330 ON THE NATFUAI. IXEQFAUTY OF MEX vn 



was so general, if not universal, created hereditary 

 individual property alongside the communal 

 property, so that private estates arose in the 

 waste between the sparse communal estates. 

 Now, it was not every family or member of a 

 community that was enterprising enough to go 

 out and clear waste lands, or that had the courage 

 to defend its possessions when once obtained] 

 The originally small size of the domains thus 

 acquired, and the strong stimulus of personal 

 interest, led to the introduction of better methods 

 of cultivation than those traditional in the com- 

 munes. And, finally, as the private owner got 

 little or no benefit from the community, he was 

 exempted from the charges and corses laid upon 

 its members. The result, as may be imagined, 

 was that the private proprietors, aided by serf- 

 labour, prospered more than the communities 

 cultivated by their free members, seriously ham- 

 pered them by occupying fresh waste lands, yielded 

 more produce, and furnished wealth, which, with 

 the help of the majorat system, remained con- 

 centrated in the hands of owners who, in virtue 

 of their possessions, could maintain retainers; 

 while, freed from the need to labour, they could 

 occupy themselves with war and the chase, and, 

 as nobles, attend the sovereign. On the other 

 hand, their brethren, left behind in the communes, 

 had little chance of growing individually rich or 

 powerful, and had to give themselves up to 



