Property Conditions. 29 
the duke or king for himself is then transferred with 
the territory given to his friends and vassals, who 
thereby secure for themselves his powers and jurisdic- 
tion, immunity from taxes and from other duties as well 
as the right to exact taxes and services from others, 
the favored growing into independent Imights and 
barons. 
The forest, then, originally was communal property 
and the feeling of this ownership in common remains 
even to the present day. Indeed, actually it remained 
mostly so until the 13th century, although the changes 
noted had their origin in the 7th century when the kings 
began to assert their rights of princely superiority. 
In these earlier ages the main use of the forests was 
for the hunt, the mast and the pasture, and since wood 
was relatively plentiful, forest destruction was the rule. 
Those who became possessed of larger properties through 
the causes mentioned tried to secure an increased value of 
their possessions by colonization, in which especially the 
slaves or serfs were utilized. These often became freed- 
men, paying rent in product or labor and acquiring the 
rights of usufruct in the property, out of which devel- 
oped the so-called servitudes or rights of user, a limited 
right to use the property of another, the praedium of the 
Romans. 
Through the development of private property there 
developed naturally also the right—which in our coun- 
try we have not yet fully attained—of preventing the 
hunting on such lands, this being then their main use. 
This exclusive right to the chase or hunt we find recog- 
nized as a part of the property in the 8th century, when 
8 
