THE EPOCHS OF GERMAN AGRARIAN HISTORY 245 



thirdly, in the cancellation of judicial and police powers exercised 

 by the patrimonial judge and the landed proprietor, and the grant- 

 ing of political rights to the peasantry. The last problem was 

 everywhere in Germany pretty much the same ; but the solution 

 of the first two took a very different turn for the three or four 

 groups which we have distinguished in the rural policy of the 

 eighteenth century. 



In the domain of the newer manorial system in the Northwest 

 the second problem, that of the personal liberation, is almost en- 

 tirely absent. We are here concerned chiefly with the restoration 

 of unconditioned property out of the hereditary right to leasehold, 

 and abolition of rather inconsiderable compulsory services to lord 

 and patrimonial judge. Most of the duties of the peasants are 

 here realty burdens, resting on the peasant farm. The emancipa- 

 tion of the peasants is, therefore, essentially the removal of realty 

 burdens, that is, the conversion of all the remaining burdens to 

 fixed rents payable in money, and the discharge of the latter by 

 paying off to the creditor in one lump sum the principal with 

 interest at a fixed rate. 



In the domain of the older manorial system in the South the 

 task is principally the elimination of the bondage which has ex- 

 isted from the Middle Ages, but which has changed to the form 

 of rents ; then the removal of the rather inconsiderable com- 

 pulsory services rendered chiefly to the patrimonial judge ; and 

 likewise the discharge of the realty burdens where necessary, 

 unencumbered property being here frequently met with already. 

 It is only in the Southeast that bad and at times not even 

 hereditary property rights must be converted into property. 



In the South, primarily, but also in the Northwest, it is an 

 antiquated system that is being displaced. In both regions it is 

 a question of tithes in money or readily convertible into money ; 

 hence it would be easy to pay them off without essentially chang- 

 ing the economic status of the lords hitherto entitled to them. 

 Consequently, the difficulty was here less economic than political. 

 It was not so great in the North as in the South. The Southern 

 nobility, mediatized at the beginning of the nineteenth century, 

 threw special obstacles in the way of reform ; in the North the 



