In France the complaint is that the subdivision of property prevents the application of machinery to agriculture. In England,on the other hand, the excessive concentration of property in a few hands is the cause of alarm. The Russian system,judiciously applied, would combine the advantages of small property and large cultivation. There would be more proprietorsthan in France, because all the cultivators would be, and are already, proprietors; and agriculture would be carried on oneven a larger scale than in England, as the whole of every commune would be cultivated as a single farm. To arrive at thisresult, the only thing necessary is to maintain collective property and allotment, while improving the legal organization, and,at the same time, to give the cultivators the instruction necessary for them to profit by it, by the adoption of an improvedsystem of agriculture.
1. This commission, presided over by a person of great eminence, the "minister of Domains" P. Waluzef, received more thana thousand reports and more than two hundred verbal depositions. Unfortunately, as M.A. Leroy Beaulieu remarks, onlypersons of the higher classes were heard, who are generally hostile to the system of communities. M. Von Reussler sums upthe opinions of the writers. -- A. Butowski, J. Ssolozew, Th. Von Thörner, Von Busehen, Hertzen, Tschitscherine, Kawelin,Jurin, Ssawitsch, Koschelew, Seamarin, Belazew, Tschernuschewski, Besobrasow, Panazew, etc.
2. Aperçue statistique des forces productives de la Russie , Paris, 1867.
3. Physique sociale , Brussels, 1869.
4. See Mr Michell's Report in the Blue Book before quoted.
5. In the volume of the Cobden Club: Essays on Land Tenure .
Chapter 4
Village Communities in Java and in India The magnificent Dutch colony of Java, with more than seventeen millions of inhabitants, possesses a communal organizationexactly similar to that of Russia. In some districts of the island private property as applied to the soil is to be met with; but,as a general rule, the land is the property of the commune. By virtue of the principles of the Koran, accepted in allMohammedan countries, the sovereign possesses the eminent domain. He is the true and only proprietor; and, by this title,he levies the taxes in kind which represent rent, and exacts the corvée .
In Java, according to the adat , or custom, the cultivator was bound to hand over to the sovereign the fifth part of theproduce, and to labour for him one day in five. The native princes went so far as to demand the half of the crop in theirrigated rice-fields, and the third part from the other fields. The Dutch re-established the old adat ; and contented themselveswith one day's work in seven, applying the labour to the cultivation of sugar and coffee, according to the system of GeneralVan den Bosch.
As in Russia, the village community is jointly responsible for furnishing the required number of days' labour and for thepayment of the taxes. The use of a portion of the wood and waste land is common to all the inhabitants. But the property ofthese unoccupied lands is considered as belonging to the state. In the districts, where the soil is not the property of thecommune, it often happens that the inhabitants have not the enjoyment of any common pasture. It was even asserted that, inthis case, no such right existed. But M. A. W. Kinder de Camarecq has proved, that even in villages where private propertyis to be met with, a right of common pasturage is also to be found. He quotes among others the village of Sembis in thedistrict of Soemedang, in the government of Preanger, where the sawahs are private property, and the tegals , or dry lands,common property, and where the hamlets or kampongs exercise the right of pasture on the unoccupied lands. (1) The sawahs ,or irrigated rice-fields, are divided among the families, every year in some districts, every two or three years in others. As inthe Russian village, the houses with the gardens attached to them are private property.
They cultivate principally rice, which forms almost the sole food of the Javanese. To conduct on to the fields the watercoming down from the higher grounds, great labour is indispensable for the formation of canals. It is also necessary tosurround all the fields with dikes to keep in the requisite amount of water, and to dig numerous trenches, with great care, todistribute it. These works, which, require much intelligence, are executed by the inhabitants under the direction of thecommunal authorities.
The division of the sawahs is carried out according to families, but not everywhere on the same plan. In some villages, or dessas , the simple labourers who have no draught beasts, the orang-menoempangs , are excluded from the partition.
According to the rules, which the Dutch Government is endeavouring to introduce, all the heads of families are to have ashare, that they may all be able to furnish their payments in kind and the requisite number of days' work. The general customseems to have been that, to obtain a share, a man must own a yoke, that is to say, a pair of buffaloes or oxen. Hence itfollows that generally the menoempangs , or mere labourers, excluded from a share in the allotment, are a numerous body,and that every family has not its parcel of ground, as is sometimes supposed.
A law of 1859 ordains that the allotment should he made by the chief of the dessa, under the supervision of thecommissioners of the district and of the "Residents" or prefects. A kind of rotation is observed in the assignment of theportions, so that each family in turn possesses all the lots to be disposed of.
