42 Germany. 



The original usufruct of a common property was ex- 

 plained in the Eoman sense as a precarium or servitude, 

 and from being a right of the whole organization became 

 a right of the single individual or group of individuals. 

 In this way the socialistic basis of the Mark was de- 

 stroyed. Through the exercise of the Forsthoheit, the 

 appointment of the officials instead of their election, is- 

 suance of ordinances and the usurpation of the legisla- 

 tive and police power, the political power of the Mark 

 is broken and the Thirty Years' War completes the 

 breakdown; the pride of the burgher and the peasant is 

 gone, their autonomy destroyed and their economic 

 political organizations sink into mere corporations based 

 on land tenure, which, according to Eoman doctrine, 

 come under the regulation of the State or prince. 



The nobility move into the cities and leave the ad- 

 ministration of their estates to officials who are con- 

 stantly pressed to furnish the means for the extravagant 

 life of their masters. These in turn harass and oppress 

 the peasantry, who finally become bondsmen, Gutshorige 

 (bound to the glebe) and lose their independence en- 

 tirely. 



Eef orms in this situation of the peasantry began first 

 in Prussia in 1703, when bondage was abolished for all 

 those who could purchase their houses and farms from 

 the gentry. As few had the means to do so, the result 

 was the creation of a proletariat, hitherto unknown be- 

 cause under the old feudal system the lord had to feed 

 his impoverished bondsmen. 



Changes in forest property in particular were brought 

 about by the increase of princely property through the 



