As long as the German tribes dwelt in their forests, it did not occur to them to divide and appropriate the soil.The land was held in common: each individual could plow, sow, and reap.But, when the empire was once invaded, they bethought themselves of sharing the land, just as they shared spoils after a victory."Hence," says M.Laboulaye, "the expressions _sortes Burgundiorum Gothorum_ and {GREEK, ` k}; hence the German words _allod_, allodium, and _loos_, lot, which are used in all modern languages to designate the gifts of chance."Allodial property, at least with the mass of coparceners, was originally held, then, in equal shares; for all of the prizes were equal, or, at least, equivalent.This property, like that of the Romans, was wholly individual, independent, exclusive, transferable, and consequently susceptible of accumulation and invasion.But, instead of its being, as was the case among the Romans, the large estate which, through increase and usury, subordinated and absorbed the small one, among the Barbarians--fonder of war than of wealth, more eager to dispose of persons than to appropriate things--it was the warrior who, through superiority of arms, enslaved his adversary.The Roman wanted matter; the Barbarian wanted man.Consequently, in the feudal ages, rents were almost nothing,--simply a hare, a partridge, a pie, a few pints of wine brought by a little girl, or a Maypole set up within the suzerain's reach.In return, the vassal or incumbent had to follow the seignior to battle (a thing which happened almost every day), and equip and feed himself at his own expense."This spirit of the German tribes--this spirit of companionship and association--governed the territory as it governed individuals.The lands, like the men, were secured to a chief or seignior by a bond of mutual protection and fidelity.
This subjection was the labor of the German epoch which gave birth to feudalism.By fair means or foul, every proprietor who could not be a chief was forced to be a vassal." (Laboulaye:
History of Property.)
By fair means or foul, every mechanic who cannot be a master has to be a journeyman; every proprietor who is not an invader will be invaded; every producer who cannot, by the exploitation of other men, furnish products at less than their proper value, will lose his labor.Corporations and masterships, which are hated so bitterly, but which will reappear if we are not careful, are the necessary results of the principle of competition which is inherent in property; their organization was patterned formerly after that of the feudal hierarchy, which was the result of the subordination of men and possessions.
The times which paved the way for the advent of feudalism and the reappearance of large proprietors were times of carnage and the most frightful anarchy.Never before had murder and violence made such havoc with the human race.The tenth century, among others, if my memory serves me rightly, was called the CENTURYOF IRON.His property, his life, and the honor of his wife and children always in danger the small proprietor made haste to do homage to his seignior, and to bestow something on the church of his freehold, that he might receive protection and security.
"Both facts and laws bear witness that from the sixth to the tenth century the proprietors of small freeholds were gradually plundered, or reduced by the encroachments of large proprietors and counts to the condition of either vassals or tributaries.
The Capitularies are full of repressive provisions; but the incessant reiteration of these threats only shows the perseverance of the evil and the impotency of the government.
Oppression, moreover, varies but little in its methods.The complaints of the free proprietors, and the groans of the plebeians at the time of the Gracchi, were one and the same.It is said that, whenever a poor man refused to give his estate to the bishop, the curate, the count, the judge, or the centurion, these immediately sought an opportunity to ruin him.They made him serve in the army until, completely ruined, he was induced, by fair means or foul, to give up his freehold."--Laboulaye:
History of Property.
How many small proprietors and manufacturers have not been ruined by large ones through chicanery, law-suits, and competition?
Strategy, violence, and usury,--such are the proprietor's methods of plundering the laborer.
Thus we see property, at all ages and in all its forms, oscillating by virtue of its principle between two opposite terms,--extreme division and extreme accumulation.
Property, at its first term, is almost null.Reduced to personal exploitation, it is property only potentially.At its second term, it exists in its perfection; then it is truly property.
When property is widely distributed, society thrives, progresses, grows, and rises quickly to the zenith of its power.Thus, the Jews, after leaving Babylon with Esdras and Nehemiah, soon became richer and more powerful than they had been under their kings.
Sparta was in a strong and prosperous condition during the two or three centuries which followed the death of Lycurgus.The best days of Athens were those of the Persian war; Rome, whose inhabitants were divided from the beginning into two classes,--the exploiters and the exploited,--knew no such thing as peace.
When property is concentrated, society, abusing itself, polluted, so to speak, grows corrupt, wears itself out--how shall I express this horrible idea?--plunges into long-continued and fatal luxury.
