

 discussed in the chapter on that author. However answered, it does not affect the present 

 passage. See the chapter on the African inscriptions. 



2 See the case cited in the chapter on Pliny the younger. 



