Each family is governed by a patriarch, exercising despotic authority. The village is administered by a chief, sometimeselected, sometimes hereditary. In villages where the ancient customs have been maintained, the authority belongs to acouncil, which is regarded as representing the inhabitants. The most necessary trades, such as those of the smith, the currier,the shoemaker, the functions of the priest and the accountant, devolve hereditarily in certain families, who have a portion ofland allotted them by way of fee. The soldiers of the in-delta in Sweden receive, in a similar manner, a field and house fortheir support. In England, there are numerous traces (17) to shew that a custom formerly existed there exactly similar to thatpractised in India, a remarkable instance of the persistency of certain institutions in spite of time and national migrations.
This intimate association which forms the Hindoo village rests even at the present day on family sentiment; for the tradition,or, at least the idea, prevails among the inhabitants of descent from a common ancestor: hence arises the very generalprohibition against land being sold to a stranger. Although private property is now recognized, the village, in its corporatecapacity, still retains a sort of eminent domain. Testamentary disposition was not in use among the Hindoos any more thanamong the Germans or the Celts. In a system of community there was no place for succession or for legacies. When, in latertimes, individual property was introduced, the transmission of property was regulated by custom.
As Sir H. Maine remarks, in the natural association of the primitive village, economical and juridical relations are muchsimpler than in the social condition, of which a picture has been preserved to us in the old Roman law and the law of theTwelve Tables. Land is neither sold, leased, nor devised. Contracts are almost entirely unknown. The loan of money forinterest has not even been thought of. Commodities only are the subject of ordinary transaction, and in these the greateconomic law of supply and demand has little room for action. Competition is unknown, and prices are determined bycustom. The rule, universal with us, of selling in the dearest market possible and buying in the cheapest, cannot even beunderstood. Every village and almost every family is self-sufficient. Produce hardly takes the form of merchandise destinedfor exchange, except when sent to the sovereign as taxes or rent. (18) Human existence almost resembles that of the vegetableworld, it is so simple and regular.
In the dessa of Java, and in the Russian mir , we can grasp, in living form, civilization in its earliest stage, when theagricultural system takes the place of the nomadic and pastoral system. The Hindoo village has already abandonedcommunity, but it still retains numerous traces of it. We must now shew that European nations have started from the samepoint and passed through the same phases of development. We shall thus see, that in spite of diversity in external events,certain fundamental laws have in all cases presided over the economic evolution of human societies.
1. See the interesting work, entitled Bydrage tot de kennis der Volksinstetlingen in the oostelyke Soenda-landen , publishedin the Tydeschrift voor indische taal- land- en volkenkunde, uitgegeven door het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten enWetenschappen .
2. Tacitus Germany , c. xxvi.
3. The first crop of rice, paddi , gives per bouw almost 40 picols of nearly 140 lbs. each, which, at 8 francs the picol , makesabout 32 francs. The second crop of maize gives 10,000 ears at 6?francs per thousand, which makes 65 francs, that is tosay about 385 francs, or between ?5 and ?6. The cultivation of a bouw of rice requires about thirty days' labour; that ofthe maize in the second crop twenty days.
4. Interesting hints, however, are to be found in the capital work of Sir Stamford Raffles on Java; in Pierson's book HetKultuurstelsel; in Java , by J.W. Money; in the numerous publications of M. van Woudrichem van Vliet on the colonialsystem, and in an article by M. Sollewyn Gelpke, in the Dutch Review De Gide , Jan. 1874.
5. Session 1868, 9, no. 126. Grondbezit op Java, insolderheid in verband met art. 14, van het indisch Staatsblad , 1819, no.
5.
6. [An official statement of the quantity and value of realty made for purposes of taxation.]
7. Raffles, History of Java , I, p. 136.
8. Blackstone says on this point: "This allodial property no subject in England has, it being a received and now undeniableprinciple in the law, that all the lands of England are holden mediately and immediately of the crown. The sovereign,therefore, only hath absolutum et directum dominium ".
9. See the note presented to the Dutch Chambers in session of 1865-6, Vaststelling der Gronden, waarop ondernemingen,landbouw en nyverheld nederlandsch Indie kunnen worden gevestigd. -- Memorie van toelichting .
10. In 1856 the tea-plantations in the domain of Djatienangar and of Tjikadjang were let to Baron Band for a rent of 50florins the bouw of 71 ares. The government tea-plantations at Lodok, in the presidency of Bagelen, are let at from 45 to 32florins the bouw. -- See Memorie van toelichting, quoted above.
[The hectare is about 2?acres, and the are about 4 perches.]
