LAND TENURE IN EUROPE. 



473 



the possession of nobles, peasants, or citizens, 

 as the case might be. When, under Frederick 

 William III, the monarchy was greatly re- 

 duced by Napoleon's military successes, Stein 

 undertook the important and difficult work of 

 agrarian reform. Agriculture had of course 

 suffered severely by the war, and Stein fur- 

 nished help to the land-owners, who had been 

 losers, by abolishing all limitation of the right 

 of owning and alienating land. Personal serf- 

 dom was put an end to ; but it was perplexing 

 to know what to do with the peasantry, who 

 were very poor and very wretched managers 

 of affairs. A royal commission investigated 

 the subject, and proposed several remedial 

 measures. The most important of these were 

 to allow each peasant to hold land, subject to 

 certain dues; to refuse any further pecuniary 

 help, and evict those unable to meet obliga- 

 tions; to withdraw permission to send cattle 

 to graze in the royal forests ; to commute into 

 money payment in kind, and add it to the 

 rent ; to let one quarter of this remain as a 

 permanent charge on the land, and the other 

 three fourths to be redeemable in thirty years ; 

 and if any peasant was unable or unwilling to 

 agree to this arrangement, to sell his holding 

 and give him the proceeds as compensation. 

 The interests of no less than 47,000 families 

 were involved, and Minister Stein realized the 

 gravity of the situation. He finally decided to 

 continue the government subsidies for two 

 years, in order to give the tenants time to 

 repair their holdings. In 1817 Hardenberg 

 framed a law by which, on all manorial es- 

 tates, the peasant became the owner of his 

 holding, and the lord was compensated by re- 

 ceiving in fee simple a third of the peasant's 

 land, if the latter held by hereditary tenure, 

 and one half if he did not. Subsequent land 

 legislation in Prussia has been in the direction 

 of helping the peasant to pay off his debt to 

 the state, and the effect has been to create a 

 peasant proprietary, and to help to abolish all 

 monopolies and impediments to industry. 



The fines, dues, and monopolies of the feudal 

 system continued to exist throughout Germany 

 and Austria long after Stein had cleared them 

 away in Prussia. In the Austrian Empire the 

 old organization remained in full vigor till 

 1848. Much dissatisfaction was felt and com- 

 plaint made as to the working of this system, 

 and the mode in which the laws were admin- 

 istered throughout Southern Germany, and, 

 when the tempest of 18-48 burst over Germany 

 and Austria, it became necessary to sweep 

 away the whole manorial organization. Under 

 the rearrangement the peasant held his land 

 under one of four different kinds of tenure, 

 viz., Erbrecht, Frewtift, Leibrecht, and Neu- 

 atift. In the case of the first, when a tenant 

 died his heir succeeded to the holding as a 

 matter of right; but in the case of Leibrecht 

 the lord might resume possession of the hold- 

 ing and add it to his domain on the death of 

 the tenant. Those who held by Freistift occu- 



pied their holdings at the will of the lord. The 

 tenant might at any moment get notice to quit, 

 but the lord was required to make suitable 

 compensation. In the case of Nerntift the 

 right of occupation terminated if the manor 

 changed hands. In practice all these hold- 

 ings, no matter under which of the four ten- 

 ures they were held, passed from father to son 

 for many generations. The tenant gave the 

 lord every year a certain proportion of his 

 corn as well as of his non-cereal crops. As a 

 proprietary arrangement this had become very 

 cumbrous and inconvenient. Troubles and 

 difficulties occurred, and there was a general 

 desire for a simpler agrarian system. In order 

 to satisfy this want, a law was passed offering 

 adequate remuneration to any lords of manors 

 who chose to renounce their feudal dues. The 

 details are not important ; but the main result 

 has been to create a large number of peasant 

 owners in fee simple, to simplify the title upon 

 which land is held, and to introduce a system 

 under which it may be bought and sold with 

 the greatest facility in the open market. 



The next great event in agrarian history of 

 the century is the abolition of serfage in Rus- 

 sia. This institution, first legalized in 1592, 

 was introduced into the Ukraine during the 

 reign of Catharine II. More than once did it 

 produce revolutionary movements, and there 

 was a very dangerous outbreak in 1773. The 

 Empress dared not offend the nobility, and the 

 condition of the peasantry became worse and 

 worse. Under the Emperors Paul, Alexander, 

 and Nicholas, efforts were made toward eman- 

 cipation ; but it was not till the close of the 

 Crimean War (1856) that the freeing of the 

 serfs became a matter of prime necessity. 

 There were three kinds of estates in Russia: 

 those farmed by the proprietor himself, who 

 took his dues in serf-labor; those on which the 

 number of serfs was greater than the owner 

 could employ, these being allowed to go and 

 work where they pleased; and, finally, those 

 which the proprietor did not farm at all. The 

 serfs on these last were treated like the super- 

 numeraries on the second class of estates, and 

 the owner arranged that the commune should 

 work his land. By the law of 1861 the serfs 

 were declared personally free, and the com- 

 munal land was separated from the rest of the 

 estate. The Government gave its aid to the 

 commune by advancing four fifths of the pur- 

 chase-money, the peasants being required to 

 pay the other fifth to the proprietors. Up to 

 the beginning of 1875, sixty-three per cent of 

 the dues were cleared by obligatory redemp- 

 tion; and up to that time 7,200,000 male serfs 

 had made redemption contracts that is, to pay 

 the Government six tenths for forty-nine years 

 over the sum advanced. 



The decay of feudal society in most other 

 European countries needs only brief statement. 

 In Spain it was in reality destroyed by the 

 Saracen conquest. Under Ferdinand and Isa- 

 bella groat land reforms were carried through, 



