The Lex Manciana is a Roman law dealing with tenancy agreements of imperial estates in Roman North Africa.
The original text of the Lex is not known, but there are seven inscriptions in the north of Africa which contain agreements and contracts between land owners and land users that were formulated after the example of the Lex Mancia. [1]
Some of the Imperial estates in question are from the Bagradas Valley region of Africa Proconsularis (modern day Tunisia, around c.50 km west of the ancient city of Carthage. The inscription from Henchir-Mettich (c. AD 116-117 [2] ) consists in an adaptation of the Lex Manciana for the fundus Villa Magna Variana. [3] Several additional inscriptions dealing with a similar subject matter, also in the same region, are known, for example from Ain-el Djemala (Hadrianic period) and from Ain Wassel c. AD 198-209). [4]
The inscription from Henchir Mettich details the tenancy agreement for coloni tenant farmers on the Fundus Villae Magnae Variane (an Imperial estate). The content of the translation [5] runs as follows:
1. Preamble – Identifies Licinius Maximus (an Equite) and Felicior (a freedman of Trajan) as the procurators who oversaw the establishment at Henchir-Mettich.
2. Authorisation to cultivate subseciva – Allows unused land (subseciva) on this Imperial estate to be brought under cultivation under the following agreement.
3. Assessment of share rents – Tenants will pay rents in kind (i.e., part of the total crop) according to their own judgement.
4. Rents of subseciva – Rents are one third total crop of wheat, barley, wine and olive oil. Additional rents include one quarter or one fifth of beans and of honey if over five hives are owned.
5. Penalties – Beehives cannot be moved from the estate onto free land in order to avoid rent.
6. Incentives – No rents are charged on newly planted vines and figs for the first five years, and newly planted olive trees for the first ten years.
7. Grazing – An annual fee of 4 asses is payable per animal grazing on the land.
8. Damage – Avoidable damage to other tenants' crops is paid for by the offender.
9. Bequesting – Land under tenancy can be bequeathed to an heir in a legally binding contract. This clause intends to promote generational farming of the same land and thus further investment.
10. Confiscation – Land neglected and uncultivated for two consecutive years will be reclaimed by the landlord.
11. Labour Services – In addition to rents, each tenant must supply two consecutive days labour for ploughing and two for harvesting, on top of a day supervising the livestock. Labour services could be seconded to slaves or retainers of the tenants.
Subsistence farming for a family of six in the ancient world requires three hectares of land to provide crops and enough seed for the next year, though to include a one third payment to a landlord requires cultivation of at least five hectares of land. [5]
Sharecropping forces the colonii to cultivate their land with more effort to attain a minimum level of income than they would otherwise have to supply. It also allows the farmer to pass some of the risks involved in farming onto the landlord as a poor crop would mean lower rents.
Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enclose land could be either through a formal or informal process. The process could normally be accomplished in three ways. First there was the creation of "closes", taken out of larger common fields by their owners. Secondly, there was enclosure by proprietors, owners who acted together, usually small farmers or squires, leading to the enclosure of whole parishes. Finally there were enclosures by acts of Parliament.
A tenant farmer is a person who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying amounts of capital and management. Depending on the contract, tenants can make payments to the owner either of a fixed portion of the product, in cash or in a combination. The rights the tenant has over the land, the form, and measures of payment vary across systems. In some systems, the tenant could be evicted at whim ; in others, the landowner and tenant sign a contract for a fixed number of years. In most developed countries today, at least some restrictions are placed on the rights of landlords to evict tenants under normal circumstances.
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a higher economic and social status.
A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user to pay the owner for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial or business equipment are also leased. In essence, a lease agreement is a contract between two parties: the lessor and the lessee. The lessor is the legal owner of the asset, while the lessee obtains the right to use the asset in return for regular rental payments. The lessee also agrees to abide by various conditions regarding their use of the property or equipment. For example, a person leasing a car may agree to the condition that the car will only be used for personal use.
A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant has rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a leasehold estate is typically considered personal property.
Roman agriculture describes the farming practices of ancient Rome, during a period of over 1000 years. From humble beginnings, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire expanded to rule much of Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East and thus comprised many agricultural environments of which the Mediterranean climate of dry, hot summers and cool, rainy winter was the most common. Within the Mediterranean area, a triad of crops were most important: grains, olives, and grapes.
Run rig, or runrig, also known as rig-a-rendal, was a system of land tenure practised in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. It was used on open fields for arable farming.
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The metayage system is the cultivation of land for a proprietor by one who receives a proportion of the produce, as a kind of sharecropping. Another class of land tenancy in France is named fermage, whereby the rent is paid annually in banknotes. A farm operating under métayage was known as a métairie, the origin of some place names in areas where the system was used, such as Metairie, Louisiana.
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