We have few details as to the manner in which the allotment of the soil was effected in early times. Caesar tells us: "No onehas fields marked out or land as his own property. But the magistrates and chiefs assign lands every year to the clans, orgentes, and to the families living in association." These families, living in association and cultivating the land in common, arethe exact picture of the patriarchal families, which are to be found at the present day among the Russians and SouthernSlays, and which in the middle ages existed throughout Europe, and especially in France and Italy. It is the primitive groupof the pastoral period, whose existence has been perpetuated from the days of the Aryans in Asia up to our own. Tounderstand properly what is said by Roman historians on this subject, we must never lose sight of the institutions of nationswhose economic condition resembles that of ancient Germany. According to Caesar, the chiefs effect the partition, as theythink fit. In the distribution, regard is paid, according to Tacitus, to the number of cultivators: pro numero cultorum ; and tothe rank of the co-partners: secundum dignationem partiuntur . Of these two features one represents itself in Russia, wherethe division is made by tiaglos , that is, by units of labour, according to the number of adult labourers; while the otherreappears in Java, where the chief of the dessa , the loerah , the elders and other officers of the commune actually have aportion of land proportionate to their rank. Horace, too, depicts in the following terms the annual division of lands, aspractised in his time among the tribes dwelling on the banks of the Danube: Et rigidi Getae Immetata quibus jugera liberas Fruges at cererem ferunt;Nec cultura placet longior annna;
Defunctumque laboribus Aequali recreat sorte vicarius.
He is here rather speaking of the division of labour between two groups of inhabitants, which alternately cultivate the soil forthe entire tribe. Caesar tells us exactly the same thing of the Suevi, the most warlike and powerful of the Teutonic tribes. (14) "Those who remain in the country cultivate the soil for themselves and for the absent members, and in their turn take armsthe next year, while the others remain at home. But none amongst them can possess the land in severalty as his own, andnone may occupy for more than a year the same land for cultivation. They consume little corn; but live chiefly on milk andthe flesh of their herds, and devote themselves to the chase." These are the habitual features characteristic of the economiccondition of the German tribes. The chase and the rearing of their herds provide the greatest part of their food; agriculturetakes but the third place. The soil is only cultivated for a year: landed property is unknown: and the arable land is dividedamong the inhabitants for mere temporary enjoyment. There was the custom, apparently peculiar to the Getae and Suevi,which leads one to suppose that the produce of the soil was originally gathered in mass to be subsequently divided; each halfof the inhabitants worked alternately for the other. Community here, then, is more intimate than among the other Germantribes, and belongs to a more primitive system, such as we cannot meet with in the wildest forests of Russia, or the mostremote districts of Bosnia.
Aristotle seems to have recognized two forms of community. "Thus," he says in The Politics , lib. II. c. 3, "the fields wouldbe private property, while the harvest would belong to all. This practice exists among some nations. The land, on the otherhand, might be common, but the harvest would be divided among all for private ownership. This kind of community is to befound among certain barbarian tribes." In fact, Diodorus of Sicily and Strabo bear witness to the existence of this custom inseveral passages, which will be found in Chapter x. The periodical partition of the land must have been a very generalcustom in the ancient world, to have been noted in so many different quarters, among nations so different in race, in originand in ways of thought.
In Germany, every inhabitant was entitled to a portion of land large enough to supply the wants of his family. Except for thechiefs, who obtained a larger share, this portion was the same for all; (15) and to insure complete equality, each part of thearable land was divided into as many parcels as there were co-partners, and lots were then drawn for these parcels. Themeasurement was made with a cord, per funiculum , called in German Reeb , or Reepmate . (16) This word gives the name tothe Reebnings procedur , a custom which lasted for a very long time in the north, and particularly in Denmark, even after theperiodical partition had fallen into disuse. The equality of the portions seemed so essential, that, when, in course of time, theportions had become unequal ( pro inaequalitate mansorum ), any one who had a smaller portion than his neighbours, coulddemand a new measurement, reebning , that the primitive equality might be restored. In the law of the Burgundians we find apassage which refers to the same practice: "The claim of co-partners to have the lots in the common land made equal cannotbe refused." (17) It seemed so necessary for every free man to hold property, that even in later times, when the sale of landwas introduced after the conquest, every one was forbidden to sell his lot who did not possess others elsewhere. The law ofthe Burgundians, Tit. 84, c. 1, runs: Quia cognovimus Burgundiones sortes suas nimia facilitate distrahere, hoc praesentilege credidimus statuendum, ut nulli vendere terram suam liceat, nisi illi qui alio loco sortem aut possessiones habet .
