"...Unless all that we have just. said is entirely without foundation, the economic results of laws regulating property in landmay be modified and corrected by agreements between the owners of land, and especially by association. Henceforth theinterest of all questions of succession grows weaker for the economist. What matter great or small properties, the amount ofthe reserve land, the limitations imposed on testators, and other questions of this nature, where the proprietors, whatever theextent of their possessions, can apply according to circumstances cultivation on a large or small scale, and derive in any casethe greatest possible advantage from that powerful instrument of production, the soil?""When subdivision shall have produced all its fruits," says Louis Reybaud, "and in consequence of its obvious disadvantagesmen return from small cultivation to cultivation on a large scale, new progress will be achieved in an alliance of humaninterests. Association will be the offspring of the continued subdivision of property." (3)"Association is calculated to banish pauperism, and to assemble in systematic social order the disconnected elements ofmodern society. The principle of association will restore to the world the peace for which it is athirst. Those who becomeits apostles and obtain it a hearing, will be the benefactors of the human race." (4) These are the words of M. MichelChevalier.
To quote next M. Wolowski: (5) "Social progress cannot consist in the dissolution of every kind of association, hut rather inthe substituting in the place of the compulsory and oppressive associations of times past, voluntary and equitableassociations, combinations not merely for security and defence, but for common production.""The spirit of association and the spirit of family divide the world between them," said M. de Cormenin when treating ofagricultural association. (6)
"Providence has implanted these two instincts in man. Both, when wisely employed according to the object in view, conducealike to the individual and social welfare.
"The division of properties is tending, in more instances than one, to produce the same inconvenience as their extremeaccumulation.... In countries where the soil is minutely subdivided, the peasant, who is half-labourer, half-proprietor, has allto gain by association. For him it can work marvels.
"Further, consider the moral effect of such association; increased welfare in the present, security of mind for the future, andrespect for oneself and one's neighbours. Consider the pledges of mutual good will, the salutary and wide-spreadinginfluence of example, the healthy, voluntary discipline, observance of engagements, and internal peace for the community!"1. See Mr William Pare's Co-operative Agriculture , which contains interesting details. The author, however, carried away bythe attraction of his own Utopia, has perhaps given too highly-coloured a view.
2. Cours d'économie politique , Vol. II. Lesson 5, pp. 101138.
3. Etudes sur les réformateurs modernes , Vol. I. p. 198.
4. Michel Chevalier, Diet. de la Conversation , art. Population.
5. Leçons au Conservatoire des Arts-et-Métiers , 16 Dec. 1844.
6. Entretiens de village , etc. xxii.
CHAPTER XX.
HEREDITARY LEASES.
There is an ancient form of property, which legislators and economists should not fail to examine, as it may contribute to thesettlement of the struggle, which is everywhere going on, between those who cultivate the soil and those who take the rent;this is the hereditary lease, known in Holland under the name of beklem-regt , in Italy as the contratto di livello , and inPortugal as the aforamento . It is also to be found in France, in various provinces, under various names. In Brittany the termis quevaises ; in some places domaine congéable ; and, in Alsace, erbpacht . As under the feudal system, the fullproprietorship is, so to say, carved into two distinct rights: the right of the proprietor, which is actually nothing but a kind ofmortgage claim, and the right of the tenant, which is a sort of hereditary usufruct. In Portugal, the aforamento gives theoccupier of land the right to hold it in perpetuity, conditionally on his fully performing the terms of the contract. He has topay regularly a rent fixed once for all, which the proprietor cannot raise. When the land changes bands, the proprietor isentitled to a duty, which is called luctuosa , when the transfer is in consequence of a death; or laudemium when it is theresult of a sale. Land held in aforamento is essentially indivisible; hence, when there are several heirs, one must take thewhole domain and pay an equivalent to the others, or else the land must be sold. In default of heirs near enough to succeed,the aforamento perishes, and the bare ownership now becomes full ownership. The aforamento is more or less in usethroughout Portugal; it is not unknown in Alemtejo, and is common in the Algarves; but, North of the Tagus, it is the modeof tenure generally practised, and to it is attributed the excellent cultivation and the comfort of the cultivators, whichdistinguishes the province of Minho. The aforamento seems to date from the earliest times of the monarchy; and is supposedto have been first established on the lands of the Benedictine monks.
