266 LAND REFORM 



and to consolidate outlying and intersected lands so as 

 to form compact holdings, etc.^ 



The enactment, however, which abolished all re- 

 strictions on the alienation of lands, that is, gave 

 absolute " Free Trade in Land," had to be altered, on 

 account of the danger that the peasant lands might be 

 absorbed into larger estates. Lords of the manor 

 were forbidden to annex peasant lands. These lands 

 were to be kept in the occupation of peasant cultiva- 

 tors. These arrangements were carried out by strik- 

 ing a balance between the obligations and rights of 

 one party and the obligations and rights of the other 

 party. This balance, which was usually against the 

 peasant, was commuted by a rent charge or by the 

 surrender of its equivalent in land. By a subsequent 

 law these rent charges were extinguished on the basis 

 of twenty-five years' purchase, the amount being 

 advanced by rent-charge banks guaranteed by the 

 State and repaid by the peasant by annual instalments 

 composed of interest and sinking-fund. The amount 

 of these instalments was based on 4^ per cent interest 

 and sinking-fund for repayment in fifty-six years ; or 

 5 per cent for repayment in forty-one years. 



Stein would give the lords no compensation, except 

 in certain cases, for their alleged rights to the personal 

 services of the peasantry, to infiict fines and to im- 



^ It must be noted that in German legislation and in official reports of 

 that country the term "peasantry " is a very elastic one, and includes nearly 

 all classes of farmers. "A middle-class estate, viz. 7^ to 150 hectares, 

 is called in Germany a peasant's (Bauern) estate" (Sir Edward Malet's 

 Report, C. 6250, 1891). A hectare is about 2^ (2"47i) English acres, so 

 that so-called peasant holdings may be as big as 375 acres each. As 

 there are comparatively few tenant farmers in Germany, except on 

 Crown lands, it may be taken, therefore, that the legislation referred to 

 affected nearly all classes of cultivators. 



