374 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



municipal institutions, that is their distinguishing character. This was not 

 the case with Rome only. If we turn our attention to Italy at this period, 

 we find around Rome nothing but towns. That which was then called a peo- 

 ple was simply a confederation of towns. The Latin people was a confed- 

 eration of towns. The Etruscans, the Samnites, the Sabines, the people of 

 Graecia Magna, may all be described in the same terms. 



There was at this time no country, that is to say, the country was 

 wholly unlike that which at present exists ; it was cultivated, as was neces- 

 sary, but it was uninhabited. The proprietors of lands were the inhabitants 

 of the towns. They went forth to superintend their country properties, and 

 often took with them a certain number of slaves ; but that which we at 

 present call the country, that thin population sometimes in isolated habi- 

 tations, sometimes in villages which everywhere covers the soil, was a 

 fact almost unknown in ancient Italy. 



When Rome extended herself, what did she do? Follow history, and 

 you will see that she conquered or founded towns ; it was against towns 

 that she fought, with towns that she contracted alliances ; it was also into 

 towns that she sent colonies. The history of the conquest of the world 

 by Rome is the history of the conquest and foundation of a great number 

 of towns. . . . 



In Gaul, in Spain, you meet with nothing but towns. At a distance from 

 the towns the territory is covered with marshes and forests. Examine the 

 character of the Roman monuments, of the Roman roads. You have great 

 roads, which reach from one city to another ; the multiplicity of the minor 

 roads, which now cross the country in all directions, was then unknown ; 

 you have nothing resembling that countless number of villages, country 

 seats, and churches, which have been scattered over the country since the 

 Middle Ages. Rome has left us nothing but immense monuments, stamped 

 with the municipal character, and destined for a numerous population col- 

 lected upon one spot. Under whatever point of view you consider the 

 Roman world, you will find this almost exclusive preponderance of towns 

 and the social nonexistence of the country. 1 



The establishment of the feudal system produced one of these modi- 

 fications, of unmistakable importance; it altered the distribution of the 

 population over the face of the land. Hitherto the masters of the soil, the 

 sovereign population, had lived united in more or less numerous masses of 

 men, whether sedentarily in cities, or wandering in bands through the country. 

 In consequence of the feudal system these same men lived isolated, each 

 in his own habitation, and at great distances from one another. You will 



1 Guizot, F., The History of Civilization (London, 1856), Vol. I, pp. 27-29. 



