474 



LAND TENURE IN EUROPE. 



and in 1486 it was decreed that the feudal dues 

 should he reduced to u lixed sum, and serfage 

 was abolished in Spain. Owing to other OMM*, 



the condition of the Spanish agriculturist he- 

 came very hard to hear. Some grievances hnyo 

 been remedied, but chronic disturbance still 

 exUts to a greater or less degree. In the Ital- 

 ian Peninsula the condition of the cultivators 

 of the -oil \vas much the snme as in the Frank- 

 ish monarchy up to the twelfth century, when 

 a LT.-at improvement began to take place. In 

 the following century serfage was more or less 

 done away with in the northern part of the pen- 

 insula. The city of Bologna set the example 

 by abolishing serfage throughout its extensive 

 territory in \-2~>(\, due care, however, being had 

 for all proprietary rights. Treviso and Florence 

 followed in a few years, and not long after it 

 disappeared throughout Upper Italy. In South- 

 ern Italy matters were quite different. The 

 peasantry of Naples and Sicily prospered un- 

 der Mohammedan rule during the early portion 

 of the middle ages, and Sicily had a much 

 larger population in the eleventh century than 

 it numbered in 1842. The Norman invasion 

 produced a change, and a feudal system was 

 imposed on Southern Italy, and pressed heav- 

 ily on the people. It was only in this century, 

 after long and bitter suffering, that they were 

 set free by the soldiers of the Revolution. 



In Scandinavian countries (see DENMARK), 

 in Switzerland, in Holland, and in Belgium, the 

 development of the land question has been in 

 the same direction, and the practical result has 

 been to make the cultivators of the soil the 

 owners of it in most countries of Europe. In 

 Russia, at this date, about one third of the land 

 belongs to small communal proprietors; about 

 one sixth is in the hands of large land-owners ; 

 and the remainder belongs to the state. In 

 the extreme north and southeast the land (ex- 

 cept the property of the state) is owned ex- 

 clusively by peasants. In the east and beyond 

 the Volga they own from seventy to ninety per 

 cent, and in Central Russia from fifty to seven- 

 ty per cent. In the south and west the land is 

 about equally divided bet ween the peasants and 

 large proprietors ; but in the Baltic and Polish 

 provinces the latter own much the largest por- 

 tion. Agriculture in Russia, according to the 

 most reliable accounts, has made little or no 

 progress for twenty years past. On the con- 

 trary, it seems to have declined. Everything 

 appears to point in Russia to the concentration 

 of wealth, and the creation of a proletariat. 

 The communal property in land has not had 

 the good effect, in the way and to the extent 

 which was hoped, and land problems in Russia 

 are forcing themselves upon the attention of 

 all concerned in the right government and 

 prosperity of the empire. Italy, also, as to this 

 question, is in a sad condition. The trade in 

 grain has come to an end, and the misery of 

 the common people is said to be terrible, aris- 

 ing from destitution, and sickness in conse- 

 quence. Heavy taxation, too, is contributing 



to the ruin of the agriculturist, and emigration 

 has assumed large proportions. France, like- 

 wise, shows signs of agrarian trouble. About 

 one third of the soil is in the hands of small 

 proprietors ; the other two thirds are cultivated 

 on a large scale. Farming in this latter does 

 not seem to pay, for foreign competition (espe- 

 cially American) and high price of labor ren- 

 der cultivation of the land unprofitable. The 

 condition of the small peasant proprietors is 

 said to be very good where they cultivate the 

 ground themselves. In Germany peasant pro- 

 prietorship is not so well off as in France, see- 

 ing that nearly fifty per cent of small incomes 

 goes in rates, taxes, and interest. It is asserted 

 that, in some parts of Germany, from a quarter 

 to a half of the peasant proprietors are on the 

 verge of bankruptcy. As a general rule, it 

 seems to be certain that in no part of Europe 

 can competition be successfully carried on 

 against the vast wheat-fields of the United 

 States, and the European agriculturist is rarely 

 flourishing, except where he can cultivate the 

 vine, or grow hops, or tobacco, or olives, or 

 beets (for sugar), or vegetables. 



The land question in England is by no means 

 a quiet one. Not only is the very unequal divis- 

 ion of land complained of, but it is held to be 

 a grievance that land is entailed or settled so 

 as to prevent its being sold, leased, or improved, 

 and thus subject to the free operation of the 

 natural Jaws of supply and demand. Some 

 want an independent working peasantry, with, 

 at the same time, the landlord properly se- 

 cured in his rights of property. Full freedom 

 of contracts, liberty of use, rules of the market, 

 and law of the exchange, are claimed for land 

 as much as any other commodity. It is urged 

 that land in England has high social and polit- 

 ical bearings. The state is bound to foster and 

 encourage the agricultural classes, and farm- 

 ers, it is said, have deteriorated and need im- 

 provement in manners, intellectual force, etc. 

 The Farmers' Alliance is working to gain pos- 

 session of the land, so as to enjoy it and sell it 

 as they choose. The aristocratic classes do not, 

 of course, quite like this, and the question is 

 by no means an easy one to settle. As regards 

 Ireland, every one is aware how exceedingly 

 difficult it is to find grounds of amicable set- 

 tlement of the land question. A royal com- 

 mission, it is urged, ought to be appointed, 

 with powers to buy the estates of those will- 

 ing to sell at a fixed number of years' purchase, 

 with a view of establishing a peasant proprie- 

 tary; and that all restrictions on the sale of 

 land should be removed, and a cheap and ex- 

 peditious mode of land transfer introduced. 

 Very possibly such' measures would prove 

 beneficial. So far as anything has been done 

 in the way of peasant proprietorship, it seems 

 to work well and satisfactorily. It is claimed 

 that what is wanted in Ireland is free play for 

 the forces of economic law. And this can 

 only be obtained, at least so far as appears, by 

 a scheme which, without doing injustice to 



