[1286] sunt ergo instruendi eo pluris quod frugi mancipiis: nam nec ipse usquam vinctos habeo nec ibi quisquam. I take instruendi as referring to agri just above. The slaves are a normal part of instrumentum fundi.
[1287] hac paenuria colonorum. Not the tenants’ poverty. Cf VII 30 § 3.
[1288] sum quidem prope totus in praediis.
[1289] Daubeny, Lectures p 147, regards this great variation as normal in modern experience, and vineyards as the least lucrative kind of husbandry.
[1290] VIII 15, IX 28, IV 6, X 8 § 5.
[1291] II 4 § 3.
[1292] querellae rusticorum, V 14 § 8, VII 30 § 3, IX 36 § 6.
[1293] remissiones, IX 37 § 2, X 8 § 5.
[1294] As de Coulanges remarks pp 17-8, Pliny does not propose to get rid of them, but to keep them as partiary tenants. They would be in his debt. He uses the expression aeris alieni IX 37 § 2. He would have to find instrumentum for them.
[1295] IX 20 § 2.