THK Kl'OCHS 01 (1KRMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 237 



III 



Before we turn to the third great epoch, dealing with the legis- 

 lation of emancipation, we shall attempt to present a comprehen- 

 sive picture of the rural policy of the eighteenth century, tin- 

 dissolution of which was the object of the legislation. \Y 



brought face to face with the three forms of hist 

 development whose origin we have followed. They exist simul- 

 taneously side by side in large and clearly defined regions. \Vc 

 have, therefore, a threefold division of this rural policy of the 

 eighteenth century : a region of the older manorial system, grad- 

 ually disintegrated or changed to the small sovereignty, with per- 

 sonal bondage, in the South (more exactly the Southwest) ; a 

 region of the newer manorial system, with personal freedom, in 

 the Northwest; and a region of estate farming, with a new form 

 of bondage, in the Northeast. Between these there are of course 

 transitional regions with mixed forms. We find occasionally in all 



regions free peasant farms and free peasants, independent 

 of all manorial relations, but, as a rule, only with the Ditmarschen, 



arsh peasants of Bremen, and in East Friesland. With the 

 mass of the peasant population, however, the status as to property 

 and personal rights in these three chief regions differs greatly. 

 In the Northwest these rights are for the most part good. Tlu 



old, which here prevails, has become a hereditary right of 



usufruct, the compulsory services are slight, then- 1 -i orally 



but few of the larger baronial estates. The - of the peas- 



therefore, generally free. Only in \\Vstphalia and 



Hildesheim do we find remnants of the old dependence, in its 



form of tithes. 



In the Northeast, on the other hand. hts compara- 



ble to the leasehold exist only in tl ich as 



the Altmark and I the rule is not a right 



of substantial property, but an in! V,sehld, 



either hereditary or only for life or at the will of the propi 

 The return rendered by the peasant for his n-hts does not < 

 chiefly of rents, as in the Northwest, but for the mast part of 

 compulsory services. In view of the number and t the 



