THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN 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, the 

 dissolution of which was the object of the legislation. We are 

 here brought face to face with the three forms of historical 

 development whose origin we have followed. They exist simul- 

 taneously side by side in large and clearly defined regions. We 

 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 

 these regions free peasant farms and free peasants, independent 

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

 the marsh 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. The 

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

 usufruct, the compulsory services are slight, there being generally 

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

 ants are, therefore, generally free. Only in Westphalia and 

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

 reduced form of tithes. 



In the Northeast, on the other hand, property rights compara- 

 ble to the leasehold exist only in the transitional regions, such as 

 the Altmark and Lower Silesia ; otherwise the rule is not a right 

 of substantial property, but an inferior form, that of leasehold, 

 either hereditary or only for life or at the will of the proprietor. 

 The return rendered by the peasant for his rights does not consist 

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

 compulsory services. In view of the number and extent of the 



