240 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



of the German Empire of to-day, although in a less degree than 

 before the legislation of emancipation. 



In the eighteenth century Germany was divided into four 

 regions, according to the prevalence of one or the other system : 

 a region of the pure closed farm, the territory east of the Elbe ; 

 a region in which the closed farm prevailed, the Northwest and 

 in the Southeast the Bavarian districts south of the Danube, the 

 South of YViirttemberg and Baden ; a region of the prevailing 

 free divisibility, Central Germany and Northern Bavaria ; and a 

 region of unrestricted free divisibility, on the Rhine, in Northern 

 Wurttemberg and the level parts of Baden. 



The survey of the relative occurrence of the two forms shows 

 that the difference between the closed and the open farm is also 

 related with the difference of settlement in isolated farmsteads 

 and villages. The two are, however, not identical ; for while the 

 isolated farmstead is usually a closed farm, as in Westphalia, 

 the reverse is not true : the occurrence of the closed farm is 

 not restricted to isolated homesteads, but is found also in village 

 settlements, as in Hanover and the Northeast. 



But the institution of the closed farm is most intimately related 

 with the manorial system in its different forms : it is met with, 

 generally speaking, in the Northwest, the Northeast, and the 

 Southeast, that is, in the domain where the manorial system or 

 estate farming was the source of progress and prosperity ; not in 

 Southwestern and Central Germany, the domain of the decayed 

 manorial system. This is quite natural, for here only we find 

 the good property right, making possible a division of the estate. 

 Freehold and free divisibility are, therefore, intimately related on 

 the one hand ; the manorial system and hereditary right on the 

 other. The hereditary right exists essentially for the lord. It is 

 originally a product of the manorial system or estate farming, of 

 private domination as well as that of the state. 



The question now presents itself, What are the final rea- 

 sons for this heterogeneous development in the different parts 

 of Germany, for this manifold but always correlated and coordi- 

 nate differentiation in the rural policy of the eighteenth century ? 

 Why has not the development everywhere advanced to the most 



