Property Conditions. a4 
used in common for hunting, pasturing, fattening of 
hogs by the oak mast, etc., rather than for the wood. In 
return for the assignment of the fields, the free men, 
who alone were fully recognized citizens of the com- 
munity, had to fulfil the duties of citizens and espe- 
cially of war service. 
Only gradually, by partition, immigration and uneven 
numerical development, was the original Mark or dif- 
ferentiation into family associations destroyed and a 
more heterogeneous association of neighbors substituted. 
At the same time inequality of ownership arose espe- 
cially from the fact that those who owned a larger 
number of slaves (the conquered race) had the advan- 
tage in being able to clear and cultivate more readily new 
and rough forest ground. Those without slaves would 
seek assistance from those more favored, exchanging for 
rent or service their rights to the use of land; out of this 
relationship a certain vassalage and inequality of politi- 
cal rights developed. 
Under the influence of Roman doctrine a new aspect 
regarding newly conquered territory developed, by which 
the Dukes as representatives of the community laid 
claim to all unseated or unappropriated land ; they then 
distributed to their followers or donated to the newly 
established church portions of this land, so that by the 
year 900 A. D., a complete change in property relations 
had been effected. In this way the large haronial estates 
of private owners came into existence which were of such 
great significance in the economic history of the Middle 
Ages, changing considerably the estate of the free men 
-and changing the free mark societies into communities 
under the dominion of the barons. 
