We may suppose they owe their origin to Christianity, which gradually diminished the rigour of slavery, in which the peoplewere subjected to their lords. In France in the earliest days of the monarchy there were but two classes of free persons, thenobles and the ecclesiastics. All commoners were serfs.""At the present day community is held in slight estimation," says M. Troplong ( Commentaires des sociétés civiles , preface,passim). "The Romans spoke of them with enthusiasm, and put them in practice on a large scale...But the middle agespre-eminently were an epoch of extensive association. This was the period which gave birth to the numerous societies ofserfs and labourers, which covered the soil of France and made it productive. This period, too, multiplied the religiouscommunities, whose benefits were so great in reclaiming land and establishing themselves in the midst of depopulatedcountry. Then, probably, there was less talk of the spur of association than at present, but the spirit was active andenergetic." These quotations arc borrowed by the author from M. Bonnemère, La com. rurale , p. 39.
16. Laferrière, Hist. du droit français , vol. ii. p. 591.
17. M. Préveraud states that in France the communities disappeared rapidly from the end of the i5th century. Very fewsurvived till the eighteenth. Their few last representatives sold their lands to citizens of the towns or persons who replacedthem by tenant farmers. L'Eglise et le Peuple by E. Préveraud, Paris 1872, p. 181.
18. The author of the report, who attacks the communities, declares that the one object of the members of them was mutualdeception for the advancement of their private interest. "We may see," he said, "a member of a community buy or sell cattleon his own account, while the `master' of the community has not sufficient money to purchase an ox in the place of one thathas died or been lamed. None of the partners lets his own gain be known; no one buys immoveables, and if they have hivesor sheep, the knowledge that the affairs of the association are going to ruin is sufficient to make them conceal theirmoveable effects." The report further states, that, as each one wishes to benefit by the advantages of association withouttaking part us its expenses, it follows that with many hands very little work is done. Besides, the chief of the communityadministered and did not labour. The other associates, having no interests to manage, passed their lives in ignorance andinactivity. The picture is perhaps too gloomy; but, at any rate, it reveals two certain facts,the opposition which theexistence of these communities encountered, and the spirit of individuality which was destined to bring their ruin. The samecauses are acting in the same way at the present day among the Southern Slavs. Economic evolution is everywhere verysimilar, even in countries very distant and very different from one another.
19. Dupin, Excursion dans la Nièvre , 1840.
CHAPTER XVI.
FAMILY COMMUNITIES IN ITALY, IN GERMANY, AND AMONG THE ESQUIMAUX AND OTHER NATIONS.
The system of family communities was, also, formerly very general in Italy, and has left many traces in the various provinces.
M. Jacini in his excellent work on Lombardy, has described those which are to be met with in the hill-district of that country.
They exist in combination with metayage, and greatly facilitate the maintenance of the system. The proprietor regardsassociated cultivators as more desirable tenants than isolated householders. For the resources of the association are larger;and it offers better security for the payment of rents in kind, and for the faithful execution of contracts. It is better able tocarry on large cultivation, and to support the losses of bad years and all the inevitable accidents of agricultural undertakings.
The communities as a rule enjoy a comparative competence, and are remarkable for what are known as patriarchal virtues.
These associations are usually composed of four or five couples living in common in a large farmstead. They recognise theauthority of a chief or reggitore , and of a housewife or massara . The reggitore regulates labour, manages all buying andselling, and invests the savings, subject however to the advice of his associates. The massara has charge of all householdmatters. The head of the stables is called the bifolco ; he is the chief overseer of the labour. These ancient institutions areyielding to the passion for independence, the desire of growing rich, and, in a word, to the spirit of modern times, just asthey are yielding on the banks of the Danube, or as they yielded in France in times past. M. Jacini has thoroughly analysedthe various sentiments which tend to produce their final annihilation. Men begin to ask: "Why should we and all ourbelongings remain in subjection to a master? It were far better for each to work and think for himself." As the profits derivedfrom any handicraft form a sort of private peculium , the associates are tempted to enlarge this at the expense of the commonrevenue, and self-interest begets dissensions and quarrels to disturb the fraternal concord. The women especially seem toincite their husbands to insubordination. The authority of the massara is burdensome to them, and they demand a home oftheir own. Every one sees clearly the advantages of the patriarchal association, that his living and lodging are more secure,that there is more support and less disastrous results in case of illness, and that agricultural operations are more easilycarried on; yet, in spite of all, the craving to live independently carries him away, and he quits the community.
