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LAND TENURE THE CHINESE COMMUNE. 293
proprietors, with the right of selling or bequeathing their possessions. Thus was
accomplished a transformation some two thousand years ago in China, which
political economists foresee must take place in Russia at no distant date. But the
consequences of this dissolution of the communal group soon followed. All those
who had been enriched by trade, industry, imperial favour, or other circumstances,
bought up the land at the expense of the peasantry ; large estates were developed ;
and the small holders, being gradually dispossessed, became at last, for the most
Fij;. HI. CHIEF CHOPS OP CHINA.
Scale 1 : 24,000,000.
Eof G iocr 120'
Pairture*. Maize,
Millet, &c.
Rioe. Cotton. Tea. Silk. Sugar-cine Varnish.
GOO Miles.
part, slaves of the wealthy classes. Those considered themselves fortunate who
were allowed to continue as farmers, to rent the lands of their forefathers. Misery
became widespread, frequent outbreaks took place, the State itself was impoverished,
and great difficulty was experienced in collecting the taxes. An incessant struggle
took place between the partisans of the new regime and the old communal system,
and for over one thousand years the political history of the empire resolved itself
into the history of the agrarian question. In the ninth year of the new era the