[249] Ibid., pp. 54, 398, 417, 419, 411. [↑]
[250] Ibid., p. 420; see also p. 311. [↑]
[251] Ashley, II pp. 281, 282; see also Inama-Sternegg, III Part II p. 201. [↑]
[252] On the history of the rural classes in Eastern Germany, see Knapp, Die Bauernbefreiung.
It may be of some interest to point out the great resemblance between the rise of Roman colonatus as described by Max Weber and the rise of serfdom in Eastern Germany. In both countries most of the peasants were originally free (Weber, Römische Agrargeschichte, p. 244; Knapp, I p. 32). The landlords, who formerly had passed most of their time outside their properties, when they lost their military function took the cultivation of their manors into their own hands (Weber, l.c., pp. 243, 244; Knapp, I p. 37). They soon acquired rights of jurisdiction over the peasants (Weber, l.c., p. 260; Knapp, I p. 33), and began to compel them to work on the demesne (Weber, l.c., p. 244; Knapp, I p. 40). The cultivators lost the right of emigrating (Weber, l.c., pp. 256–258; Knapp, I p. 42). Even the Bauernlegen, i.e. the joining of a peasant’s holding to the demesne, occurred in Rome as well as in Eastern Germany (Weber, l. c, p. 247; Knapp, I pp. 50, 55). And it is most remarkable that in both countries the rise of serfdom took place at an advanced period of their history.
This proves once more that the institutions of different countries may closely resemble [[383]]each other, even in many details, without the one country having derived its institutions from the other. For even the influence of Roman law cannot serve as an explanation of this resemblance, as Roman law takes little notice of colonatus (Weber l.c., p. 259). [↑]
[253] We must admit that we are not sure whether the facts of Roman agrarian history agree with our theory. In Rome slavery prevailed to a large extent at a time when the relative scarcity of land gave rise to the difficulties about the ager publicus.
We shall not attempt to solve this question. We will only mention our impression, on reading Weber’s Römische Agrargeschichte, viz. that, even in the time of the Empire, though some land fetched a high price, all disposable land had not yet been appropriated, and therefore the want of servile labour remained. At the beginning of the Empire free labourers were very scarce, and could only be got to help the landlords in sowing and at harvest time on condition of receiving a pretty considerable part of the harvest (Weber, l.c., pp. 236–238). Under Augustus and Tiberius the procuring of slaves from abroad became very difficult, and this led to kidnapping of men by the landlords (Ibid., p. 242). In the boundary provinces, even in later centuries, barbarians were imported and became coloni attached to the soil (Ibid., pp. 259, 260).
Slavery proper declined from the beginning of the Empire (Meyer, Altertum, p. 71); but the coloni, who originally seem to have been free tenants, gradually lost the right of removing from the manor they inhabited (Weber, l.c., pp. 242, 248–250, 256–258).