6,739
edits
Land reform in Kiravia: Difference between revisions
m
→Background
m (→Background) |
m (→Background) |
||
| Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
During the 19th century AD, peasants in the more intensively cultivated regions of North Kirav might be tenant farmers, smallholders, members of a village that owned the land communally, or have an interest in land belonging collectively to their clan or ''tuva'' in a multi-''tuva'' environment. Clan- or tuva-based landholding and independent smallholds were more common in the lands of intermediate agricultural value that make up the bulk of Great Kirav, and arrangements related to {{wp|crofting}} were common across pastoral regions, especially those settled by Celtic-Kiravians or [[Ĥeiran Coscivians]]. Completely landless labourers without any interest in land whatsoëver, even entire castes of landless persons such as the [[Hoppers]], subsisted on the sale of their labour power to tenured farmers. Castes jealously guarded their economic niches from encroachment by others: The 'primary cultivator castes' - forerunners of the regional ethnic majorities known today - reserved for themselves the right to cultivate marketable quantities of {{wp|cereals}} and their companion crops. Other castes might own or be permitted smaller cereal or polyculture plots, but risked violent reprisal from the numerically-superior primary cultivator castes if they produced a visible grain surplus. 'Secondary cultivator castes', while also tending these smaller plots and/or growing potato, were mainly dedicated to productive activities such as marketable vegetable cultivation, {{wp|forest gardening}}, {{wp|apiculture}}, specialty crops, or ancillary agricultural activities (e.g. the Veyronem or turnip-hoeing caste). More marginal to the system were pastoral, foresting, and fishing/waterman castes. Some castes, such as the [[yakavem]] or "village menials" were excluded from agriculture altogether, while the ostracised ''harsitem'' were forbidden from marketing any produce they might manage to grow, having polluted it with their touch. | During the 19th century AD, peasants in the more intensively cultivated regions of North Kirav might be tenant farmers, smallholders, members of a village that owned the land communally, or have an interest in land belonging collectively to their clan or ''tuva'' in a multi-''tuva'' environment. Clan- or tuva-based landholding and independent smallholds were more common in the lands of intermediate agricultural value that make up the bulk of Great Kirav, and arrangements related to {{wp|crofting}} were common across pastoral regions, especially those settled by Celtic-Kiravians or [[Ĥeiran Coscivians]]. Completely landless labourers without any interest in land whatsoëver, even entire castes of landless persons such as the [[Hoppers]], subsisted on the sale of their labour power to tenured farmers. Castes jealously guarded their economic niches from encroachment by others: The 'primary cultivator castes' - forerunners of the regional ethnic majorities known today - reserved for themselves the right to cultivate marketable quantities of {{wp|cereals}} and their companion crops. Other castes might own or be permitted smaller cereal or polyculture plots, but risked violent reprisal from the numerically-superior primary cultivator castes if they produced a visible grain surplus. 'Secondary cultivator castes', while also tending these smaller plots and/or growing potato, were mainly dedicated to productive activities such as marketable vegetable cultivation, {{wp|forest gardening}}, {{wp|apiculture}}, specialty crops, or ancillary agricultural activities (e.g. the Veyronem or turnip-hoeing caste). More marginal to the system were pastoral, foresting, and fishing/waterman castes. Some castes, such as the [[yakavem]] or "village menials" were excluded from agriculture altogether, while the ostracised ''harsitem'' were forbidden from marketing any produce they might manage to grow, having polluted it with their touch. | ||
In the manorial South and Baylands, the distribution of land was such that the entire arable surface of these regions was divided among relatively large estates, most corresponding to one village that housed their tillers. Estates might belong allodially to a noble lineage, be held by a notable or servitor through some feudal arrangement between the beneficial owner and a superior landlord, or exist as autonomous villages owning the land either collectively or coöperatively among their social subunits. Smaller yeomens' estates also existed; however, the vast majority of estates were in the hands of nobles of feudal beneficiaries, many of whom were absentees. Due to {{wp|primogeniture}} and {{wp|dowry}} practices among the propertied classes, there was a tendency for landownership to become more and more concentrated among fewer and fewer people over time. In premodern times, wars and high rates of natural mortality helped to curb this process of consolidation, but by the 19th century such pressures proved insufficient to do so any longer. <!--copyholds n such--> | In the manorial South and Baylands, the distribution of land was such that the entire arable surface of these regions was divided among relatively large estates, most corresponding to one village that housed their tillers. Estates might belong allodially to a noble lineage, be held by a notable or servitor through some feudal arrangement between the beneficial owner and a superior landlord, or exist as autonomous villages owning the land either collectively or coöperatively among their social subunits. Smaller yeomens' estates also existed; however, the vast majority of estates were in the hands of nobles of feudal beneficiaries, many of whom were absentees. Due to {{wp|primogeniture}} and {{wp|dowry}} practices among the propertied classes, there was a tendency for landownership to become more and more concentrated among fewer and fewer people over time. In premodern times, wars and high rates of natural mortality helped to curb this process of consolidation, but by the 19th century such pressures proved insufficient to do so any longer. <!--copyholds n such--> In the South and Baylands, there was much less caste-based specialisation of productive activities, though village menials, functional castes, and landless ancillaries such as hop-harvesting clans were (and are) indeed present. | ||
==Pre-Sunderance== | ==Pre-Sunderance== | ||