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land. The remaining two-thirds were reserved for the peasants, every young married couple being entitled to a
certain amount of land, in proportion to the number of traction animals they owned. When the Treaty of
Adrianople of 1829 opened the western markets to Rumanian corn, in which markets far higher prices were
obtainable than from the Turks, Rumanian agriculture received an extraordinary impetus. Henceforth the
efforts of the boyards were directed towards lessening the amount of land to which the peasants were entitled.
By the _Règlement Organique_ they succeeded in reducing such land to half its previous area, at the same
time maintaining and exacting from the peasant his dues in full. It is in the same Act that there appears for the
first time the fraudulent title 'lords of the land', though the boyards had no exclusive right of property; they
had the use of one-third of the estate, and a right to a due in labour and in kind from the peasant holders,
present or prospective, of the other two-thirds.
The Balkans - A History Of Bulgaria--Serbia--Greece--Rumania--Turkey 101
With a view to ensuring, on the one hand, greater economic freedom to the land-owners, and, on the other,
security for the peasants from the enslaving domination of the upper class, the rural law of 1864 proclaimed
the peasant-tenants full proprietors of their holdings, and the land-owners full proprietors of the remainder of
the estate. The original intention of creating common land was not carried out in the Bill. The peasant's
holding in arable land being small, he not infrequently ploughed his pasture, and, as a consequence, had either
to give up keeping beasts, or pay a high price to the land-owners for pasturage. Dues in labour and in kind
were abolished, the land-owners receiving an indemnity which was to be refunded to the state by the peasants
in instalments within a period of fifteen years. This reform is characteristic of much of the legislation of Cuza:
despotically pursuing the realization of some ideal reform, without adequate study of and adaptation to social
circumstances, his laws provided no practical solution of the problem with which they dealt. In this case, for
example, the reform benefited the upper class solely, although generally considered a boon to the peasantry.
Of ancient right two-thirds of the estate were reserved for the peasants; but the new law gave them possession
of no more than the strip they were holding, which barely sufficed to provide them with the mere necessaries
of life. The remainder up to two-thirds of the estate went as a gift, with full proprietorship; to the boyard. For
the exemption of their dues in kind and in labour, the peasants had to pay an indemnity, whereas the right of
their sons to receive at their marriage a piece of land in proportion to the number of traction animals they
possessed was lost without compensation. Consequently, the younger peasants had to sell their labour,
contracting for periods of a year and upwards, and became a much easier prey to the spoliation of the upper
class than when they had at least a strip of land on which to build a hut, and from which to procure their daily
bread; the more so as the country had no industry which could compete with agriculture in the labour market.
An investigation undertaken by the Home Office showed that out of 1,265 labour contracts for 1906, chosen
at random, only 39.7 per cent, were concluded at customary wages; the others were lower in varying degrees,
13.2 per cent. of the cases showing wages upwards of 75 per cent. below the usual rates.
Under these conditions of poverty and economic serfdom the peasantry was not able to participate in the
enormous development of Rumanian agriculture, which had resulted from increased political security and the
establishment of an extensive network of railways. While the boyards found an increasing attraction in
politics, a new class of middlemen came into existence, renting the land from the boyards for periods varying
generally from three to five years. Owing to the resultant competition, rents increased considerably, while [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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