THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 239 



This survey of the conditions of the peasantry in the different 

 districts shows us very plainly the reciprocal action between the 

 development of the manorial system and property, or the peasant's 

 right of possession in general. 



Where the manorial system has lost its significance, the best 

 right of possession exists : real property or hereditary leasehold. 



Where the manorial system has been modified to the newer 

 form, an inferior right of possession exists, yet one that has become 

 hereditary and real : the leasehold. 



Where the manorial system has expanded and become accen- 

 tuated into estate farming, the worst right of possession exists, in 

 general not being even a hereditary right : tenancy at will. 



The interest of the lord in the land and his possession is 

 accordingly of wide range. 



Closely joined to this is still another factor, already touched 

 upon, which likewise is at the bottom of an important differen- 

 tiation of the rural policy in the eighteenth century, namely, a 

 division of the peasant population into two large groups, signi- 

 fying the existence of the closed farm and of sharply defined 

 peasant classes. 



The two are connected with each other : clearly defined classes 

 (whole, half, and quarter farmers, and cotters, according to the ex- 

 tent and character of their holdings) are to be found only where 

 the closed peasant farm exists, the farm in a narrower, technical 

 sense. By this is meant a peasant farm in which appurtenances 

 have been continuously preserved, and which has for a series of 

 generations remained unchanged in the hands of its owners. The 

 contrary is furnished by the peasant farms which may, by the sale 

 of lots, be reduced in size or even wholly broken up : the so-called 

 mobile landed property. As a result of the division usually made, 

 and the consequent breaking up and ruin of the farms, we find 

 here no clearly marked classes of peasants, but only the difference 

 between burghers and undertenants, according to the different 

 privileges enjoyed in the community. 



This great contrast between the closed peasant farm, which by 

 law or custom passes invariably into the hands of one heir, and 

 the free divisibility still pervades and differentiates the rural policy 



