The Management of Common Land in North West Europe, C. 1500-1850
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The management of common land in north west Europe, c. 1500-1850 Edited by Martina De Moor, Leigh Shaw-Taylor & Paul Warde BREPOLS © 2002 Brepols Publishers n.v.. Turnhout, Belgium All lights reserved. No part of this book raay be reproduced, stored in a retrieval System, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, elecironic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise: with- out the prior permission of the publisher. D/2002/0095/76 ISBN 2-503-51273-9 CONTENTS List of contributors 7 List of figures 8 List of tables 9 Acknowledgements 11 Preface 13 1 Comparing the historical commons of north west Europe. An introduction Martina DE MOOR, Leigh SHAW-TAYLOR and Paul WARDE 15 2 Upland commons in Northern England Angus J.L. WINCHESTER 33 3 The management of common land in the lowlands of southern England circa 1500 to circa 1850 Leigh SHAW-TAYLOR 59 4 The use and management of commons in the Netherlands. An overview Peter HOPPENBROUWERS 87 5 Common land and common rights in Flanders Martina DE MOOR 113 6 The management and use of the commons in France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Nadine VIVIER 143 7 Nordic common lands and common rights. Some interpretations of Swedish cases and debates Kerstin SUNDBERG 173 8 Common rights and common lands in south west Germany. 1500-1800 Paul WARDE 195 9 The management of common land in north western Germany Stefan BRAKENSIEK 225 10 Preliminary conclusions. The commons of north west Europe Martina DE MOOR, Leigh SHAW-TAYLOR and Paul WARDE 247 Glossary 261 9 The manageinent of conimon land in north Stefan BRAKENSIEK, Universitv of Bielefeld The task of providing a broad overview of the management of common lands in the north-west of Germany is beset with considerable difficulties. A fascination with tracing the origins of historical phenomena to which scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries succumbed, can account for numerous impressive studies on the emergence and the constitution of the commons (Markenverfassung) in Germany äs a whole (Grimm; 1840-1878; Maurer, 1856; Gierke, 1868) and in Westphalia and Lower Saxony in particular (Freudenstein, 1879; Philippi, 1907; Schotte, 1908; Lappe, 1912; Fioer, 1914). Beginning with Jacob Grimm, August von Haxthausen, Friedrich Carl von Savigny and Paul Wigand, romantic erudition was eager to collect juridical antiquities (Rechtsalter- tümer), which were said to reflect the 'populär spirit' (Volksgeist) in the German and even the Germanic past. Jacob Grimm himself launched a major investigation of the so- called Weistümer, the product of which is an edition of sources, indispensable till the present to understanding the relationship between lords and peasants in the Late Middle Ages and in the early modern period. Most subsequent research is based upon this edition. Even if we do no longer share this essentialist perspective which dominated historical research on this subject until 1945, we depend on these early works. Current editions of source material and analytical studies are confined to the south and west of Germany (Kollnig, 1968, 1979, 1985; Schumm and Schumm, 1985: Krämer and Spiess, 1986; Schmitt 1992; 1996; Hartinger, 1998), Thuringia in central Germany (Schildt, 1996) and Schleswig on the Danish border (Rheinheimer, 1999). For north-west Germany we have to rely on an edition of Frisian sources (Ebel, 1964) and a brief study of the Olden- burger Bauernbriefe (Seeber, 1975), both of which are devoted to an investigation of very particularly structured sub-regions. Strangely enough, most of the in-depth infor- mation about the management of the commons in Westphalia and Lower Saxony dates from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when jurists and bureaucrats who dealt with actual problems arising from the privatization of the remaining commons, wrote about this subject (Piper, 1763; Möser, 1768: Lodtmann. 1770: Klöntrup and Schiedehaus, 1782; Klöntrup, 1783; Klöntrup, 1798-1800; Löw, 1829; Behnes, 1830; Stüve, 1872). The dissolution of the commons themselves has been a subject of recent historiography (Brakensiek, 1991; Prass, 1997; Gudermann, 2000a). These reasons explain the paucity of studies providing more than a simple description of the institutional f ramework of the commons. Above all, we have no actual research that takes into acount the dynamics of change in the use and Organisation of collective resources. Bearing this in mind, the present article can only give some impressions. 225 The Management of common land in north west Europe, c. 1500-1850 Why do we require two articles on the German commons, one on the south and another presenting findings about the north-west? Apart from the usual variations occur- ring from place to place, social and agrarian structures differed fundamentally in these two regions. While the practice of equal inheritance was more prevalent in south-western and central Germany, the north was characterized by indivisible inheritance. Most southern peasants were obliged to pay tithes and rents to lords or princes without being subject to personal Subordination. Feudal bondage was more deep-rooted in the north- west. Though peasants here also achieved. in the early modern period, hereditary owner- ship of their farms, with corvee playing a relatively minor role, they were not only obliged to pay rents and to deliver grain or livestock in kind, but were bound to their lords for permission to marry, to seil parts of their farm or to obtain a loan. The relationship between lords and peasants in the Hanoverian territories was governed by the so-called Meierrecht which left peasants personally free (Wittich, 1896; Achilles, 1998; Saalfeld, 1998). In Westphalia most peasants were subject to even stricter feudal bondage (Eigenbehörigkeit), which meant more intense control and higher obligatory payments upon marrlage and inheritance (Schotte, 1912; Hanschmidt, 1983; Mooser, 1984). While nucleated villages prevailed in southern and central Germany, the northern lowlands were characterized by scattered settlernent. This coincided with a completely different form of agriculture. As with other European countries. regions with nucleated villages were characterised by varieties of open field Systems with common arable, while In the north-v/estern plains, the peasants, living on isolated farms, in hamlets or comparati- vely srnail villages (Drubbel), tilled the soil individually. Many variations of these gene- ral patterns can be detected and geographers have investigated them in detail (Hömberg, 1938; Herzog, 1938; Riepenhausen, 1938/1986; Müller-Wille, 1938; Hücker, 1939; Garben, 1951; Schwalb, 1953; Pohlendt, 1954: Linden, 1958; Knoke, 1968; Märten, 1969; Fliedner, 1970; Born, 1974; Balzer, 1983). Taking natural conditions, settlernent structures, the organization and the utilization of land into consideration, north-western Germany can be divided into seven major regions: the Frisian lowlands (Marschen), the areas of scattered settlernent in the lowlands of Lower Saxony (Niedersächsische Geest), the Münster Basin (Münsterland}, the uolanüi s of the Weserbergland,o - * the villag~—J e settlernent areas in the south-eastern uolandr s of Lower Saxony, several srnail black-earth regions (Börden), and the southern highlands (Sauerland) (Hambloch, 1981; Müller-Wille, 1955, 1966, 1940/1983). Beginning at the coast of the North Sea and foliowing the rivers upstream, there is a Strip of marshland (Marschen) where soils are very fertile if provided with effective drainage. These denseiy populated regions had been fully cultivated since the Middle Ages, so that common waste could rarely be found. On the heavy soil individuaiized production of grain, vegetable oils and dairy-products for the market prevailed. The farmers, mainly Frisian, had never experienced feudal bondage. and instead a class- society developed early. Prior to 1800 the main obligatlons of the rural population were the building and maintenance of dikes, organized through parish-wide Deichbauverbände. Lords and princes had introduced simüar conditions to small inland regions'through the recruitment of Frisian settlers for the cultivation of the Flußmarschen next to the rivers Elbe, Weser and Ems since the eleventh Century (Nitz, 1984; Wunder, 1986: 35-37). 226 The managemerit ofcommon land in north-western Germany Figure 9.1 Landscapes of north-westem Germany North Sea Ostfriesland Conditions in the neighbouring regions of the Geest differed sharply. In the north- western piains of Lower Saxony an alternating pattern of huge moors and sandy soiled districts existed. The dryer areas are thought to have originally been wooded, but were degraded to heath in the course of human settlement. Enormous efforts were necessary in order to obtain yields from the predominantly poor soils. and even then the Output The management of common land in north west Europe, c. fluctuated from year to year. The arable was confined to relatively small fields called Esch, cultivated without rotation. The continuous cultivation of rye depended on the exploitation of the surrounding wastelands; this was carried out by cutting the upper-most humus layer of the heath (Plaggen), composting it together with manure and bringing this mixture out onto the tillage. Crop production ofih&Plaggen-Esch type presupposes a ratio of about one to ten between cultivated land and waste (Thöle 1987). Accordingly, wastelands stretched over between 60 and 90% of the surface area of the Geest. Fens and heaths were collectively used and these commons persisted