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the more powerful the territorial magnate becomes. But this means that wealth, and with it social rank, is consolidated more firmly and more durably than in the stage of herdsman [178]ownership. For the greatest herds may be lost, but landed property is indestructible; and men bound to labor, bringing forthrentals, reproduce their kind even after the most terrible slaughter, even should they not be obtainablefull grown in slave hunts. About this fixed nucleus of wealth, property begins to agglomerate with increasing rapidity. Harmless as was the first occupation, men must soon recognize the fact that rental increases with the number of slaves one can settle on the unoccupied lands. Henceforth, the external policy of the feudal state is no longer directed toward the acquisition of land and peasants, but rather of peasants without land, to be carried off home as serfs, and there to be colonized anew. When the entire state carries on the war or the robbing expedition, the nobles obtain the lion's share. Very often, however, they go off on their own account, followed only by their suites, and then the common himan, staying at home, receives no share in the loot. Thus the vicious circle constantly tends rapidly to enlarge with the increasing wealth of the [179]lands owned by the nobles. The more slaves a noble has, the more rental he can obtain. With this, in turn, he can maintain a warlike following, composed of servants, of lazy himen, and of refugees. With theirhelp, he can, in turn, drive in so many more slaves, to increase his rentals.This process takes place, even where some central power exists, which, pursuant to the general law of the people, has the right to dispose of uncultivated lands; while it is, in many cases, not only by sufferance, but often by the express sanction of that authority. As long as the feudal magnate remains the submissive vhial of the crown, it lies in the king's interest to make him as strong as possible. By this meanshis military suite, to be placed at the disposal of thecrown in times of war, is correspondingly increased. we shall adduce only one ilhirationto show that the necessary consequence in universal history is not confinedto the well-known effect in the feudal states of Western Europe, but follows from these premises even under totally different surroundings: [180]"The principal service in Fiji consisted in war duty; and if the outcome was successful it meant new grants of lands, including therein the denizens, as slaves, and thus led to the hiumption of new obligations."91This accumulation of landed property in ever increasing quantity inthe hands of the landed nobility brings the primitive feudal state of a higher stage to the "finished feudal state" with a complete scale of feudal ranks. Reference to a previous work by the author, based on a study of the sources, will show the same causal connection for German lands;92 and in that publication it was pointed out that in all the instances noted a process takes place, identical in its principal lines of development. It is only on this line of reasoning that one can explain the fact, to take Japan as an example, that its feudal system developed into the precise details which are well known to the students of European history, although Japan is inhabited by a race fundamentally different from the Arians; and besides (a strong argument against giving too great weight to the [181]materialistic view of history) the process of agriculture is on a totally different .