Mutual Aid: A Factor of EvolutionKropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Science
Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution
Kropotkin, Petr Alekseevich, kniaz
Cooperation; Social groups; Social institutions
13. In Switzerland we see a number of communes, ruined by wars, which
have sold part of their lands, and now endeavour to buy them back.
14. A. Buchenberger, "Agrarwesen und Agrarpolitik," in A. Wagner's
Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie, 1892, Band i. pp. 280 seq.
15. G.L. Gomme, "The Village Community, with special reference to its
Origin and Forms of Survival in Great Britain" (Contemporary Science
Series), London, 1890, pp. 141-143; also his Primitive Folkmoots
(London, 1880), pp. 98 seq.
16. "In almost all parts of the country, in the Midland and Eastern
counties particularly, but also in the west--in Wiltshire, for
example--in the south, as in Surrey, in the north, as in
Yorkshire,--there are extensive open and common fields. Out of 316
parishes of Northamptonshire 89 are in this condition; more than 100 in
Oxfordshire; about 50,000 acres in Warwickshire; in Berkshire half the
county; more than half of Wiltshire; in Huntingdonshire out of a total
area of 240,000 acres 130,000 were commonable meadows, commons, and
fields" (Marshall, quoted in Sir Henry Maine's Village Communities in
the East and West, New York edition, 1876, pp. 88, 89). See also Dr. G.
Slater's The English Peasantry and the Enclosure of Common Fields,
London, 1907.
17. Ibid. p. 88; also Fifth Lecture.
18. In quite a number of books dealing with English country life which I
have consulted I have found charming descriptions of country scenery and
the like, but almost nothing about the daily life and customs of the
labourers.
19. In Switzerland the peasants in the open land also fell under the
dominion of lords, and large parts of their estates were appropriated by
the lords in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (cf. A.
Miaskowski, in Schmoller's Forschungen, Bd. ii. 1879, pp. 12 seq.) But
the peasant war in Switzerland did not end in such a crushing defeat of
the peasants as it did in other countries, and a great deal of the
communal rights and lands was retained. The self-government of the
communes is, in fact, the very foundation of the Swiss liberties. (cf.
K. Burtli, Der Ursprung der Eidgenossenschaft aus der
Markgenossenschaft, Zurich, 1891.)
20. Dr. Reichesberg, Handworterbuch des Schweiz. Volkswirthschaft, Bern,
1903.
21. See on this subject a series of works, summed up in one of the
excellent and suggestive chapters (not yet translated into English)
which K. Bucher has added to the German translation of Laveleye's
Primitive Ownership. Also Meitzen, "Das Agrar-und Forst-Wesen, die
Allmenden und die Landgemeinden der Deutschen Schweiz," in Jahrbuch für
Staatswissenschaft, 1880, iv. (analysis of Miaskowsky's works); O'Brien,
"Notes in a Swiss village," in Macmillan's Magazine, October 1885.
22. The wedding gifts, which often substantially contribute in this
country to the comfort of the young households, are evidently a
remainder of the communal habits.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account