Attention, however, should be called more particularly to the parallel phenomena in the social history of the Russians, where the conditions seem to stand out in specially strong contrast with those prevailing among the mountain Slays of the Balkans and of the Alps. In the enormous extent of Russia we have to reckon with widely different geographical and racial areas, among others, with the Steppe settlements of the so-called Little Russians in the Ukraine, and the forest settlements of the Great Russians in the north. In spite of great divergencies the economic history of all these branches of Slavonic stock gravitates towards one main type, viz., towards rural unions of kinsmen, on the basis of enlarged households. In the south the typical village settle ment is the dvoriSee, the big court or hamlet consisting of some four to eight related families holding together ; in the north it is the pedifee, the big oven, a hamlet of somewhat smaller size in which three to five families are closely united for purposes of common husbandry.
Another fact to be noticed is the tendency to form artificial associations on the pattern of the prevailing unions of kinsmen. People who have no blood-relations to appeal to for clearing the waste, for providing the necessary capital in the way of cattle and plough implements, for raising and fitting out buildings, join in order to carry on these economic undertakings, and also to help each other against aggressors. The members of these volun tary associations, which at once call to mind German, Norse and English gilds, are called "siabri," "skladniki," and the gilds them selves "spolkie," in south Russia. In a district of the Ukraine called the "Ratensky Sharostvo" there were no fewer than 278 such gilds interchanging with natural kindreds. The organization of all these unions could in no way be called patriarchal. Even in cases when there is a definite elder or headman (bolshoy), he was only the first among equals and exercised only a limited authority over his fellows: all the important decisions had to be taken by the council of the community.
In Great Russia, in the districts gathered under the sway of the Moscow tsars, the basis of the household community and of the rural settlements which sprang from it was modified in an other direction. The entire agricultural population was subjected to strict supervision and coercive measures for purposes of mili tary organization and taxation. Society was drilled into uniformity and service on the principle that every man has to serve the tsar, the upper class in war and civil administration, the lower class by agricultural labour. A consequence of the heavy burden laid on the land and of the growth of a landed aristocracy was a change in the management of land allotments. They became as much a badge of service and a basis for fiscal requirements as a means of livelihood. The result was the practice of reallotments accord
ing to the strength and the needs of different families. The shift ing of arable (peredel) was not in this case a reapportionment of rights, but a consequence of the correspondence between rights and obligations.
Let us now pass to village communities in Teutonic countries, including England. A convenient starting-point is afforded by the social and economic conditions of the southern part of Jutland. The Saxon or Ditmarschen portion of this region gives us an opportunity of observing the effects of an extended and highly systematized tribal organization on Germanic soil. The inde pendence of this northern peasant republic, which reminds one of the Swiss cantons, lasted until the time of the Reformation. We find the Ditmarschen organized in the r 5th, as they had been in the loth century, in a number of large kindreds, partly com posed of relatives by blood and partly of "cousins" who had joined them. The membership of these kindreds is based on agnatic ties—that is, on relationship through males—or on affilia tion as a substitute for such agnatic kinship. The families or households are grouped into brotherhoods, and these again to clans or "Schlachten" (Geschlechter), corresponding to Roman gentes. Some of them could put as many as soo warriors in the field. They took their names from ancestors and chieftains : the Wollersmannen, Hennemannen, Jerremannen, etc.—i.e., the men of Woll, the men of Henne, the men of Jerre. In spite of these personal names the organization of the clans was by no means a monarchical one : it was based on the participation of the full grown fighting men in the government of each clan and on a council of co-opted elders at the head of the entire federation.
Let us notice the influence of this tribal organization on hus bandry and property. The regular economic arrangement was an open-field one based on a three-field and similar systems. The furlongs were divided into intermixed strips with compulsory ro tation on the usual pattern. And it is interesting to notice that in these economic surroundings indivisible holdings corresponding to the organic unities required for efficient agriculture arose of themselves. In spite of the equal right of all coheirs to an estate, this estate does not get divided according to their numbers, but either remains undivided or else falls into such fractions, halves or fourths, as will enable the farming to be carried on successfully. The Hufe or Hof goes mostly to the eldest son, but also sometimes to the youngest, while the brothers of the heir either remain in the same household with him, generally unmarried, or leave the house after having settled with their heir, who takes charge of the holding, as to an indemnity for their relinquished claims.